CHAMPIONS OF CHANGE ENGINEERS
The Champions of Change Engineers Group is a new national initiative bringing together influential leaders from across employers, public infrastructure, education, the engineering profession, government and the next generation of engineers. The Group will work across the systems that shape engineering careers, with the ambition of women making up at least 40% of Australia’s engineering workforce by 2040.
Why this matters
Engineering is essential to Australia’s infrastructure, energy, resources, transport, technology, manufacturing and economic future. Yet women remain around 16% of the engineering workforce. Engineers Australia’s latest research shows that Australia is also under-using qualified and experienced women engineers, particularly through the middle stages of their careers.
This initiative builds on Champions of Change’s broader work to solve gender segregation at work, which identifies the systemic changes needed to open up more opportunities for everyone across traditionally gender-segregated industries and occupations.
Attraction matters, but it is only part of the challenge. Who enters engineering, who stays, whose careers progress and who reaches leadership is shaped by decisions across employers, education, professional standards, government, project and job design, caring transitions and workplace culture.
What the Engineers Group will do
How it will work
The Group will use the established Champions of Change model bringing together a gender-balanced cohort of 20-30 leaders supported by Implementation Leaders and targeted action groups. Members will be selected for their ability to change, influence or connect a system lever that lifts the gender balance of the engineering profession.
Stakeholder and media Q&As
A national Champions of Change initiative bringing together a gender-balanced group of influential leaders who control different levers across engineering employment, education, professional standards, government and career pathways. The Group will use Champions of Change’s established accountability and systems-change model to accelerate women’s participation, retention, progression and leadership in engineering.
Champions of Change Coalition leads and stewards the initiative and is accountable for its governance, methodology, programme delivery, evaluation and Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship (WISE) grant. The Group is proposed to be Co-Convened by Kristen Hilton and a highly respected senior engineering leader.
They are strategic partners. Engineers Australia brings evidence, profession reach, accreditation and education pathways. Consult Australia brings employer networks and a decade of Champions of Change implementation experience in engineering consulting. Their roles strengthen the programme while Member accountability and programme governance remain clear.
Existing Champions of Change members that have engineering-intensive workforces (like Energy, Rail, Property and Consult Australia) will be an important employer network, helping test, demonstrate and scale practical interventions and contributing expertise to the wider Engineers Group.
The challenge is not a shortage of engineering expertise. It is how leaders change the systems, behaviours, norms and institutional settings that continue to produce unequal outcomes. Kristen, former Victorian Equal Opportunity and Human Rights Commissioner, has worked across public, private and community sectors driving transformational policy, legal change and promoting ethical leadership. She is a globally recognised human rights expert who brings deep human rights, gender equality and systems-change expertise and extensive experience applying the Champions of Change model in sectors dominated by men. She will be paired with a senior engineer so the Group has complementary forms of experience and leadership at its centre.
The Group requires complementary capabilities: deep expertise in gender equality and systems change, and deep engineering leadership and professional credibility. The Co-Convenor model brings those together.
The aim of the Group is to accelerate progress towards balanced gender representation in the engineering profession. It is the working ambition we will test with Members when the Group is established. Before public adoption, the Group will agree what is being measured, the baseline and data source, and the 2027, 2030 and 2035 leading indicators needed to make the 2040 ambition credible.
This ambition aligns with Champions of Change gender representation target of 40% women, 40% men and 20% any gender (40:40:20) across all roles and levels of an organisation. It represents a stretch goal capable of being translated into realistic systems roadmap from the current 16% of women in engineering.
Women remain significantly underrepresented in engineering. The challenge is not only attraction. Engineers Australia’s latest research highlights under-utilisation of qualified women and a decline in utilisation through the middle career phase. Barriers sit across education, project allocation, work design, caring transitions, progression, leadership, professional norms and system settings.
Yes, and the Group will build on rather than duplicate that work. Many initiatives address important parts of the pathway. The distinctive role of the Engineers Group is to bring leaders who control different system levers together so they can act within their own institutions and coordinate where barriers cross boundaries.
A focused cohort of 20-30 leaders selected for influence and capacity to act across major employers, public infrastructure and utilities, education pathways, professional/standards bodies, government and emerging engineers. The cohort will be gender-balanced from the outset.
Because current experience of education, entry, project work, workplace culture and progression needs to shape decisions, not simply be consulted after the fact. Emerging engineers will participate as full Members and challenge assumptions held by more established leaders.
No. It remains leadership-accountable, and participating employer organisations will have CEO or Board-level sponsorship, but seats may also be held by senior leaders who control critical system levers and by emerging engineers. Influence and capacity to act are the selection tests.
The core cohort will include relevant SME/regional influence where possible, and targeted listening will ensure large-employer assumptions do not dominate. Participation expectations will be proportionate, and grant funding will be used where permissible to reduce establishment barriers.
This Champions of Change Group will be unique in that we are designing it to be gender-balanced from the outset, with senior women leaders and CEOs from across the Engineers eco-system as key representatives.
Women-in-engineering organisations and networks are critical stakeholders in this work, and we will collaborate closely with them to leverage existing research, shape priorities and develop bold and innovative actions that can accelerate progress.
Our aim is to bring together a diverse and gender-balanced mix of leaders, helping ensure a broad range of perspectives and experiences are represented in discussions and decision-making. The intention is to build on and amplify existing research and expertise, rather than create a competing advocacy structure.
The Australian Government is the catalytic funder and national policy partner. Champions of Change has been awarded $1.9 million in funding over the course of three years from the Australian Government Department of Industry, Science and Resources through the Women in STEM and Entrepreneurship: Round 5 program.
By 31 December 2026 the grant requires establishment of the Champions of Change Engineers Group as a gender-equal and diverse cohort of 20-30 leaders under formal governance, with membership criteria, decision protocols, confidentiality settings, stakeholder mapping, strategic engagement and outreach.
Engineers Group Members are expected to attend and participate personally. Champions of Change do not allow proxies for its Members. Members will interrogate systems within their control, nominate two Implementation Leaders (where relevant), share evidence and data under agreed arrangements, make practical commitments, test interventions, work across boundaries, and report progress.
No. The core purpose is to break through stakeholder silos. Wider voices will be engaged directly through listening and connect-back mechanisms. Time-limited action groups will be created only when the core Group selects a specific problem that needs technical work.
The WISE grant reduces cost as an initial barrier, particularly for organisations such as SMEs and tertiary institutions. Existing Champions of Change Members will continue their current membership arrangements. The ongoing Engineers Group membership and tiering model will be finalised as part of the sustainability plan.
The Group must be constituted by December 2026. The first formal Champions of Change Engineers Group Member meeting is planned for early 2027 in line with Champions of Change existing quarterly cadence.
The Group will establish a clear baseline and leading indicators, track Member actions and system outcomes, draw on national datasets and report progress publicly. The grant requires annual evaluation updates and a three-year consolidated impact report.
The grant objectives and engineering challenge focus on the significant underrepresentation and under-utilisation of women. The work will apply the Coalition’s inclusive gender equality approach, including attention to intersecting barriers and diverse experiences within the engineering workforce.
Members are selected for authority to act, not organisational representation. The forum is designed around accountability, peer challenge, action inside institutions, coordinated system change and transparent reporting. It uses a proven Champions of Change operating model rather than a representative committee model.
Get involved
The Champions of Change Engineers Group is being established during 2026. We are also engaging engineering employers, professional and advocacy organisations, education leaders, SMEs, regional stakeholders and emerging engineers to ensure the work is informed by the breadth of the ecosystem.
We welcome expressions of interest, contributions and conversations about this initiative.