Senior Community Relations Advisor

Company Description
**Te Tākinatanga | Our Story**
- Ko tā Contact e whakapono nei, ko te taiao tonu te taonga nui katoa o te ao._
- Koinei mātou e whai atu nei kia mahue atu i a mātou tētahi ao hauora ake, tēnā i te ora i kuhu ai mātou._
- He pakihi whakarato hiko, ipurangi mātou, engari arā kē atu anō ā mātou taha._
- Kei te whakawhanake mātou i ā mātou mahi ake, i ngā ara hoki e whai hiko ai a Aotearoa, kei te kōkiri kia tukua te hiko tukurua, ā, kei te whakaputa i tētahi wheako matihiko mō ā mātou kiritaki kāore anō kia kitea i tēnei whenua._
- He tīma kotahi mano mātou nō ngā hau e whā, e ngākau nui ana ki ā mātou mahi, e aroha ana tētahi ki tētahi, e ako ngātahi ana, e whakapono tahi ana ki ā mātou tikanga ārahi: mā te manaaki kia toa, ka mana te katoa._

At Contact, we believe home is the most important place in the world. It's all part of our vision to leave Aotearoa better than we found it. We’re a power and broadband company, but we’re so much more than that. We are transforming the ways we mahi, and how Aotearoa is powered, leading the charge on renewable energy and digitising customer journeys in ways not yet seen here. A team of 1000+ from all walks of life who love what we do, look out for each other, and learn from one another every day, we’re stoked to be guided by our tikanga: we touch lives to make life better.

We welcomed a new CEO in 2020 and have been on a major growth trajectory since. Under Mike’s warm, authentic leadership, we’ve been empowered to innovate and transform like never before. He’s focused on his kids, his mokopuna, and the world we’re going to leave for them, and that spirit lives and breathes throughout Contact.

**Job Description**:
**Kōrero mō te tūranga | About the role***

We’re on a journey to decarbonise Aotearoa. We live, work, and operate in communities throughout the motu, and we know that our every action has an impact on the people and the environment around us. Our philosophy is to ‘be the neighbour you’d want to have.’ Community relationships are a special, critical part of this manaaki, and we’re looking now for somebody to help build and grow relationships in new communities with local stakeholders, as well as enhance our sustainable management and stewardship of our precious natural resources.

As part of the Sustainability team (a truly great bunch of humans), you’ll lead the way for Contact by managing our strategic and functional relationships with new stakeholders, including local Councils, community groups, neighbours, and all those with a connection to new electricity generation sites. Reporting to the Sustainability and Community Manager, you’ll develop and execute a community relations strategy to support new generation developments such as wind, grid scale solar and batteries across the country, support the internal practice of Community Relations with thought leadership and expertise, and work closely with our Tangata Whenua specialists to ensure a coordinated approach to community and mana whenua relationships. You’ll also work closely with the Generation Development team to support the consenting process, including engagement, relationship management and mitigation agreements.

A lot of this mahi will be best done in-person, so there’ll be a fair bit of travel. While developments are underway (so for at least the next year or two), you’ll likely be away from home once or twice a month, for 3-5 days each time.

**Qualifications**:
**Ko wai koe | About you**

Highly self-motivated, you’re the kind of person who thrives on building positive relationships and seeing results. You care deeply about the community and natural environment, have a wealth of experience working with a wide range of community stakeholders, and take pride in communicating in an honest and transparent manner. Through the trust you build with stakeholders, influencing and fostering engagement comes with ease. This isn’t a new space to you - you’ve done this sort of mahi before and have what it takes to create a Community Relations strategy and frameworks.

A Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent) in commerce, law or science discipline would be beneficial, as would a background working in community relations and familiarity with RMA and resource consenting processes.

Additional Information

We support our people to work how, where and when works best for them, although for this role you’ll need to be in Auckland, Taupō, Wellington or Clyde, with the ability to travel regularly.

There are a bunch of perks to being a permanent Contact kaimahi (employee). Along with great leadership, teammates, development, and growth and progression opportunities, you’ll enjoy flexible working, free health insurance cover, better-than-your-average leave, access to Contact Shares, a ‘Good to be Home’ annual payment toward your home set up & wellbeing, discounts on Contact Energy products_, _and more.