From Contractor to APS Employee: How to Win a Conversion Role Before the Process Opens

by APS Interview Coach | May 10, 2026 | Career Transition, Contractor to Permanent APS Public Sector, Uncategorized

Updated: May 2026

Estimated read time: 11 minutes

APS Contractor Conversions: How to Turn Your Government Contract Role Into a Permanent APS Job

The APS Is Actively Converting Contractor Roles to Permanent Jobs. Here’s How to Win One.

If you’ve been working inside an Australian Government agency as a contractor, labour hire worker, or consultant, there’s a real chance the role you’re sitting in right now is on a conversion list. The question is whether you’ll be ready when the recruitment process opens.

The APS Strategic Commissioning Framework, introduced in October 2023, is not just a policy document. It is a structural workforce reset. More than 100 government agencies have been required to identify which roles must be delivered by APS employees rather than outsourced — and to set binding, publicly reported targets for bringing that work back in-house.

The numbers are significant. In 2024–25, agencies collectively committed to converting over $527 million worth of core work. The government’s broader target is $4 billion in savings from reduced external labour spend across several years. Behind those dollar figures are thousands of individual roles — roles that are currently occupied by contractors doing exactly what APS employees will soon be hired to do.

That means opportunity. But only if you understand how the process works.

What “Conversion” Actually Means — and the Catch Most Contractors Miss

Here is the most important thing to understand about the APS contractor conversion process: you do not automatically get the job because you are already doing it.

Where an external role is being converted to an ongoing APS position, the merit principle must be applied. That means a competitive recruitment process — with a written application, possible assessment, interview, reference checks, and comparative panel assessment — must occur before anyone is offered an ongoing APS role.

This catches many contractors off guard. They assume that because they have been performing the function for months or years, the conversion is a formality. It is not. You are competing. And in many cases, you are competing against candidates who have spent time specifically preparing for APS recruitment processes while you have been focused on delivery.

The good news is that your deep familiarity with the work is a genuine advantage — but only if you can translate that experience into the structured evidence an APS selection panel is trained to assess.

Which Roles and Functions Are Being Targeted

The Strategic Commissioning Framework identifies two tiers of core work. The first tier covers functions that should not be outsourced regardless of circumstances:

• Developing Cabinet submissions
• Drafting legislation and regulation
• Leading policy formulation
• Roles on an agency’s executive team

The second tier covers functions that agencies are actively bringing back in-house:

• Procurement and contract management
• Cost-benefit analysis
• Grant administration
• Program design and delivery

Across the APS, the job families generating the highest conversion activity include Policy, Legal and Parliamentary, Accounting and Finance, program delivery, procurement, grants, and contract management. If your contracting work touches any of these areas, the likelihood that your function has been identified as core — and targeted for conversion — is high.

This is especially relevant for contractors and labour hire workers in large Canberra-based federal departments and agencies, including Defence, Services Australia, Home Affairs, the ATO, the Department of Finance, the Department of Health, and central policy agencies.

It is also worth noting that the framework explicitly restricts the use of contractors as members of agency executive teams. That work must be performed by APS employees.

How to Find Out If Your Agency Has Flagged Your Role

You do not have to guess. Agencies are required to publicly report their Strategic Commissioning Framework targets in their corporate plans, including which job families are being targeted for conversion. This information is publicly available.

To check your agency’s position:

1. Search for your agency’s current corporate plan on their website or through the APSC website.
2. Look in the capability, workforce, or resourcing sections for references to the Strategic Commissioning Framework.
3. Note which job families are mentioned and the dollar value of work being brought in-house.
4. Check the APSC Strategic Commissioning Framework update pages, which list agency-by-agency targets.
5. Watch for new APS Jobs advertisements that look very similar to your current contractor or labour hire role.

From 2025, agencies are also required to report on actual progress against targets in their annual reports. That means the conversion pressure on agencies is increasing as transparency tightens.

Understanding the Recruitment Process You’ll Face

Conversion recruitment processes vary by agency, but most follow a consistent structure. Understanding each stage gives you a significant preparation advantage.

Written Application

You will almost always be required to submit a written response to either a pitch statement prompt or specific selection criteria. This is where many contractors stumble. They write about what their team did, what the project achieved, or what the system produces — rather than what they specifically did, decided, and delivered.

APS panels are assessing your individual contribution, judgement, and impact. Every written response needs to be structured around your personal role: what you identified, what you did about it, and what changed as a result.

