Joshua Saunders is an economist with 20 years experience across the Australian Public Service, including a short period in the Parliament of Victoria. In that time, he has worked across several portfolios, with focuses on telecommunications and competition policy, water market policy, and national security policy ranging from critical technologies to economic statecraft. He is currently Director Economic Integration and Security at the Department of Finance, and prior to that was the Acting Chief Economist at the Department of Home Affairs.

He is also the Chair of the Canberra Security Economics Network, which was established to promote discourse around the application of economics and the social sciences to national security challenges, showcasing the latest research, and providing an open forum to build knowledge and understanding of economic and security issues, bridging disciplinary and organisational divides.