Stakeholder Relations Manager

**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.

**Stakeholder Relations Manager - Property**
**Government Relations & Industry Affairs (GR&IA)**

**The Opportunity**

An exciting opportunity has emerged as a result of parental leave for an experienced stakeholder engagement professional to join us for a fixed term 9 month contract as Stakeholder Relations Manager - Property.

You will join a well-established team providing dedicated government and stakeholder relations support to Woolworths’ portfolio of property projects nationally. You’ll be responsible for working as part of a dedicated team partnering with Property to deliver stakeholder engagement programs that support the timely development of priority projects. The role will draw on established expertise in stakeholder engagement in a planning and development context.

You will provide dedicated community and stakeholder engagement support to Woolworths’ property team to help drive commercial priorities across our retail, and non-retail (industrial) projects, along with mixed use and Metro stores.

You will work with the team to drive constructive engagement with priority Council and State Government stakeholders to support the delivery of the project pipeline.

This role will also play an important role in helping to pursue the GR&IA purpose, namely governments, communities and stakeholders that champion Woolworths’ success.

**In particular the role will be responsible for:
- Providing end-to-end, strategic community, stakeholder relations and issues management advice and support across priority projects nationally, including in particular retail and industrial (non-retail) assets, in a way that contributes to Woolworths’ ability to advance its commercial priorities.
- Develop and implement priority state and local government engagement plans to ensure good governance and alignment of stakeholder engagement with key Councils and Departments across the property team and wider business.
- Drive opportunities to build our reputation with communities and stakeholders, including store openings, sod turning events, panel appearances in industry forums, case studies, stakeholder tours of project and operational sites and development of our overall narrative to highlight Woolworths Property’s positive impact in communities.
- Implement and support the review of the stakeholder engagement toolkit to ensure it is fit-for-purpose, consistently applied and used across the Property team.
- Support the delivery of initiatives to build stakeholder engagement capacity and skills within the Property team, including a stakeholder and government engagement workshops.
- Capture and report on high stakeholder risk projects via the Priority Projects radar.
- Manage industry group engagement and planning policy outcomes, including oversight, review and advice in the development of submissions to all levels of government in respect of planning policy.
- This role is expected to contribute strategically to WOW’s broader advocacy and stakeholder engagement agenda.

**About you**

We’re looking for a passionate and experienced professional who has strong knowledge of the property sector and experience in this field to fill a critical role cover during a period of parental leave.
- Exceptional stakeholder engagement and influencing ability, with a proven track record in the planning, development or related sectors;
- Previous experience working in government or government relations, or a related discipline such as community engagement or communications, with a strong understanding of the political landscape;
- Highly collaborative with internal and external stakeholders, with the ability to effectively network and add value across a broad range of priorities;
- Capacity for the provision of strategic advice, as well as transactional execution and excellence;
- High ambition and motivation, with exceptional written and verbal communication skills that enable you to articulate persuasively Woolworths Group’s position, whether that be direct advocacy, government submissions, community engagement materials, briefing papers and presentations.

Based in Sydney, NSW with flesible working arrangements.

**Grow with the Group
As an inclusive, team-first company, our people are at the core of everything we do.

We care deeply about creating a workplace where our team members feel valued, respected and empowered. We are committed to providing equal opportun