Key Takeaways
- Ventia Services Group (ASX: VNT) is a top-tier Australian and New Zealand essential infrastructure services business, formed in 2015 from the merger of Leighton Contractors Services, Visionstream, Thiess Services, and Silcar, listed on the ASX in November 2021, employing approximately 35,000 people, and reporting revenue of approximately A$5.6 billion in 2024.
- The business is structured around Defence, Telecommunications, Transport, Infrastructure Services (utilities and environmental), and Resources, with major contracts including Australian Department of Defence Estate Maintenance and Operations Support, NBN Co network maintenance, Telstra and Vodafone telecommunications maintenance, motorway and tunnel operations, and water, electricity, and gas network services.
- Most roles flow through careers.ventia.com, a custom Australian recruitment portal; create a single profile, tailor your application to the specific sector and state, and complete every field rather than relying solely on the uploaded resume, because recruiters filter heavily on structured fields including tickets, licences, security clearance, and work rights.
- Defence-aligned roles typically require Australian citizenship and a Baseline, NV1, or NV2 security clearance under the Australian Government Security Vetting Agency framework; clearance sponsorship is available for the right candidates but the process can take six to twelve months and is the dominant gating factor for time-to-start.
- Interviews are STAR-format competency interviews scored against Ventia's values (Safety, Integrity, Collaboration, Ingenuity, Sustainability); prepare three to five concrete stories that cover safety, customer and client service, accountability, teamwork, ingenuity in solving operational problems, and sustainability outcomes.
- HSEQ is the dominant cultural signal across the Group; show specific examples of safety behaviours, use of Take 5s and JSAs, exercising Stop Work authority, just-culture reporting, and respect for standard operating procedures even in non-infrastructure past roles.
- Pre-employment checks include national police, work rights, references, pre-employment medical with drug and alcohol testing for safety-critical roles, ticket and licence verification for trades, and security clearance sponsorship or transfer for Defence roles, which can add two to eight weeks to the time to start.
- Compensation for trades, field services, and many supervisory operational roles is set by enterprise bargaining agreements (EBAs) negotiated with the AWU, CFMEU, ETU, AMWU, and CEPU among others, while staff and salaried corporate, engineering, and project roles are paid on individual contracts that are competitive within the Australian infrastructure services market.
- CEO Dean Banks (in role since June 2020, succeeding founding CEO Joe Sofra) joined from Babcock International in the United Kingdom, and the strategic agenda is shaped by Australian defence services growth, NBN maintenance contract renewals, the federal infrastructure pipeline, and the move toward circular economy and remediation services.
About Ventia Services
Application Process
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1
Search and apply through the Ventia careers portal at careers
Search and apply through the Ventia careers portal at careers.ventia.com, which is a custom Australian recruitment system that hosts every role across the Defence, Telecommunications, Transport, Infrastructure Services, and corporate businesses; create a single candidate profile so you can track multiple applications across sectors and regions.
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2
Set location and sector filters carefully: roles are tagged by state (NSW, VIC,
Set location and sector filters carefully: roles are tagged by state (NSW, VIC, QLD, WA, SA, ACT, TAS, NT, plus New Zealand) and by sector (Defence, Telecommunications, Infrastructure Services, Transport, Environmental, Resources), and many regional and remote roles such as Defence base maintenance or NBN field technicians sit in physical locations that metropolitan candidates routinely overlook.
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Expect the initial application review to be handled by an internal Ventia talent
Expect the initial application review to be handled by an internal Ventia talent acquisition partner aligned to the relevant business line, typically within one to three weeks; high-volume trades and field-services requisitions are reviewed continuously while corporate and engineering roles move on a more deliberate cadence.
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Shortlisted candidates receive a recruiter phone screen calibrating motivation,
Shortlisted candidates receive a recruiter phone screen calibrating motivation, salary expectations, work rights, mobility (especially willingness to work on Defence bases or in remote locations), driver licence class, ticket and licence currency for trades, and any security clearance position the role requires under the Australian Government Security Vetting Agency framework.
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For Defence-aligned roles, expect questions about Australian citizenship and exi
For Defence-aligned roles, expect questions about Australian citizenship and existing or sponsorable security clearances (Baseline, NV1, NV2, or Positive Vetting); many Estate Maintenance and Operations Support positions require Australian citizenship as a non-negotiable condition because of base access and Defence client requirements.
