Senior Legal Counsel

Company Description

Te Tākinatanga | Our Story

At Contact, we believe home is the most important place in the world. It's all part of our vision to leave Aotearoa better than we found it. We're a power, broadband and mobile company, but we're also helping transform how Aotearoa is powered. From renewable energy developments and major infrastructure projects to digital innovation and supporting the country's electrification journey, there's a lot happening here, and a lot still to do. More than 1,000 people bring their ideas, energy and expertise to Contact every day. Together, we're building something meaningful - there’s never been a more interesting time to be part of New Zealand’s energy future.

This newly created Senior Legal Counsel role sits within an award-winning Legal team that is widely recognised for both its capability and its culture. The team received the Legal In-House Team Award and a People & Culture Award in 2024, reflecting both the quality of the work and the way people work together.

You'll be joining a senior, highly respected group of legal professionals who challenge and support each other in equal measure. It's a team with deep expertise, plenty of autonomy, and leaders who genuinely care about helping people grow their careers.

Job Description

Kōrero mō te tūranga | About the role

Bring your expertise to work that matters.

Reporting to our General Counsel and working flexibly from our beautiful Auckland or Wellington offices, this is not your typical in-house role. The work exists because Contact is doing more, moving faster, and taking on increasingly complex projects and opportunities across the business.

Rather than sending this mahi outside to law firms, you're being brought in to help build capability from within. You'll work alongside an exceptional team of legal professionals, partnering directly with decision-makers across the business and providing commercially pragmatic advice that helps move important initiatives forward.

You'll be trusted to operate with a high degree of autonomy, leading complex legal matters, advising senior stakeholders, negotiating strategically important agreements, supporting key projects and transactions, and helping the business navigate risk with confidence.

What your impact could look like:

• Advising on complex legal and commercial issues across Contact's diverse business.
• Negotiating, drafting and reviewing significant commercial agreements.
• Supporting major projects, investments and business initiatives from concept through to delivery.
• Helping resolve complex challenges where legal, commercial and operational considerations intersect.
• Managing and maximising value from external legal providers where specialist expertise is required.
• Building trusted relationships with senior leaders across the organisation.
• Sharing your expertise to help grow capability across the legal team and broader business.

Qualifications

Kowaikoe| About You

You're an experienced lawyer who enjoys tackling complex problems and understands that great legal advice is as much about commercial judgement as it is technical expertise.

You may already be working in-house, or perhaps you're in private practice advising on significant corporate, infrastructure, government or commercial matters and looking for a role where you can see the impact of your work more directly.

Most importantly, you're someone who loves being close to the action, building strong relationships, and helping people find a way forward.

What you'll bring:

• Admission as a Barrister and Solicitor of the High Court of New Zealand (or equivalent, with NZ practising certificate attainable) with around 8 years' PQE and experience delivering high-quality advice on complex legal matters.
• Strong commercial judgement and an ability to balance risk with opportunity.
• Confidence operating independently and influencing senior stakeholders.
• Excellent communication skills and a plain-English approach.
• A collaborative mindset and a genuine willingness to share knowledge with others.

Experience working in-house would be helpful, but it's not essential. If you've built your expertise in private practice and are excited by the opportunity to work more closely with a business, we'd still love to hear from you.

Additional Information

We support people to work in ways that help them thrive. While our Legal team has a strong Wellington presence, this role can be based in either Auckland (3 team members) or Wellington (7 team members, including General Counsel), with flexibility built in. And because Contact continues to grow and evolve, you'll have the opportunity to work on projects that are shaping not just the future of our business, but the future of energy in Aotearoa.

If you're looking for work that stretches you, challenges you, and gives you the opportunity to make a meaningful impact, we'd love to hear from you.

Contact is not a place you’ll stagnate. We’re growing, evolving, and investing in our people. We also offer a bunch of other perks like free health insurance cover, boosted KiwiSaver, access to Contact Shares, a ‘Good to be Home’ annual payment toward your home set up & wellbeing, a trail-blazing parental leave policy, twice yearly payments towards our products if you’re a Contact customer, and more!

Applications close on Wednesday 23 September. But just like peak demand, great talent surges early, so if this role sparks your interest, power up your application now!

Here at Contact Energy (Te Mata Hiko), we know our strength lies in developing a sense of belonging - one that helps us attract and retain people with a broad range of perspectives and experiences.

We’re committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to bring their whole selves to work. Our goal is to reflect the diversity of our customers and communities to help build a better Aotearoa New Zealand.

We have a rich community of talented people that we support to thrive at Contact.

Our inclusive hiring process is designed to embrace the diversity of Aotearoa New Zealand, ensuring a wide range of perspectives are included in our decision-making and helping reduce bias along the way.

The wellbeing of our kaimahi is super important to us.

We use employee insights to offer a range of initiatives and resources to support physical, mental, financial and emotional wellbeing – including flexible working arrangements, employee network groups and a market-leading parental leave policy.

At Te Mata Hiko, we want everyone to thrive. We welcome applicants far and wide - of every age, stage, background, and pride. Join us and be part of a team that values your passion and attitude just as much as your experience and skills.

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.