How to write an APS pitch, from APS4 to EL1 (with worked examples)

Most Australian Public Service roles no longer ask you to address each selection criterion under its own heading. Instead the ad asks for a pitch, sometimes called a statement of claims, usually capped at one to two pages or somewhere between 500 and 1,000 words.

It looks easier. It is harder. A pitch gives you no scaffolding, so the burden of structure falls entirely on you, and a pitch that rambles is very easy to score below one that does not.

What the panel is holding while they read you

Two documents sit beside your application.

The APS Work Level Standards, which define what each classification is expected to do. An APS5 exercises judgement within defined parameters. An EL1 leads work, manages people and operates with a lot more independence. The standards are what stop an excellent APS5 pitch from winning an EL1 role.

The capabilities named in the advertisement, often drawn from the Integrated Leadership System. Shapes strategic thinking. Achieves results. Cultivates productive working relationships. Exemplifies personal drive and integrity. Communicates with influence.

Your pitch is read against both. The Australian Public Service Commission publishes its own guidance in Cracking the Code, and it is worth reading before you write anything.

Write to the level, not just the job

This is where most unsuccessful pitches go wrong. The evidence is real, but it is pitched a classification too low.

At APS4 and APS5, show that you can do the work reliably, apply guidelines correctly, and handle competing demands without needing to be managed closely.

At APS6, show judgement. You are expected to interpret rather than follow, to handle ambiguity, and to be trusted with work that has no obvious precedent.

At EL1, show leadership. Not "I led a project" but that you set direction, made decisions others depended on, developed people, and managed upwards and sideways. An EL1 pitch built entirely on personal delivery, however impressive, reads as an APS6 who works very hard.

Ask yourself, honestly, whether your examples show the level you are applying for or the level you currently sit at. If it is the latter, find better examples or reach higher into what you have actually done.

A structure that works

Opening, roughly 60 words. Who you are professionally, and why this role. One or two sentences. No throat clearing.

Body, three or four blocks. One per capability group in the ad. Each block is a claim, a STAR example, and a result. This is where the marks live.

Close, roughly 50 words. What you bring that is distinctive, and a plain statement of interest.

Use subheadings if the ad does not forbid them. They cost you nothing and they help a tired assessor find what they are scoring.

A worked APS6 pitch

For an APS6 Policy Officer role advertising three capabilities: shapes strategic thinking, achieves results, and communicates with influence. Around 600 words in full; the body blocks are shown here.

Opening

I am a policy officer with six years across program delivery and evaluation, currently at APS5 in the Department of Social Services. I am applying for this role because it sits at the point where evaluation evidence actually changes program design, which is the work I want to be doing.

Shapes strategic thinking

I identify the question behind the question. When our branch was asked to report on why a grants program was underspending, the obvious answer was low application volume. I pulled three years of application data and found volume was steady but the withdrawal rate after conditional approval had tripled. The cause was a compliance step introduced in 2024 that smaller providers could not meet. I reframed the brief from promotion to process, and recommended a tiered compliance pathway. That recommendation went to the Deputy Secretary and was implemented in the following funding round, with withdrawals returning to their earlier level.

Achieves results

I deliver under pressure without dropping quality. During the 2025 machinery of government changes I was managing four evaluation projects when two colleagues moved out of the branch and were not backfilled for five months. I triaged the portfolio against ministerial priorities, negotiated revised timelines with three internal clients rather than silently slipping, and automated a monthly reporting process that had been taking a full day of manual work. All four projects were delivered, two ahead of the revised schedule, and the reporting automation is still in use.

Communicates with influence

I make evidence usable by people who do not have time for it. Our evaluation reports were thorough and largely unread, so I introduced a two page decision summary at the front of every report, written for a decision maker rather than an analyst. I tested the format with three programme managers before rolling it out. Uptake was immediate, and the branch head now requires the format for all evaluation products. In the most recent internal survey the branch's reporting was rated useful by 88 per cent of programme areas, up from 61.

Close

I combine hands on evaluation practice with the ability to make findings land with the people who act on them. I would welcome the opportunity to bring that to this team.

Notice what is doing the work. Every block opens with a claim, gives one specific situation, describes what the writer personally did, and ends with something measurable. No adjectives about being passionate or dedicated.

A worked APS5 pitch

Same three capabilities, one level down. Notice how much more the language centres on reliable delivery within guidelines, rather than the judgement and initiative shown in the APS6 version above.

Opening

I am a policy support officer with three years' experience coordinating grants administration in the Department of Social Services, currently at APS4. I am applying for this role because I want to take on more responsibility for how our programs are evaluated, not just how they are administered.