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Hiring manager interviews are competency-based and grounded in Ventia's values (
Hiring manager interviews are competency-based and grounded in Ventia's values (Safety, Integrity, Collaboration, Ingenuity, Sustainability) and behavioural frameworks, with strong emphasis on Health, Safety, Environment and Quality (HSEQ) mindset, accountability, and the candidate's understanding of operating in regulated, client-facing environments; senior roles add a panel interview, a presentation, or a commercial case study.
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7
Pre-employment checks for successful candidates include a national police check,
Pre-employment checks for successful candidates include a national police check, right-to-work verification, reference checks, a pre-employment medical including drug and alcohol testing for safety-critical roles, ticket and licence verification for trades, and security clearance sponsorship or transfer for Defence roles, all of which can extend the time to start by two to eight weeks.
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Offers are typically extended within one to two weeks of the final interview thr
Offers are typically extended within one to two weeks of the final interview through the careers.ventia.com portal with a written contract; trades and field services offers under enterprise bargaining agreements arrive with the relevant EBA referenced and the standard rates, allowances, and rosters specified, while staff and salaried roles receive an individual contract.
Resume Tips for Ventia Services
Lead with measurable HSEQ, operational, and contract outcomes rather than duties
Lead with measurable HSEQ, operational, and contract outcomes rather than duties: Total Recordable Injury Frequency Rate reductions, asset availability uplift, network maintenance KPIs met, contract gross margin improvement, audit findings closed, environmental incidents prevented, or productivity gains, ideally with the baseline you improved from.
Make the sector fit explicit
Make the sector fit explicit. Defence values security clearance, base experience, and Department of Defence client knowledge; Telecommunications values NBN, Telstra, or carrier maintenance experience and field force management; Transport values motorway, tunnel, and rail O&M experience; Environmental Services values contaminated land, waste, and recycling experience; tailor the resume to the sector you are applying to rather than submitting one generic version.
Surface essential Australian credentials early: White Card (Construction Inducti
Surface essential Australian credentials early: White Card (Construction Induction), driver licence class (C, LR, MR, HR, HC, MC), forklift, EWP, working at heights, confined space, dogman/rigger, first aid, low voltage rescue, switching tickets, electrical licence (A-grade), plumbing licence, RIIWHS204D and other resources tickets, and any state-specific licences carry weight in the Ventia parser and with hiring managers.
For corporate, engineering, project management, and commercial roles, mirror key
For corporate, engineering, project management, and commercial roles, mirror keywords from the job advert and from Ventia's investor materials: NEC, AS4000, AS4902, GC21, EPCM, asset management, ISO 55000, ISO 45001, ISO 14001, lifecycle costing, condition-based maintenance, planned and reactive maintenance, KPI regimes, performance frameworks, and contract administration all signal the right experience.
Quantify field workforce or contract scale for any operational or supervisory ro
Quantify field workforce or contract scale for any operational or supervisory role: number of technicians supervised, geographic spread of the contract, value of the contract managed, number of work orders completed per month, fleet size, and SLA performance translate directly to Ventia's contract delivery model.
Show evidence of regulated environment experience: working under the Defence Sec
Show evidence of regulated environment experience: working under the Defence Security Principles Framework, AS/NZS standards, state work health and safety regulators (SafeWork NSW, WorkSafe Victoria, Resources Safety WA, etc.), state environmental regulators (EPA), the Telecommunications Act, and the relevant rail safety regulator (ONRSR) is a strong differentiator for technical, operational, and risk roles.
Keep the resume to two pages for most field and trades roles, three for engineer
Keep the resume to two pages for most field and trades roles, three for engineering and project roles, and four for senior leadership applications, with a clean chronological format, simple typography, and no graphics, columns, or text boxes; the Ventia portal handles plain layouts best, and recruiters review high volumes of applications quickly.
Include an explicit Australian work-rights statement (citizen, permanent residen
Include an explicit Australian work-rights statement (citizen, permanent resident, 482 visa holder, Working Holiday, etc.) at the top of the resume, plus security clearance status (None, Baseline, NV1, NV2, PV) and citizenship for Defence-aligned applications, because Ventia recruiters filter heavily on these for clearance-required roles.
ATS System: Custom Australian Recruitment Portal
Ventia operates a custom Australian recruitment portal at careers.ventia.com that hosts every role across the Defence, Telecommunications, Transport, Infrastructure Services (utilities and environmental), Resources, and corporate businesses in both Australia and New Zealand. The portal handles application capture, screening, interview scheduling, offer management, and pre-employment check coordination including security clearance sponsorship workflows for Defence roles, ticket and licence verification for trades, and pre-employment medical and drug and alcohol testing coordination for safety-critical roles. Because it is a custom system rather than a global enterprise ATS such as Workday, SuccessFactors, Oracle HCM, or iCIMS, the parsing is more forgiving of formatting variations but less structured, which makes the candidate's manual completion of profile fields more important rather than less.
