/ About the Role
As Head of Stakeholder Partnering and Management, you will set WorkSafe’s enterprise-wide direction for stakeholder partnering, including how relationships are segmented, prioritised and supported.
Your initial focus will be on establishing practical ways of working between central and regional teams and helping leaders and kaimahi move towards a more structured and purposeful approach. This will require strong influence and change leadership, particularly as you balance greater organisational coordination with the need for people to maintain effective everyday engagement.
Rather than personally owning every relationship, you will create the frameworks, partnerships and organisational capability that enable others to engage effectively. You will provide oversight and direct support for high-risk, sensitive or complex relationships, and work with key partners to extend WorkSafe’s influence through their networks and channels.
What You’ll Do / Ko tōu ake mahi
- Set WorkSafe’s enterprise-wide stakeholder partnering strategy
- Establish segmentation, prioritisation, frameworks and guidance
- Design clear ways of working across central and regional teams
- Coordinate engagement to reduce duplication and conflicting approaches
- Lead change towards purposeful, disciplined stakeholder partnering
- Oversee high-risk, sensitive and complex stakeholder relationships
- Use stakeholder insights to strengthen planning and improvement
- Lead, coach and develop a cohesive stakeholder partnering function
What You’ll Bring / Ko ngā pukenga ōu
- Enterprise-level leadership of stakeholder partnering or engagement
- Experience embedding segmentation, prioritisation and partnering approaches
- Strong influence and change leadership in a complex environment
- A structured, methodical approach to building new capability
- Experience managing sensitive relationships with competing interests
- Strong people leadership, coaching and capability-building skills
Experience in a regulatory, public sector or safety-critical environment is desirable, as is experience engaging with Māori and diverse communities in a way that reflects Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles. Detailed health and safety regulatory expertise is not required, although an understanding of regulatory environments would be useful.
/ About the Team
Enterprise Planning and Implementation is a new group established at WorkSafe to strengthen planning, coordination and implementation across the organisation, particularly to improve how work is prioritised, sequenced and supported through to delivery.
Stakeholder Partnering and Management brings together segment relationship leadership, Māori relationships and stakeholder management capability. The function will help WorkSafe engage more deliberately across the health and safety system, connect enterprise direction with regional activity, and make better use of partnerships to extend its reach.
You will lead six direct reports in a function at an early stage of maturity. While some foundations are in place, there is considerable scope to shape the team, clarify how its different capabilities work together, and establish an approach that can evolve with WorkSafe’s needs.
/ Location
Auckland or Wellington is preferred.
The role requires regular travel and a willingness to invest time in building relationships across WorkSafe and with stakeholders throughout Aotearoa.
/ Salary
The expected appointment base salary for this role is $229,219. KiwiSaver or SSRSS employer contributions are additional.
From 1 April 2026, our KiwiSaver employer contribution increased to 3.5%.
We offer a range of benefits including:
- Free life insurance for the duration of your employment
- Health insurance and eyecare discounts
- $400 home workstation contribution
- Five weeks’ annual leave
- 15 days’ sick leave
- A Reward and Recognition Framework that celebrates the impact our kaimahi make
- Professional development opportunities
- Employee-led networks supporting our diverse communities
