Development Assessment Section Manager

Job No: CN2040

Location: Newcastle, NSW

Employment Status: Permanent Full Time

No. of Vacancies: 1

Closing Date: 23 Sep 2019 AEST

• Build and maintain a culture that proactively engages with the development industry to align with CN’s vision.
• Champion change and foster continuous improvement.
• Dynamic leadership skills to lead development assessment teams.
• Permanent Full-time - 35 hours per week
• Flexible working with optional 9-day fortnight.

Located 160km north of Sydney, Newcastle is New South Wales’ second largest city, and offers the perfect lifestyle and career environment.

Our City is thriving and rapidly transforming. In recent years Newcastle has experienced a significant increase in development activity, with the 2017-18 Financial Year seeing building approvals top $1.2 billion.

Our City Change project involves moving our employees from our Office in the Civic precinct to 12 Stewart Avenue, Newcastle West in October 2019. This creates a great opportunity to align staff with our organisational vision, values and strategic directions, and leverage the great work the organisation is undertaking which supports cultural improvement.

This is an exciting time to join the City of Newcastle (CN) with your exceptional leadership expertise and significant experience with development applications.

This newly created position is pivotal to the Regulatory, Planning and Assessment’s (RPA) leadership team and will play an active role in the management of the Service Unit as a whole. The position will play a key role with planning for the future of our City and promote Council’s vision of being a Smart City and a Smart organisation.

Your professionalism will promote CN’s reputation as a competent, efficient and courteous service provider, consistently delivering high quality development outcomes while maintaining a strong customer service focus.

You will actively participate in organisation change initiatives and have proven experience in leading people through change. You will be a dynamic leader who delivers outcomes and drives a customer focus in a proactive manner.

At CN our people are valued and have access to a range of benefits that help balance life at work and at home. These include flexible working arrangements, professional development opportunities and health and wellbeing programs.

To be successful in this job you will have:

Essential

• Tertiary qualifications in Planning, Urban Design, Building Surveying/Construction, Engineering or related qualification and/or demonstrated capability through past employment experience.
• Demonstrated detailed knowledge and expertise in the interpretation of relevant legislation including the Local Government Act 1993, Environmental Planning & Assessment Act 1979 and other relevant local government regulations and legislation.
• Proven leadership skills with the ability to motivate staff to deliver outcomes and provide quality service within identified timelines, budgetary and legislative provisions or guidelines.
• Proven ability to monitor and analyse business practices to improve performance and deliver systems, processes and practices that drive high quality customer service outcomes.
• Demonstrated high level communication skills both verbal and written including capacity to interact with all levels of staff and the public while maintaining effective customer service and relationship management.
• Significant experience with managing teams through assessing development and building applications in a large complex organisation.
• Strong negotiation and conflict resolution skills involving internal and external stakeholders.
• Demonstrated experience in leading multi-skilled teams to achieve their best in a climate of change and continuous improvement.
• Experience with inputting, developing and managing budgets.
• Current Class C drivers’ licence.

Desirable

• A good understanding of the political environment especially in local government, and experience in handling sensitive issues.
• Knowledge of CN planning environment, or a locality seeking to manage planning issues similar to CN.
• Postgraduate qualifications in a government related and/or leadership management discipline.
• Experience and competence with the coordination and management of development and building legal proceedings.

Sound like the perfect job for you? Apply Now!

City of Newcastle proudly promotes the principles of Equal Employment Opportunity and fosters a culture of diversity to represent the community of our Local Government Area.

All candidates will be assessed against the selection criteria outlined in the position description. Suitable candidates may be placed on an eligibility list for future identical positions for a period of 12 months.

You must have the right to live and work in Australia to apply for this job.

To view the full position description please click here.

Application Closing Date: 22 September 2019.

Remuneration: $122,582 to $133,614 + 9.5% Superannuation per annum for a 35 hour week + option of a leaseback vehicle.

Contact: Michelle Bisson, Manager Regulatory Planning & Assessment 02 4974 2793.