Frontline and field roles
Frontline or field
Jobs in which employees are in a frontline or field position are active, engaged and dynamic. They usually involve working with clients, patients or service users directly, and this makes them demanding but highly rewarding. Such positions are recruited for most commonly by NGOs, INGOs and multilaterals at a number of scales, ranging from local community services providers to large regional organisations to global multilaterals such as the UN.
The shortage of skilled frontline workers in rural and regional Australia is a common pattern world-over, and there will always be demand for these positions.
Field
Field positions typically refer to on-the-ground postings in low-income countries (including short-term assignments), for example those advertised by the UN or an organisation like MSF. Some of these roles involve being on-call 24/7 at times (e.g. as a nurse), while others have more traditional hours.
Being a Field Officer can refer to a range of job types and responsibilities: for example, field officer positions advertised by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) include Rule of Law and Access to Justice Officer; Environment and Water Management Field Officer; and Health Field Officer. Often these positions last one year, sometimes more or less.
Educators
Educators equip people with the right knowledge and skills to either take action on a wider issue or movement (e.g. poverty alleviation) or improve their own life circumstances and experiences (e.g. defending their human rights), usually both in-person and in other ways such as through online and print materials.
Sometimes frontline and field positions will have an in-built educator component.
Skills may include:
- Specific professional skills relevant to the role

- Willingness to work in unstable, under-resourced or ‘difficult’ settings
- Good people skills and ability to communicate effectively
- Adaptable and able/willing to work in a team (multicultural in a field posting)
- Ability to speak a language other than English for some field postings
- Community engagement and relationship-building with stakeholders
Duties may include:
- Providing expert services in a professional field e.g. medical support

- Conducting health assessments and planning and implementing strategies, campaigns and programmes
- Conducting home visits to support individuals and families
- Managing a case load and keeping administrative files and data
- Producing case reports and contributing to activity/strategic review reports
- Monitoring and evaluating appropriate interventions
- Engaging with stakeholders to improve program delivery and efficacy
- Helping train, upskill, manage and supervise local staff in a field setting
- Transmitting knowledge to target populations by designing learning experiences and running awareness programs and psycho-educational activities
Relevant experience may include:
- Full qualification and registration in relevant professional area
- For roles in INGOs and multilaterals, usually 3+ years of relevant post-qualification professional experience, including clinical experience where appropriate (and sometimes 3 months+ of relevant work, volunteering or travel experience in a low-income country for field roles)
- For educator roles, usually a high level of subject-specific knowledge and/or pedagogy or education, as well as experience in educational material development and workshop delivery
