SA Premier Peter Malinauskas has conceded the search for a new Department for Child Protection chief executive "won't necessarily be easy" but insists Cathy Taylor was not forced out.
On Friday, Ms Taylor announced she would be leaving the position.
Ms Taylor earns approximately $383,000 a year.
Peter Malinauskas told ABC Radio Adelaide's Stacey Lee and Nikolai Beilharz that she was not forced to resign.
"The time was right for her and the department, and I accepted her resignation," Mr Malinauskas said.
"Cathy arrived at the conclusion she did and informed me accordingly, as she's duty-bound [to do].
"A process has already started to recruit the best and the brightest that we possibly can for the position.
"That won't necessarily be easy because these people who take on these responsibilities, they don't grow on trees."
The Premier said Ms Taylor would continue to work with the department until April 28.
Child protection advocate Belinda Valentine is calling for a South Australian to lead the state's child protection department.
Ms Valentine has advocated for improvements to the state's child protection department since her four-year-old granddaughter Chloe died 11 years ago.
But the Premier said that the search might be widespread with competition against other states for candidates.
"The Victorian Government is currently undertaking a recruitment process for the same position in the estate as well," Mr Malinauskas said.
"I think it will be ambitious to find a replacement and have them in the role by the end of April, but nonetheless that's our that's our aspiration and we're going to be working towards that."
He said that the position was not an easy one to fill.
"This is an opportunity, obviously, it's a very difficult job, it's a complex department, it's going through a period of change," he said.
"To put it in plain speaking [the role] makes decisions that take children away from their parents.
"The rate of approximately two children per day be taken away from their parents, from their brothers and their sisters.
"We've got a particularly big challenge in South Australia given that we have pockets of substantial social disadvantage."
Under the microscope
Ms Taylor's resignation followed a number of high profile reviews into child protection.
A review released in November, recommended structural changes to the Department for Child Protection and the Department for Human Services.
Another review released on the same day found that the welfare of about 500 children in the state should be checked as quickly as possible.
The review was prompted by the deaths of a seven-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl in separate incidents in Adelaide's north earlier in 2022.
On Tuesday, the government revealed checks had been carried out on about 92 per cent of the children identified as being in high-risk "settings".
It was also revealed 60 children who had been removed from their parents or reported to authorities as at-risk had died over the past four years.
