Ms Jessica Hildyard

Jessica is a communications and stakeholder engagement professional who has been with CSIRO since 2017. As of June 2023, Jess is the communications and marketing lead for Indigenous STEM education engagement.
She leads the support of the Young Indigenous Women's STEM Academy and the soon to be launched, Living STEM program.

Previously, Jess was the SME Collaboration Nation Initiative communications manager, driving the one-CSIRO approach to support and engagement with Australian small to medium sized business.

She completed a secondment with a Queensland startup, and also in CSIRO Government Engagement, working with CSIRO Missions in development of federal government relationships for these initiatives.

Jess has also been CSIRO Science Connect Communications Manager - covering the portfolio of 5 distinct business units (SME Connect, Infratechnology Systems, Publishing, Futures and Education & Outreach). Working in Science Connect has given her a wide understanding of the depth of support CSIRO offers Australians, including empowering the next generation of First Nations science excellence and opportunities for innovative thinkers.

For three years, Jess was at the helm of CSIRO ON Accelerator Communications team promoting emerging game-changing deep-tech entrepreneurs, and ideas from this extraordinary startup program.

Prior to joining CSIRO, she spent 10 years in federal government portfolios like DAFF, IP Australia and Climate Change and Energy, and private companies such as Croplife Australia and Raytheon Australia.

She also spent 5 years living and working in Manchester, UK as marketing, events and communication manager for HR startup, Salford University and in not for profit organisations.

As well as a Bachelors Degree in Communications, Graduate Diplomas in Journalism and Business, Jess has RMIT accreditation in UX design, with a strong interest in people-centric design, including plain english writing.