Project officer
Support project managers with planning, scheduling, reporting and stakeholder coordination.
Salary
Cited figures only: median full-time weekly earnings for the ANZSCO unit group Contract, Program and Project Administrators (5111) from Your Career (Jobs and Skills Australia), and where available the QILT graduate starting salary for the matching study area.
| Figure | AUD | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Median full-time weekly earnings | $2033 | Your Career (2026-09-23) |
Jobs, demand and who does this work
Figures for the ANZSCO occupation Program and Project Administrator (511112), the closest official match for project officer, from Your Career (Jobs and Skills Australia data, sourced 2026-09-23).
- People employed
- 103,200
- Future demand
- Strong
- Work full-time
- 80%
- Average full-time hours
- 42 a week
- Women
- 59%
- Median age
- 42
Where the jobs are (share of workers)
| NSW | 31% |
| VIC | 26.3% |
| QLD | 18.6% |
| WA | 8.9% |
| SA | 6.6% |
| TAS | 1.8% |
| ACT | 5.5% |
| NT | 1.4% |
Highest qualification held by workers
| Postgraduate qualification | 20.5% |
| Bachelor degree | 31.4% |
| Diploma or advanced diploma | 15.1% |
| Certificate I-IV | 14.1% |
| Year 12 | 10.7% |
| Below Year 12 | 4.8% |
What a project officer actually does
Project officers support project and program managers across the delivery lifecycle. A typical day starts with checking the project inbox, updating the schedule, and flagging anything off-track. The middle of the day is mostly meetings: stand-ups with delivery teams, steering committees, and one-to-ones with workstream leads. Action items come back to the project officer to log, chase and report. Afternoons usually go to writing status reports, maintaining the risk and issue register, and chasing approvals or invoices. Most roles are 38-40 hours a week, hybrid one to two days at home. Workload spikes at steering committee weeks, the end of a phase, audits, and go-live windows. The role is highly varied because no two projects move exactly the same way.
Typical tasks
- Maintain risk and issue logs.
- Coordinate project meetings and minutes.
- Produce status reports for sponsors.
Skills you'll use
- Microsoft Project, Asana, Jira or similar project tools
- Microsoft Excel and PowerPoint for reporting
- Risk and issue tracking
- Meeting coordination and minute-taking
- Stakeholder communication across multiple teams
- Reading contract and procurement basics
- Calm work under pressure when timelines slip
How to become one
- 1Finish Year 12 with English; Maths Standard is enough for most business degrees
- 2Complete a Bachelor of Business, Bachelor of Project Management, or a related degree (3 years), or a Diploma of Project Management through TAFE
- 3Build experience through administration officer, project administrator, or junior coordinator roles
- 4Apply for project officer roles in government, construction, IT, or professional services
- 5Consider certification through AIPM (Australian Institute of Project Management) or PMI (PMP, PRINCE2, Agile) as you take on more responsibility
Where you can work
- Federal, state and local government departments
- Construction and infrastructure delivery firms
- IT and digital transformation programs in large corporates
- Banks, insurers and financial services
- Defence prime contractors and primes' subcontractors
- Universities, hospitals and research institutes
- Engineering, energy and resources project teams
Career progression
Typical stages and roles. Years of experience are a rough guide; pay at each stage depends on the employer, award or agreement.
- Project administrator / coordinator0-3 yearsTypical roles: Project administrator, Project coordinator, PMO analyst
- Project officer3-7 yearsTypical roles: Project officer, Senior project coordinator, PMO lead
- Project / program manager7+ yearsTypical roles: Project manager, Senior project manager, Program manager
Is this for you?
You might love this if
- You like keeping a plan up-to-date and noticing when something is slipping
- You can chase people for actions politely but firmly
- You're patient with stakeholders who have competing priorities
- You're comfortable being the most organised person in the room
- You can write a status report that doesn't sugarcoat the bad news
This might not suit you if
- You hate paperwork, meeting minutes and status reports
- You can't tolerate plans slipping despite your best efforts
- You want fully autonomous work with no stakeholder coordination
- You dislike formal governance and approval processes
Ways in
Uni and TAFE routes for project officer. We only list pathways that actually lead to this occupation.
University
Bachelor degrees that lead to this career.
No direct undergraduate pathway. Consider postgraduate study after a related bachelor degree.
TAFE / VET
Nationally accredited Certificate and Diploma qualifications.
Sources
ExamExplained does not publish predictive salary figures. For current Australian earnings data check Your Career (yourcareer.gov.au) directly. Career classifications follow the ABS ANZSCO 2022 release.