Head of Government Relations

**About Woolworths Group**

Woolworths Group is a food and everyday needs retailer united by the shared purpose of creating better experiences together for a better tomorrow. With more than 1,400 stores across its Woolworths Supermarkets, Countdown Supermarkets (New Zealand) and BIG W brands, and fast-growing eCommerce businesses, Woolworths Group is Australia and New Zealand’s largest retailer. A top 10 company on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), Woolworths Group employs more than 180,000 team members and serves more than 20 million customers a week.
- **12 months parental leave contract**:

- **Senior leadership role within the Government Relations & Industry Affairs team**:

- **Opportunity to make a huge impact by contributing strategically to Woolworths Groups’ broader advocacy agenda
**About Woolworths Group**

Woolworths Group is a food and everyday needs retailer united by the shared purpose of creating better experiences together for a better tomorrow. With more than 1,400 stores across its Woolworths Supermarkets, Countdown Supermarkets (New Zealand) and BIG W brands, and fast-growing eCommerce businesses, Woolworths Group is Australia and New Zealand’s largest retailer. A top 10 company on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX), Woolworths Group employs more than 180,000 team members and serves more than 20 million customers a week.

**About the role
**The Head of Government Relations & Industry Affairs - Property & Supply Chain is a senior leadership position responsible for both the overarching strategic and the day-to-day management of relationships with government at all levels and key stakeholders within the planning and transport portfolio areas of the group.

Leading a dedicated team providing support to Woolworths’ Property and Primary Connect business units, the role is expected to leverage relevant domain expertise in order to drive strategic leadership with respect to external stakeholder engagement and executional excellence across both portfolios. The role provides strategic advice, including through the Property leadership team, and stakeholder engagement programs to help drive the Group’s commercial and policy priorities across retail, non-retail and mixed use property, as well as logistics, transport and infrastructure agendas.

This role is critical in building and protecting the external reputation of the Woolworths Group with a range of stakeholders, with a particular focus on government, industry and community stakeholders nationally in relevant portfolio areas. It will play an important role in helping to pursue the Government Relations & Industry Affairs purpose, namely governments that champion Woolworths’ success.

**Key Responsibilities
You will be primarily responsible for:

- Strategic leadership with respect to external non-commercial stakeholder engagement in the property, supply chain and infrastructure fields, including at all three levels of government (elected and departmental), referral agencies and relevant industry associations, such as the Property Council of Australia and Australian Logistics Council;
- Providing end-to-end, strategic support on community engagement to the Property Team, ensuring robust and coordinated engagement plans are in place for priority property projects;
- Driving Woolworths policy development on transport, infrastructure, zoning and other property related issues, securing outcomes that align with our commercial ambitions;
- Engaging with influence with Federal, State and Local governments on complex, multi-use projects and those adapted to the changing landscape for industrial-land use design
- Regular reporting and monitoring to Board and Executive Committee on priority projects and advising on reputational and stakeholder sentiment for high to medium risk projects.
- Oversight and ongoing review of the Woolworths Property community engagement toolkit and training programs, to support governance commitments and ongoing capability building.
- Driving opportunities to showcase Woolworths’ pipeline and other initiatives to government and industry stakeholders, working with the media teams to create a holistic narrative to relevant external stakeholder groups, with a seamless connection to Woolworths’ broader advocacy agenda and policy approaches.

**About You
- Extensive experience in stakeholder engagement and/or government relations within the planning and development industry, or related industry such as transport or infrastructure;
- Experience leading and supporting a talented, high performing team of stakeholder experts in a business partnering model;
- Clear understanding of planning systems and processes, with strong stakeholder network in this field at both departmental and elected levels;
- Exceptional written and verbal communication skills and executive presence;
- Highly collaborative nature, and a strong capacity to join the dots internally and externally at pace, across a range of priorities;