ASD’s capabilities enable it to deliver on its purpose and strategic objectives. For the duration of this corporate plan, ASD will place special emphasis on building and enhancing the capabilities needed to meet the challenges of the evolving strategic environment, including changes in technology and data analysis. It will invest in improving leadership skills and building a culture that leverages the strength of a diverse and capable workforce. It will build and foster partnerships to deliver value in this complex operating environment.
People and culture
ASD’s people are its greatest resource. The skills and experience of its people are in high demand across private industry and government. To ensure its success, ASD must accelerate its efforts to attract, develop and retain a diverse and highly skilled workforce. Over the life of this corporate plan, ASD will significantly expand its workforce, creating new jobs at locations across Australia.
Tradecraft
ASD’s foreign signals intelligence, cyber security and offensive cyber operations missions require a highly skilled workforce, equipped with the right skills to be effective and successful at delivering its missions. The pace of technological change and the evolving threat landscape increase ASD’s opportunities to develop new tradecraft, but also increase the challenge of keeping ahead. ASD needs to ensure that its analysts are equipped with the right skills and can deploy modern tradecraft against ASD’s toughest analytical problems.
Technology
Technology is at the heart of ASD’s capability. Mastering and adapting to technological change is crucial to enabling ASD’s ongoing success in delivering foreign signals intelligence, cyber security, and offensive cyber operations.
Governance
ASD’s status as a statutory agency has given it the autonomy to build enterprise governance and risk frameworks that are tailored to the unique nature of ASD’s work. As part of this work, ASD has established robust compliance and oversight processes, which provide assurance that ASD acts within the spirit and letter of the laws that enable us.
Leadership and influence
The leadership skills of ASD’s people – at all levels of the organisation – are vital to its success. ASD’s leaders are at the forefront of delivering strategic initiatives, and supporting and developing the workforce.
Diversity and inclusion
ASD’s workforce operates in the slim area between the difficult and the impossible. Solving the toughest problems in foreign signals intelligence, cyber security and offensive cyber operations requires teams of clever, curious people with diverse and complementary skills. ASD’s strength, resilience, and creativity is derived from the different ages, backgrounds, genders, cultures, neurodiversity, physical abilities, religions and sexualities of its staff. ASD is committed to providing a respectful and inclusive workplace.