QAO’s vision is for better public services for all Queenslanders – from the local government services you use in your community, to your hospitals, schools, drinking water, universities, and more. Through our graduate program, you’ll build a solid foundation for an incredibly rewarding and versatile career, while knowing the work you do every day is helping to improve the public services you, your family, friends, and the wider community rely on.
As parliament’s independent auditor, we provide valued assurance and insights across Queensland’s public sector entities and local governments. Due to our mandate, we’re a uniquely positioned organisation that operates across the entire state. This allows us to glean insights into how entities and sectors are performing and provide recommendations for improvement that no other organisation can.
QAO is committed to creating a values-driven, high-performing culture where everyone is encouraged to thrive and form enduring connections. Our team is collaborative, friendly, and diverse, and we value the broad experiences and knowledge that everyone collectively brings to our team. We support each other to achieve our individual and joint goals – so we all grow both personally and professionally.
All of our team works across the business, so you'll have opportunities to engage with a wide range of colleagues, clients, and stakeholders, such as state public sector entities, local governments, parliamentarians, professional services companies, contractors, the audit industry, and more.
The foundation you build with us can take you anywhere you want to go.
From your first day as part of our team as a permanent staff member, you’ll be supported with everything you need to achieve your career goals. We provide comprehensive technical and non-technical training, hands-on learning experiences, support to achieve your professional accreditation, and a dedicated mentor.
Through your first year, you'll obtain a deep understanding of government service delivery and work on a variety of portfolios, government sectors, and clients. Our undergraduate and graduate auditors help deliver a range of interesting financial, assurance, and information systems services audits. And the graduates in our friendly and innovative data analytics team work on a suite of audit-driven analytic solutions and other exciting projects. With us, you’ll rotate internally through different teams as a permanent QAO staff member, growing your skills, meeting the wider QAO community, and helping us deliver our vision for Queensland.
After your first year, you’ll have opportunities to progress into different roles and levels with us. For undergraduates, this means moving into the full-time graduate program once you finish university.
Build your career with QAO and know that the work you do every day can improve the public services you, your family, friends, and the wider community rely on.
QAO looks for people who have a true desire to work in an organisation that has a professional, client-services, and team-oriented culture.
We have designed our recruitment process to be thorough and fair to every candidate. We value the diversity of all people.
Have a look at the roles open for applications, their position descriptions and eligibility, and the key dates on our website before you apply.
The first step is to submit your online application by the closing date. You will need to:
We want to know who you are. We value diverse experiences and we’re interested in your skills, ideas, and passions. Make sure to include all your work experience in your application, not just the experience you think is relevant to the role, regardless of whether it’s related to your area of study or the role you’re applying for. Also include any community or voluntary work experience you have done.
Here’s an overview of what you can expect once applications close:
For more information on the key dates for applications and the graduate program, please see our website by clicking the icon above.
Innovation, teamwork, and relationships are at the heart of QAO. Staff work flexibly across the business – from graduate auditors to more experienced leaders – to ensure everyone is well-rounded and that knowledge and ideas are shared.
On any given day, our graduates and undergraduate auditors could be working on complex and technical audits of government owned corporations, large entities such as Queensland Treasury Corporation, rural and remote Queensland councils, or travelling throughout the state with their teams.
While working in our data analytics team, you’ll collaborate with other specialists in data, analytics, and audit to help identify, deliver, and improve our data sets, analytic tool sets, analysis, and visualisations for our client service delivery.
You’ll have opportunities to learn and grow skills in areas including, but not limited to, financial audit, performance and assurance audit, data analytics, and information systems. The variety of experiences and work opportunities are second to none.
A key part of your first year is professional development. We’ll offer you training, support, and learning opportunities every step of the way, and you’ll learn and apply a broad range of skills.
Your annual salary (2025) will be $75,205 for graduates and $64,300 (pro-rata) for undergraduates, plus 12.75 per cent superannuation and annual leave loading. You also benefit from a range of paid leave including accumulated (‘flex’) leave benefits.
Joining QAO as a graduate or undergraduate is the first step toward an incredibly rewarding career.
Many of our past graduates have built successful and renowned careers in Australia and overseas, including as QAO auditors-general and assistant auditors-general, chief executive officers and chief financial officers in large public and private sector entities, board members, directors, business owners, partners, and more.
The diverse work and experiences you’ll have across our business will set you up as a well-rounded, sought-after professional.