If your written application needs to be aligned to APS language, capability frameworks, and applicant tracking systems, see our APS ATS resume and application support services.

Assessment or Online Testing

Many agencies, particularly for APS 4 through APS 6 roles, include cognitive, written, work sample, or situational judgement assessments. These assess reasoning ability, judgement, written communication, and values alignment — not just technical knowledge.

Candidates who have been contracting in specialist roles for years sometimes underestimate these components and are surprised when they do not progress past the assessment stage.

The Interview

APS interviews are structured and behavioural. Panels work from pre-set questions and are required to assess all candidates consistently against the same criteria. Your relationship with the hiring manager, however strong, cannot replace the panel’s assessment. What matters is what you say in the room.

Most APS interviews for conversion roles will focus on the Integrated Leadership System (ILS) capability clusters relevant to the classification level. For APS 5 and APS 6 roles, expect questions targeting Achieves Results, Supports Productive Working Relationships, and Communicates with Influence. For EL1 and EL2 roles, the emphasis shifts more strongly toward Leads Strategically, Shapes Strategic Thinking, and Exemplifies Personal Drive and Integrity.

For examples of the types of behavioural prompts you may face, see our APS interview questions guide.

Reference Checks

References are taken seriously in APS recruitment. Choose referees who can speak directly to the capabilities being assessed — not just your technical output. A referee who can explain how you lead, communicate, manage risk, influence stakeholders, and navigate complexity will serve you better than one who simply confirms you delivered the project on time.

How to Position Your Contractor Experience in an APS Interview

The biggest translation challenge contractors face is moving from a delivery mindset to a capability demonstration mindset. In your contracting work, success is often measured by outputs: systems built, reports delivered, projects completed, milestones met. In an APS interview, success is measured by evidence of capability: how you think, how you work with others, how you handle ambiguity, and how your judgement holds under pressure.

This does not mean your contractor experience is less valuable. It means you need to frame it differently.

Lead with Context, Not Credentials

Do not open your interview responses by explaining your contracting arrangement or your firm. Panels do not assess your employment type; they assess your behaviours. Open with the situation, move quickly to what you specifically did, and close with the outcome and what it demonstrates about how you work.

Own the Ambiguity

Contractors often work within tightly defined scopes. APS roles — particularly at EL level — require you to navigate ambiguity, exercise judgement without complete information, and make decisions that can be defended against APS Values, public interest, and ethical standards.

Draw on examples where you operated beyond your formal scope, adapted to changing direction, identified a problem that was not in your brief, or acted early to reduce delivery, probity, financial, or stakeholder risk.

Demonstrate Genuine APS Operating Environment Awareness

Panels are assessing whether you understand what it means to work as a public servant — not just what it means to do the work. This includes accountability to the public interest, working within ministerial direction, applying the APS Values, and understanding how decisions inside an agency connect upward to policy intent and government priorities.

Contractors who can demonstrate this understanding stand out immediately.

Translate Stakeholder Experience Into APS Language

If you have managed client relationships, navigated competing stakeholder interests, or delivered through influence rather than authority, these are directly transferable to APS capability requirements. Frame them in those terms.

For example, “I managed relationships with multiple project sponsors with conflicting priorities” is a weak STAR setup.

A stronger version would be: “I identified that two senior stakeholders had fundamentally different assumptions about scope, initiated a conversation to surface the issue, and brokered agreement before it created delivery risk.”

That is the type of evidence an APS panel can assess.

Common Mistakes Contractors Make in APS Conversion Interviews

• Assuming familiarity with the work is enough. Panels are assessing how you work, not just what work you have done.
• Describing team achievements instead of individual ones. “We delivered X” tells a panel very little. “I was responsible for X, which required me to do Y, resulting in Z” gives them evidence.
• Underestimating the written application. Many candidates prepare for the interview but treat the pitch statement as an afterthought. In a competitive field, the written application determines whether you get an interview at all.
• Ignoring the Work Level Standards. Every APS classification has Work Level Standards that describe what performance looks like at that level. If you do not know what distinguishes an APS 6 from an EL1, your examples may not land at the right level.
• Not preparing for values-based questions. Conversion processes increasingly include questions about APS Values, integrity, accountability, probity, and Code of Conduct expectations.
• Using contractor language instead of APS language. Delivery language is useful, but it must be connected to capability, judgement, public value, and stakeholder impact.

