Building Australia’s Air Warfare Capability
Media Release
National recruitment drive for AWD Project
8 October 2010
A national recruitment drive is underway to fill up to 60 vacancies in skilled positions within
the Air Warfare Destroyer project.
The $8 billion AWD project is the largest Defence procurement project ever undertaken in
Australia. It is a nation-building project that is expected to create 3,000 jobs benefiting
thousands of businesses and families in Australia.
The AWD project is being delivered under an Alliance arrangement between Raytheon
Australia, ASC and the Commonwealth, represented by the Defence Materiel Organisation.
AWD Alliance CEO Rod Equid said the AWD Alliance workforce is growing and will peak
during full production in 2012.
“The project is driving a rapid expansion in shipbuilding skills, technical expertise and
capability throughout the country,” Mr Equid said.
“The AWD Alliance has instigated a national recruitment drive to fill skilled positions in key
areas in the program including welders, data analysts, marine engineers and naval architects.
“Full block production is underway in three shipyards, ASC in Adelaide, BAE Systems in
Melbourne and Forgacs in Newcastle. Contracts have been signed by the AWD Alliance for
almost all major equipment and material.
“At this stage in the project, there is a focus on hull fabrication which is leading to a demand
for more welders at all three shipyards. There is also a demand for stores and warehouse
positions, schedulers, procurement specialists, pipe fitters and boilermakers.
“The Combat System team is moving from the procurement phase to the management and
test phase of the project and is recruiting in areas of production support such as production
engineers, integrated logistics support (ILS), systems engineers and operations managers.
“There are a number of vacancies within the Combat System team at Raytheon’s Macquarie
Park offices in Sydney as well as other opportunities in Adelaide,” Mr Equid said.
Approximately 200 AWD Alliance members are now located at Techport Australia, Osborne,
after relocating from Felixstow in August. The AWD workforce is made up of representatives
from the Commonwealth Government, Royal Australian Navy, ASC, Raytheon Australia,
Navantia, Bath Iron Works, Lockheed Martin and US Navy.
In total, the three shipyards will employ about 200 apprentices which will build an important
foundation for the industry. There are 18 graduates who work on the AWD project with plans
to expand the number of graduates over time.
There are currently vacancies within the AWD project in skilled positions including:
Logistic Engineer (Electrical)
Purchasing Officer
Supply Chain Analyst
Welders
Test and Integration Engineer
Boilermakers
Pipe Fitters
Sheet Metal Workers
Business Analyst
Senior Structural Engineer
For further information contact:
Sascha Meldrum
08 81657866 / 0409034241 / Sascha. Meldrum@ausawd.com
NEWS 