- Create a single Ventia candidate profile and reuse it across all applications rather than starting fresh each time, so you can track status across sectors, states, and contracts.
- Complete every structured field in the candidate profile, especially work rights, citizenship, security clearance level, tickets and licences, driver licence class, and mobility, because Ventia recruiters filter heavily on these fields when triaging high-volume requisitions for Defence, telecommunications, and trades roles.
- Upload a clean PDF or DOCX resume under 5MB with a chronological structure, no columns or tables, and clear section headers including a dedicated Tickets and Licences block and, for Defence-aligned applications, a Security Clearance block; the parser populates structured fields from the resume, so a complex layout produces a noisy candidate profile.
- Mirror exact keywords from the job advert and the role's listed competencies in your resume and profile, including specific contract names, client names (Department of Defence, NBN Co, Telstra, named state road authority), ATS terminology, regulatory frameworks, and Australian acronyms, so the search-and-filter views surface your application.
- Set up job alerts on careers.ventia.com and follow Ventia on LinkedIn, because trades, field services, graduate, and apprenticeship intakes open in narrow windows tied to specific contracts and apprenticeship calendars.
- Withdraw applications you are no longer interested in directly inside the portal rather than going silent, because recruiters can see your full Ventia application history and a tidy profile signals professionalism in a tightly networked Australian infrastructure services industry.
Complete Custom Australian Recruitment Portal Resume Guide →
Interview Culture
What Ventia Services Looks For
- Safety-first thinking that shows up in concrete past behaviours: pre-start inspections completed honestly, hazards reported even when inconvenient, Take 5s and Job Safety Analyses used as living tools rather than paperwork, Stop Work authority exercised when conditions deteriorated, and near-misses treated as learning rather than embarrassment.
- Operational pragmatism: a track record of getting essential work done in the rain, in remote locations, in restricted Defence environments, in live traffic, around live electrical, water, gas, or telecommunications networks, and inside long-term contracts with strict client KPIs and liquidated damages regimes.
- Respect for the trades workforce and the EBA framework: candidates who can supervise, plan for, or work alongside electricians, plumbers, riggers, drivers, technicians, and field operators with credibility, and who understand that EBA conditions, RDOs, allowances, and travel time are part of the deal rather than obstacles to be argued with.
- Commercial literacy appropriate to the role, including the ability to talk about contract margin, work order productivity, planned-versus-reactive maintenance ratios, asset availability, lifecycle cost, and variation management, and to connect daily decisions to Group financial performance reported through the ASX.
- Sector awareness: candidates who clearly understand the difference between Defence Estate Maintenance, NBN field maintenance, motorway O&M, water network maintenance, and contaminated land remediation, and who target their application to the right sector rather than treating Ventia as one undifferentiated services business.
- Comfort working in a heavily unionised, regulated environment with multiple stakeholders (Department of Defence, NBN Co, Telstra, state road and rail authorities, water utilities, EPA, ONRSR, SafeWork regulators, AWU, CFMEU, ETU, AMWU, CEPU), and a track record of building constructive working relationships across these groups.
- Ability to obtain and maintain a Baseline, NV1, or NV2 security clearance under the Australian Government Security Vetting Agency framework for Defence-aligned roles, which in practice requires Australian citizenship, a clean criminal history, sound financial conduct, and patience with a process that can take six to twelve months.
- Long-term mindset and pride in essential services: Ventia hires for tenure in many functions, and people who treat the role as a career inside the Australian and New Zealand infrastructure services industry rather than a stepping stone, and who can articulate why operations and maintenance work matters, tend to outperform in interviews.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where is Ventia headquartered, and where are most jobs located?
Does Ventia sponsor work visas for overseas applicants?
How long does the Ventia hiring process take?
What ATS does Ventia use, and how should I optimise my resume for it?
What is the difference between applying to Ventia, Downer EDI, John Holland, and Spotless?
What does Ventia pay, and how is compensation structured?
Does Ventia offer remote or hybrid work?
What graduate, intern, and apprenticeship pathways does Ventia offer?
What is a security clearance, and why does Ventia keep mentioning it for Defence roles?
How are EBAs structured at Ventia, and what should I know before signing?
How should I prepare for a Ventia competency interview?
Open Positions
Ventia Services currently has 221 open positions.
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