Principal Advisor

Mō te tūnga | About the role
HUD is taking a deliberate, place-based approach to tackling New Zealand's housing and urban development challenges. This approach uses an understanding of places to inform how we work with communities. Every community has their own housing and urban development challenges and opportunities and a 'one size fits all' approach will not work to address them.
Through our place-based approach we are continuously learning about places and why we are seeing the outcomes we are seeing. This helps us to improve our national settings so that they deliver better outcomes.
The Place-based Strategy group works with in partnership with councils, iwi and communities to influence housing and urban development outcomes for people and communities around New Zealand. HUD currently has 10 housing and urban development partnerships in main centres and regions, supporting the government's Urban Growth Agenda.
As a result of a recent promotion, we have an opportunity to join our team at the Principal Advisor level. The Principal Advisor is a critical thought and team leadership position. The role is on the Places and Partnerships team, which leads HUD's urban partnerships and spatial planning work in conjunction with other government agencies.
Reporting to one of the two Places and Partnerships Managers, you will work in an interesting and dynamic environment providing support to our Partnership Directors as well as advice to Ministers on a range of critical housing and urban development issues and reforms. The core function of the role will be understanding what is happening on the ground and using that knowledge, together with your prior skills and expertise, to inform HUD's strategy and policy advice.
The role involves a mix of policy and operational projects and significant relationship management and engagement within the team, with the wider Ministry and external stakeholders. A clear and confident communicator, you will influence senior leaders, Ministers and sector-related stakeholders through effective partnership, policy development and advice.
The role can be based in Auckland or Wellington.

Ō wheako, ō pukenga | About you
We are interested to hear from people who have a proven ability to connect within and across organisations to gather, share and use information and insights, provide excellent advice and influence others.
To thrive in our busy, challenging and changing environment, you will be adaptable, flexible and resilient, and you will bring HUD's values to life as we work together to deliver change.

**Ideally you will have the following skills and experience**:
Experience, knowledge or formal training in planning (urban, spatial or infrastructure), policy, economics, or related fields. Knowledge of the housing and urban development system.
- The ability to identify trends, risks, and opportunities, and influence system-level decision making and change through our Place-based strategic approach.
- Excellent interpersonal and communication skills and a strong focus on problem-solving.
- Experience building and leveraging strategic relationships and partnerships across the public and private sectors, with Māori and local government, to achieve shared outcomes.
- A high level of comfort with navigating ambiguity.
- A relevant tertiary qualification, in a discipline relevant to urban, spatial and/or infrastructure planning, policy, social science or economics.

Mō mātou | About us
Te Tūāpapa Kura Kāinga reflects the intention of ‘the foundation for a treasured home'. The name comes from the Māori whakatauki (proverb) ‘he kura kāinga e hokia, he kura tangata e kore e hokia', - ‘a treasured home will endure, not so a treasured person'. It carries with it a strong connection to our purpose: he kāinga ora, he hapori ora - thriving communities where everyone has a place to call home. The importance of ensuring the wellbeing of people within the home, and our connection with the land - acknowledges the generations of people who have always called this place ‘home' - and affirms our commitment to delivering for future generations of New Zealanders.

**What we can offer you**:

- Flexible working policy to give work/life balance
- Engaging employee-led people networks that celebrate diversity, provide safe spaces, and encourage thought-leadership
- Close to the railway station, recently refurbished office space and cloud -based technology that allows for joined up, cohesive collaboration
- Wellbeing initiatives, tools and courses, and a discounted health insurance scheme
- Open minds - we aren't afraid of change and encourage fresh approaches and ideas from people who want to make a difference
- We work to make sure the aspirations of whānau, hapū and iwi are enabled

We have a stepped remuneration framework where salary movement happens though defined step increases within a role salary band. Appointment to a step within the salary range will depend on the experience an