Shapes strategic thinking

I look one step beyond the task I am given. Asked to update our standard grant acquittal checklist after a compliance audit, I did not simply add the new required fields. I reviewed the audit findings in full and noticed two of the three issues raised traced back to unclear wording earlier in the checklist, not missing fields. I rewrote those sections and tested the revised checklist with two case officers before it went live. The next quarterly audit raised no issues in that section.

Achieves results

I keep my caseload moving without needing to be chased. Managing a portfolio of 40 active grant files with a hard reporting deadline each quarter, I built a simple tracker that flagged any file untouched for more than five business days, rather than relying on memory. In the two reporting cycles since, every file in my portfolio has met its deadline, and I have twice picked up overflow work from a colleague on leave without missing my own.

Communicates with influence

I make sure the people who need an answer get one they can use. Grant applicants regularly asked our team the same handful of questions about eligibility, each answered individually and slightly differently depending on who replied. I drafted a plain language frequently asked questions document, checked it with our team leader and legal area, and had it published on the program's public page. Enquiries to the team dropped by roughly a third within two months, and the answers given were now consistent regardless of who was rostered on.

Close

I bring reliable delivery and an eye for the process behind the task, and I am ready to take on more judgement than my current classification asks for.

A worked EL1 pitch

Same three capabilities again, now at the level where the standard expects leadership rather than delivery. Compare the "achieves results" block here to the APS6 version above: that example is about the writer's own output under pressure; this one is about what the writer did through other people.

Opening

I am a Director with eight years across policy and program delivery in the Australian Public Service, currently leading a team of twelve at EL1 in a related portfolio. I am applying for this role because it combines strategic policy work with the people leadership I do best.

Shapes strategic thinking

I set direction before I set tasks. Inheriting a branch with three separate teams each running their own version of a similar compliance process, I did not ask each team to justify their approach individually. I commissioned a short comparative review, found the three approaches produced materially different risk outcomes for the same regulated activity, and used that finding to build the case for a single branch wide standard. The standard was endorsed by the Deputy Secretary and adopted across all three teams within the quarter, and is now referenced as the model for two other branches.

Achieves results

I deliver by building capability in the team, not by carrying the load myself. Taking on a branch with a substantial backlog and low morale, I did not personally work the backlog down. I restructured the team into two streams with clear ownership, gave each stream lead genuine authority over their own prioritisation, and removed a sign off step that added delay without adding quality. The backlog cleared within four months, two stream leads have since been promoted, and the restructure has been sustained for over a year without me needing to intervene in day to day allocation.

Communicates with influence

I get agreement from people I do not manage. A policy change I was leading required sign off from two other branches with competing priorities, and early consultation had stalled into a written back and forth that was going nowhere. I convened a short workshop with a decision, not a discussion, as the stated goal, and came prepared with a proposal that named the trade off each branch was being asked to accept rather than pretending there was none. Agreement was reached in that one session after three months of stalled correspondence, and the same format has since been adopted by my director for other cross branch negotiations.

Close

I bring strategic judgement and the ability to develop a team that no longer needs me for every decision, and I am ready to bring that to this portfolio.

Things that quietly cost you marks

Writing your resume again in prose. The panel already has your resume. The pitch is for evidence they cannot get anywhere else.

Adjectives instead of evidence. Highly motivated, results driven, passionate, dedicated. They occupy words in a capped document and score nothing.

One example stretched across everything. It reads as a thin career even when the career is not thin.

Ignoring the word limit. Some agencies truncate at the limit and the panel simply never sees your closing.

Forgetting the resume. Many agencies load applications into recruitment software such as PageUp or Workday, where your resume is parsed and searched. It still needs to use the language of the role. You can check yours against the ad for free.

Eligibility details worth checking early

APS roles are generally open to Australian citizens only, and many require or will require a security clearance at Baseline, Negative Vetting 1 or higher. Some roles are advertised as ongoing, others as non ongoing for a fixed term, and merit pools from one process are often used to fill later vacancies.

That last point is worth knowing. A strong application that does not win the advertised role can still land you a job months later from the pool, which changes the arithmetic on whether a difficult application was worth the effort.

Before you submit

Read your pitch and ask three questions of every paragraph. Does it make a claim? Does it prove the claim with something specific that I personally did? Does it end with a result?

If a paragraph fails any of the three, it is decoration. Cut it and use the words on something that scores.

For the individually addressed format still common in state government, see how to address selection criteria. For health and education specifically, see selection criteria for NSW Health, Queensland Health and state education roles.