Stakeholder & Community Engagement Lead

Date: 28 Jan 2025
- Location: AU
- **Permanent full-time Opportunity | $172,014 + 15.5% Super + Bonus**:

- **Enjoy a monthly day off in support of work life balance**
- **Can be based in Newcastle, Hunter, or Central Coast | Hybrid Work Environment**

Ausgrid is on an exciting transformation journey and now is the time to be a part of something big. We are proud to service Australia’s east coast, as a leading business in energy distribution, delivering a safe and reliable electricity supply to more than 1.8 million homes - that’s over four million Australians relying on us every day.

Our vision is simple; for our communities to have the power in a resilient, affordable and sustainable future.

We take pride in knowing that the work we collectively achieve today, will transform the world tomorrow. We value a culture of working and living safely, being customer focussed, commercially minded, collaborative, honest, accountable, and respectful. Our values are not just initiatives driven by leaders; they define the way we work.

**Your New Role**

As the Stakeholder & Community Engagement Lead, your role is pivotal in leading and managing stakeholder engagement across the network’s Battery Energy Storage System (BESS) projects, ensuring effective communication and fostering strong relationships with key stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle.

A core responsibility of this position is managing engagement through the State Significant Development Application (SSDA) process for each BESS project, ensuring smooth coordination and timely approvals to support the successful delivery of projects across the BESS portfolio.

**Your key responsibilities will also include**:

- Lead the implementation of a detailed strategy for stakeholder engagement across the grid scale BESS portfolio.
- Coordinate the efforts of internal and external contributors in association with specific BESS projects.
- Drive community and stakeholder engagement processes at a project level.
- Identify and define the needs of each stakeholder group, leveraging this understanding to create targeted communication and engagement initiatives in line with both Ausgrid’s engagement approach and the SSDA engagement guidelines.
- Organise and manage workshops, meetings (both online and in-person), working groups, and community meetings, ensuring thorough record-keeping, minutes, action, etc.
- Provide support to senior management in navigating stakeholder interactions, tailoring approaches to their specific priorities.
- Stay informed on best practices in stakeholder management including process, technology and strategy and incorporate into the grid scale BESS strategy.
- Collaborate closely with engineering and environmental teams to ensure that community and stakeholder outcomes are accounted for throughout all stages of program delivery.
- Lead future engagement initiatives that align with and advance Ausgrid Group’s objectives in grid-scale BESS.

**To be successful, you will have**:

- Degree level qualification in marketing, communications, or business/commerce or equivalent experience in a similar position.
- Extensive experience in managing engagement for state significant projects..
- Experience in stakeholder engagement and communications across community/customers, business/commercial, government or regulated entities in the energy or utility sector.
- Proven ability to develop and deliver stakeholder engagement for clean energy, utility, or infrastructure projects seeking planning approval, using multiple communication channels.
- Strong interpersonal, communication, and incluecing skills with the ability to build effective relations across diverse stakeholders.
- Knowledge of State and Federal project approval and planning systems.
- Proactive, self-motivated, and adaptable, with strong verbal and interpersonal communication skills, enabling effective collaboration both independently and within teams, and the ability to influence senior management, peers, and external stakeholders.

**Grow with Ausgrid**

To continue building on our rich heritage, we actively invest in our people’s development through secondments, onsite training, mentoring circles, e-learning, Australian Graduate School of Management programs (UNSW) and study assistance.

It is through our investment in our people that the average tenure across the business is 14 years and our current turnover is sitting at a market competitive rate of just 3.9%.

**Ausgrid Perks**

Revel in more than just a competitive salary Our employees enjoy a dynamic range of market leading support and safety services, wellbeing programs, corporate discounts, and flexibility arrangements in many forms.

Our people are paramount to the continued success of Ausgrid, therefore celebrating great work is important to us It’s not just the big wins that count, we have provided our employees the opportunity to applaud peer successes daily through our Amped Recognition Program. But let’s not forget