Non-Ongoing APS Roles as a Stepping Stone

It is worth knowing that not all conversions result in ongoing permanent positions. The framework allows agencies to convert external roles to non-ongoing APS positions where the underlying need is short-term, project-specific, or funding-dependent.

A non-ongoing APS position is not a consolation prize. It gives you APS employment status, exposure to internal systems and processes, and access to the merit pool system. Non-ongoing candidates who are placed on a merit list may remain eligible for ongoing vacancies for up to 18 months, depending on how the process was advertised and structured.

If a non-ongoing conversion offer is available in your agency, consider it seriously. The pathway from non-ongoing to ongoing is well-established and can be faster than applying cold into an open competitive field.

The Window Is Open Now. Preparation Is the Differentiator.

The Strategic Commissioning Framework is not winding down. Agencies have set targets, public reporting has increased, and the Australian National Audit Office has been examining implementation. The pressure on agencies to convert roles is increasing.

That means the volume of contractor-to-APS recruitment processes is likely to continue. Some processes will be broad campaigns drawing from existing merit pools. Others will be targeted, quietly advertised, and move quickly.

The contractors who are ready when a process opens — who have a polished written application, a clear understanding of behavioural interview structure, and a genuine grasp of what APS panels are assessing — are the ones who convert.

The ones who assume their track record will carry them often do not.

Frequently Asked Questions About APS Contractor Conversions

Do contractors automatically get APS jobs during conversions?

No. This is the most common misconception about the APS contractor conversion process. When an agency converts an outsourced role into a direct APS position, it must run a merit-based recruitment process before making an offer of ongoing employment.

No matter how long you have been performing the function or how well regarded you are within the team, you cannot be appointed to an ongoing APS role without going through a competitive selection process. That usually means a written application, assessment, interview, and reference checks.

What is the APS Strategic Commissioning Framework?

The APS Strategic Commissioning Framework is an Australian Government policy introduced in October 2023 and administered by the Australian Public Service Commission. It requires agencies to identify core public service work and reduce reliance on contractors, labour hire workers, and consultants where that work should be performed by APS employees.

Under the framework, agencies must identify core work, set annual targets, publicly report progress, and embed the framework into workforce, procurement, and budgeting decisions.

Can labour hire staff apply for APS conversion roles?

Yes. Labour hire workers placed inside APS agencies are one of the main groups affected by contractor conversion activity. If your labour hire role is converted into an APS vacancy, you can apply through the competitive recruitment process like any other candidate.

In some cases, agencies may run bulk rounds, rolling recruitment processes, or use existing merit pools. This makes early preparation important.

Are contractor conversions merit-based?

Yes. For ongoing APS appointments, the merit principle applies. This means candidates must be assessed against work-related qualities through a competitive selection process. Existing familiarity with the role may help you provide stronger examples, but it does not remove the need to demonstrate merit.

What APS levels are most affected by conversions?

Conversion activity can occur across many levels, but many affected roles sit between APS 4 and EL1. This reflects the large volume of outsourced technical, analytical, project, procurement, grants, contract management, policy, and advisory work that agencies have relied on in recent years.

At the senior end, the framework also restricts the use of contractors in agency executive team roles, meaning some EL2 and SES-equivalent functions may also be reviewed.

Can non-ongoing APS roles become permanent?

Yes. A non-ongoing APS role can be a pathway into ongoing employment, especially if the recruitment process creates a merit pool. Merit pools can often be used to fill similar ongoing roles for up to 18 months.

For contractors and labour hire workers, a non-ongoing APS role can provide APS employment status, agency-specific experience, and a stronger platform for future ongoing opportunities.

How should contractors prepare for an APS conversion interview?

Contractors should prepare by converting project delivery examples into APS capability evidence. That means using STAR or STAR-L structure, focusing on individual contribution, aligning examples with the relevant APS Work Level Standards, and preparing for behavioural questions about judgement, stakeholder management, communication, integrity, and delivery.

See our APS interview questions guide for examples of common behavioural prompts.

What is the biggest mistake contractors make when applying for APS roles?

The biggest mistake is assuming that being known to the agency is enough. APS panels can only assess the evidence provided in your application, interview, and referee reports. You need to clearly explain what you personally did, how you made decisions, how you handled complexity, and what outcome you achieved.