Kōrero mō te tūranga | About the role
We’re on a journey to decarbonise Aotearoa. The world is not the same as it was 25 years ago when we started out. We know better now, and we can do better. As a company we are an integral part of daily life in New Zealand and we’re acutely aware that our every action, good and bad, has a marked impact on the wellbeing of our communities — today and in the future. In recent years we’ve invested in building our renewable, flexible and reliable generation portfolio, which has helped us to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions from generation by 33% since 2018, but that’s just the start.
Reporting to our Sustainability & Community Manager, Kim (a powerhouse in this space, and excellent human to boot), as Sustainability Advisor you’ll join a great established team of sustainability, environment, tangata whenua, community relations and resource management professionals to help embed a robust, science-based sustainability programme that makes a huge difference to how we work within Contact.
The Advisor we’re saying ka kite to has done some incredible mahi, but there’s space now for somebody new to join and get stuck into how we approach the big issues. Think climate (Net Zero by 2035), nature positive, circular economy, and freshwater stewardship, along with providing technical guidance to the organisation around best practice.
Projects in flight that you’ll be a part of right away are focused on water stewardship, circular economy, and climate change mitigation. We’re looking for somebody technically competent who can scope, support and lead projects, drawing valuable insights from data to not only understand and present, but turn into programmes of action. This isn’t a job where you’ll paint by numbers. We need a thinker and doer who’s grounded in technical skills, science, and brings those useful skills that help get things done, from creating presentations and reports to running hui, facilitating workshops, and everything in-between.
Ko wai koe | About you
We’re looking for an environmental science or technical background first and foremost , but your attention to detail, communication and content creation skills will be important too. If you’ve been part of project teams or led them , even better. And if you did all of that within the energy sector? We’ll see stars.
Experience with data and handling sustainability-related data is a must; digging in to our data and bringing to light sustainability insights that translate to programmes of action. You’ll spend a lot of time supporting our generation sites, so operational experience might be useful, as would knowledge of greenhouse gas accounting methods and target formulation. Tech-wise, expect a lot of Excel and PowerPoint. Most of our team hui are online and a large percentage of our mahi with other teams is on MS Teams using Miro, Mural etc, so experience working like that is valuable but not essential. (We’d love to evolve from the spreadsheet life, so bonus points if you bring Power BI expertise.)
It goes without saying that you need to be passionate about sustainability. (We sure are.) You’ll bring knowledge of key sustainability and climate related issues, along with an understanding of the Treaty of Waitangi, knowledge of te reo Māori and tikanga, and the ability to develop and implement matauranga Māori solutions to Sustainability problems.
This role will have core cross-functional relationships, so you’ll also need to be a superb communicator; a naturally proactive thought leader, idea generator and confident facilitator with loads of initiative who can build rapport with ease, influence across various levels, and really bring people on the journey.
We support our people to work how, where and when works best for them. Our Sustainability team is dotted across the country and work both at home and on site. There’s a real advantage to being based at one of our generation or corporate sites for this role (in Auckland, Wellington, Taupō or Clyde), however it can be fully remote (with limited travel to visit sites) and we’re open to applications from all over Aotearoa.
Contact is not a place you’ll stagnate. We are growing and offer superb learning and development opportunities along with a bunch of other perks like 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, a trail-blazing parental leave policy, discounts on Contact Energy products, and more.
This ad will close automatically on Friday 1 November but we’re considering applications as they come in so hop to it if you're keen, or if there's something you’re curious to know first, reach out to Tash on [email protected].
Please note, only candidates with the right to live and work in New Zealand will be considered for this role.
Research shows that while men apply to jobs where they meet 60% of the criteria, women and those in underrepresented groups tend to only apply if they tick every box. We're not about box ticking, so if you think you have what it takes but don't meet everything stated above, please still get in touch. We'd love to kōrero.
Te Mata Hiko (Contact Energy) does not accept any CVs received from recruitment agencies where a formal engagement has not been confirmed and agreed to with our Talent team. In the event that unsolicited CVs are submitted by recruitment agencies, Te Mata Hiko (Contact Energy) reserves the right to contact these candidates directly and consider them for current/future vacancies without any financial obligation to the recruitment agency in question. This will also apply to any CVs sent directly to line managers.
