Nadine Williams (acting)

Ms Nadine Williams is the Acting National Armaments Director, and the head of the Defence Delivery Group. 

Prior to this, she led the whole-of-government Defence Reform Taskforce to design and deliver the implementation strategy for the Government’s Defence capability development and delivery reforms.

Ms Williams comes to Defence from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, where she is Deputy Secretary Economy, Industry and Resilience Group. She has led complex system change across the Commonwealth and state government for almost three decades, and is recognised for her strengths in governance, budget strategy and cross portfolio alignment. 

Prior to joining the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Ms Williams was Deputy Secretary Skills and Training at the Department of Employment and Workplace Relations, where she led national workforce and vocational education policy to strengthen Australia’s skills base and align training systems with the needs of a modern economy.

With nearly 30 years’ experience across the Australian Public Service and state government, Ms Williams is a highly regarded senior leader known for driving complex, system‑wide reform. She brings deep expertise in governance, budget strategy and cross‑portfolio alignment, and has provided advice to the Prime Minister and Cabinet on major economic, industrial and national resilience priorities, including critical minerals, the net zero transition and cross‑government capability frameworks.

Ms Williams holds degrees from the University of Tasmania, the University of Sydney and the Australian National University, including a Master of Public Administration.