Bruce is currently the First Assistant Secretary within the Parks Australia Division of the Commonwealth Department of the Environment and Heritage.

He is the former head of the Heritage Division within that Department, having been responsible for World Heritage and national heritage issues. During that period he was also Executive Director of the Australian Heritage Commission.

In the period 1979-86 Bruce was a Regional Director with the NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service. From 1986-93 he was Director of the SA National Parks and Wildlife Service. Then, until 1999, he was Commissioner for Public Land Use in Tasmania moving in that year to Canberra.

Bruce has a long career in conservation management and nature based tourism and continues this focus leading his Department's engagement in tourism policy, in close conjunction with the Department of Industry, Tourism and Resources and Tourism Australia. He serves on key committees including the conservation management advisory committee for the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park and the liaison committee that overseas the operation of the intergovernmental Australian Alps Management Agreement.