He kōrero mō mātou | About Watercare
Ki te ora te wai, ka ora te whenua, ka ora te tangata
When the water is healthy, the land and the people are healthy
Now is an exciting time to join Watercare, we're planning to spend $14 billion over the next 10 years to ensure we can continue to support our growing city in a climate-resilient way. When you average that out, that's an investment of $3.8 million every day!
He whakamārama mō te tūranga mahi | About the role
As Head of Legal and Governance, you will provide strategic legal and governance leadership across Watercare, acting as a trusted advisor to the Board, Chief Executive and Executive Leadership Team. Reporting to the Chief Corporate Services Officer, you will lead the Legal and Governance function and ensure Watercare meets its statutory, regulatory and governance obligations while effectively managing legal risk across the organisation.
This is a fixed-term opportunity through to 30th September 2027.
Key responsibilities include:
Providing expert legal and governance advice to the Board, Chief Executive and Executive Leadership Team.
Leading the management of legal risk and overseeing significant legal matters across the business.
Monitoring legislative and regulatory changes and advising on impacts to Watercare.
Managing external legal providers to ensure quality, value and timely advice.
Acting as Company Secretary for Watercare and its subsidiary entities.
Supporting the Board and Committees through effective governance practices, including board papers, resolutions and meeting administration.
Leading responses to LGOIMA, Privacy Act requests and governance obligations.
Building strong relationships with Auckland Council, external legal organisations and key stakeholders.
Leading, developing and supporting a high-performing Legal and Governance team.
Ngā pūkenga e rapu nei mātou | About you
We're looking for an experienced legal leader who combines technical excellence with strong commercial judgement and exceptional stakeholder management skills. You will be comfortable operating at both a strategic and operational level and have the ability to influence and build credibility with senior leaders, executives and board members.
To be successful in this role, you'll bring:
A current New Zealand Practising Certificate.
A law qualification and a minimum of 10 years' post-admission experience.
Proven experience providing legal and governance advice to boards and senior leadership teams.
Strong expertise in corporate governance, company secretarial practice, privacy and compliance matters.
Outstanding written communication, drafting and analytical skills.
Demonstrated people leadership experience, including coaching and developing high-performing teams.
A pragmatic and commercially focused approach to solving complex issues.
The ability to build trusted relationships and influence a broad range of stakeholders.
High levels of integrity, professionalism and sound judgement.
Chartered Governance Professional status or a similar governance qualification will be advantageous.
Experience across both private practice and in-house environments would be highly regarded
Ngā hua mōu | What's in it for you
We offer a competitive salary and staff benefits package including:
• Training and development opportunities
• Employee discounts at a range of large retailers
Me pēhea te tono mai | How to Apply
Come and join our team! If you are looking for an exciting career opportunity with a fantastic team then please apply online today - careers.watercare.co.nz.
Skills Required
- Current New Zealand Practising Certificate
- Law qualification
- Minimum of 10 years post-admission experience
- Proven experience advising boards and senior leadership on legal and governance matters
- Expertise in corporate governance, company secretarial practice, privacy and compliance
- Outstanding written communication, drafting and analytical skills
- Demonstrated people leadership experience, including coaching and developing teams
- Pragmatic and commercially focused problem-solving approach
- Ability to build trusted relationships and influence diverse stakeholders
- High levels of integrity, professionalism and sound judgement
- Chartered Governance Professional status or similar governance qualification
- Experience across both private practice and in-house environments
What We Do
At Watercare we’re proud to provide a lifeline service to the people of Auckland, while protecting the environment for future generations. Every day we provide the highest quality drinking water to 1.7 million Aucklanders, and take it away again once it’s been used in the sink or flushed down the loo. Without using chemicals, we treat wastewater to a very high standard and safely return it to the environment. We also plan for new and upgraded infrastructure far into the future to ensure we can meet the needs of our fast-growing city. We operate assets worth more than $9 billion – but it’s our people who are our most valuable assets. Our staff are passionate, motivated and trustworthy people who are the leaders in their fields. They’re not afraid of a challenge and are constantly looking for new ways of improving our processes and the service we offer our customers. If this sounds like you, please visit our careers centre to see our job vacancies and be notified of future opportunities: https://careers.watercare.co.nz
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