Regulatory Services Team Leader

Regulatory Services Team Leader – Kaikōura District Council

Full-time Permanent | Kaikōura, Canterbury

Are you an experienced regulatory professional who is ready to step into a hands-on leadership role?

Kaikōura District Council is looking for a Regulatory Services Team Leader to coordinate the day-to-day delivery of our regulatory services and help achieve fair, consistent and effective compliance outcomes for our community. This is a varied role where no two days are the same. You will guide and support regulatory staff, contractors and seasonal resources while also getting involved in practical compliance, inspection and enforcement work across areas such as animal control, parking, freedom camping, noise, alcohol licensing, food safety, resource consent compliance and building compliance functions.

About the role

Reporting to the Community and Resilience Manager, you will provide operational supervision, coordinate service delivery, monitor workloads and support continuous improvement across Council’s regulatory services. You will use an approach based on engagement, education, enabling and enforcement, ensuring responses are timely, proportionate, well documented and aligned with relevant legislation, bylaws, policies and delegations while delivering a positive, professional and customer-focused experience for our residents, businesses and visitors.

Key responsibilities

• Coordinate day-to-day regulatory compliance activities and service responses.
• Provide direction, guidance and support to regulatory staff, contractors and seasonal resources.
• Undertake and support compliance, inspection and enforcement work across a broad regulatory portfolio.
• Respond to customer requests, complaints and compliance matters, including on-site and after-hours responses where required.
• Prepare and contribute to operational reporting, workload monitoring and process improvement.
• Support the review and implementation of bylaws, policies, strategies, management plans and operational procedures.
• Work collaboratively with internal teams, government agencies, contractors, consultants, other councils and the wider community.
• Champion a customer-focused approach to regulatory services, ensuring interactions are respectful, responsive, solution-focused and consistent with Council's service standards

About you

You will bring sound judgement, strong communication skills and confidence working with legislation, bylaws and compliance processes. You will be comfortable managing competing priorities, supporting others and having constructive conversations in sometimes challenging situations.

Ideally, you will have experience in regulatory compliance, enforcement, inspections, local government or a comparable customer-facing compliance environment. Experience providing guidance, coordination or informal supervision to staff, contractors or operational teams will be important, along with a full, clean New Zealand driver license.

Why join us

At Kaikōura District Council, we are committed to delivering excellent service and supporting strong, connected communities. We believe effective regulation and excellent customer service go hand in hand. Our approach is to engage, educate and enable wherever possible, while taking proportionate enforcement action when required..

If you are passionate about community connection, thrive in a varied role, and are ready to help deliver initiatives that matter to Kaikōura, we encourage you to apply.

Apply now.

If you are ready to lead a varied regulatory portfolio and help deliver fair, practical and customer-focused compliance outcomes for Kaikōura, we would love to hear from you.

Applicants must be a New Zealand citizen, resident or have a valid work permit.

Applications will be processed as they are received so we encourage you to apply early. Applications will close on 27 September 2026, or sooner, should we find a suitable candidate earlier.