Principal Policy Advisor

Discover a career with purpose at MBIE

Discover a career with purpose at MBIE
- Are you interested in helping New Zealand meet its climate change challenges?
- Are you interested in helping to transform the building and construction sector?
- 10 Month Fixed term position available
- Open to Senior or Principal Policy Advisor - (Senior Policy Advisor - $103,290 to $132,417/Principal Policy Advisor - $132,417 to $160,472)

MBIE’s Building for Climate Change team is working to reduce emissions from buildings during their construction and operation, and to also ensure New Zealand’s buildings are resilient enough to withstand changing climate conditions.

The building and construction sector is a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions which are emitted when building materials are produced, buildings are constructed, and energy is used in buildings during their operation.

If New Zealand is to achieve its climate change goals, including net zero carbon by 2050, the building and construction sector must play its part.

**Tēnei tūranga - About the role**:
**How we work**:
The Building for Climate Change team is a fun, collaborative and supportive environment, with established peer learning initiatives, cross-team working, and lots of opportunities for engaging with stakeholders. All our people are talented and unique. We work towards creating a workplace environment where you belong and that enables and allows you to do what you do best. We support diversity so that together we can do work that positively impacts the lives of all New Zealanders.

Crown / Māori partnership is at the heart of our work, and enduring, meaningful, and effective partnerships with iwi, Māori, other Māori groups/organisations are critical to delivering on our ambition of reducing emissions from the building and construction sectors.

**What you would be working on**:
You will be leading the Non-Regulatory Interventions workstream within the Building for Climate Change programme. The Programme is tasked with delivering the Government’s climate change response for building and construction through the Emissions Reduction Plan and jointly leading one of the five outcomes of ‘homes, buildings and places’ in the National Adaptation Plan. In addition to working across agencies to deliver the actions to realise our climate goals, the Programme is also developing the plan to move the sector from its current state where climate considerations are niche to one where they are mainstream.

This is a new role to help drive the delivery of actions in the National Adaptation Plan and Emissions Reduction Plan. In this role you will have responsibility for leading relevant research, non-regulatory initiatives and partnerships - engaging with key stakeholders, and providing your policy and technical skills to guide, establish and evaluate emissions reduction and adaptation programmes. You’ll also be leading our thinking and advice to Ministers about how to drive change and innovation and how to influence the way they people design, construct, and operate buildings.

Could this be of interest to you?

This may be of interest if you have experience in behavioural science or behavioural insights, public policy, planning and resource management, economics, climate change, or the building, energy, communications, or similar infrastructure sectors.
Ngā pukenga me ngā wheako e hiahiatia ana - Skills and experience required:
**Ideally you will**:

- Have an interest in climate change or familiarity with the building and construction sector
- Have a deep and credible understanding of behavioural science and direct experience of how it can be applied to help solve complex real-life policy problems
- Have the ability to quickly assimilate complex issues across multiple policy areas and distil insights into practical solutions
- Have practical experience using a broad range of Behavioural Insights design and approaches, including quantitative and qualitative methods. Ability to undertake analysis of various types of datasets, interpret results and make behavioural inferences
- Have experience in the design and implementation of behavioural pilot evaluations
- Have the ability to explain complex Behavioural Insights and behavioural science topics in simple terms and its relevance for policy implementation
- Be excellent at communicating complex information orally, written and visually
- Be intellectually curious and have an aptitude for using critical thinking, clear and logical reasoning, and judgement to shape ambiguous issues into a tractable problem; identify its root causes; draw interferences and use the available evidence in the development of policy options.
- Be good at building relationships with stakeholders, delivery agencies and government
- Experience in developing policy advice, including a good working knowledge of machinery of government processes and policy project management.
- Have experience leading multiple complex