Thought Leadership

Christine Gillon – Director, People & Culture; Australia Defence and Security Solutions.

When people outside the defence industry ask me about career opportunities, the conversation often quickly turns to the ships, aircraft or submarines. 

Understandably so because these are the things that we most often hear about or see in our newspapers, TV or the newsfeed on our personal devices. 

For students at the beginning of their career journey, those images alone don’t always make clear the differences between a job in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) and one in industry. 

The ADF operate aircraft, ships, submarines and other equipment as part of its role to defend our nation. The role of industry is to build, supply and maintain and upgrade equipment, as well as integrate the technologies within them to bring military platforms to life and connect them so they work in unison. 

The defence industry plays a vital role ensuring that the ADF has what it needs to protect our nation and our way of life, and it offers distinctive and forward-thinking career opportunities. 

Today there are more than 5,500 businesses, including KBR, that make up the Australian defence industry which employs about 70,000 people. 

Latest figures show that KBR’s annual contribution to Australian GDP is more than $1bn and the company directly employs more than 2,000 people and sustains 6,370 jobs across the economy. 

Many of the people working in industry have strong Science Technology Engineering and Maths (STEM) knowledge and experience, which supports industry’s ambition to stay ahead of the innovation curve and develop world leading solutions. 

STEM skilled employees help solve national security challenges, creating new or improved solutions and, consistent with this, KBR’s employees are doing incredible things to support Australia’s national defence and security using our world leading technology including: 

• The provision of world leading technical support to enable remotely piloted aircraft to taxi, take off, conduct missions and return safely.
• Modernising existing ground and space communication systems to increase their effectiveness.
• Delivering engineering excellence with technical design of infrastructure at HMAS Stirling in Western Australia to support the rotation of nuclear-powered US and UK submarines and at Osborne in SA that will support the manufacture of Australia’s AUKUS submarines in South Australia.
• Space domain awareness by monitoring the space above Australia using technology to look for and report unusual occurrences. 

So while significant platforms like aircraft, ships or submarines make the headlines and they do play a critical role in our national security defence, it’s important to know that there is much more to explore in the defence industry, providing meaningful and fulfilling career opportunities.