Head of Government Relations

What you'll do

• With a 75:25 split of focus between Australia and New Zealand, you will be responsible for coordinating and delivering digital tax and open banking public policy influence, helping it deliver its mission to supercharge small businesses.  


Strategic planning:
• Spearhead the development and integration of government relations strategies into the overall ANZ business strategy, providing expert guidance to the ANZ Leadership Team on navigating complex policy environments. 
• You will plan integrated campaigns with ANZ Communications and Marketing teams to position Xero as policy thought leaders, transparently advocating for reform which carries shared value outcomes for small businesses, Xero and the community.
• You will identify and prioritise reactive and proactive engagement opportunities, estimate business impact and partner with the public policy team to fine tune proposals to form the basis of your engagement activities. 


Campaign planning & execution
• Lead the development and execution of proactive policy agendas that shape the future of tax and technology regulation in the ANZ region, directly impacting Xero's long-term business objectives.  
• Success relies firstly on your understanding of the Australian political dynamic and processes, and your capability to use it to your advantage. Secondly, success will rely on your ability to build and activate a diverse array of high-value policy relationships. You will be challenged to design creative engagement campaigns utilising novel tactics, to redefine best practice government relations.
• Cultivate and maintain relationships with senior government officials, industry leaders, and key influencers to advance Xero's position on critical tax and technology policy issues.


Insights
• You will ensure ANZ stakeholders are aware of political issue insights in a timely manner. You will socialise insights from external engagements in a structured way, and maintain rolling issue briefs. You will also work closely with Xero’s other global government relations leaders to identify trends.   


Team 
• Reporting to the General Manager of GRPP, you will become a member of Xero’s Policy, Risk and Compliance team under the Legal Team umbrella. You will also have a ‘dotted line’ relationship with the ANZ Managing Director.   
• You will be a senior leader with autonomy and decision making power to reflect your seniority. You will have the privilege of learning from the experience of high performing regional engagement and policy specialists, and will be constantly challenged to redefine and execute best practice government relations. 
• Contribute to the development and implementation of robust metrics to assess the impact of government relations activities on business outcomes and policy decisions, with a specific focus on the effectiveness of tax and technology policy engagement.

What you'll bring with you

• Australian experience in public policy development with government (political or departmental level), a regulator, industry organisation or private and community sectors
• Australian experience progressing ideally ideally in the technology policy or tax policy through Parliament, demonstrating a comprehensive understanding of gaining industry or electoral support, coalition building, navigating Parliamentary processes and pressure points, in particular cross-bench and Senate dynamics  
• Demonstrated public sector or political leadership with a strong ability to drive cohesion, focus and outcomes across a diverse array of internal and external stakeholders.   
• Experience or at least strong familiarity engaging with the Xero’s relevant Australian policy agencies and political stakeholders, including but not limited to Treasury Ministerial offices, the Department of Treasury and the ATO  
• A degree with a major in either Politics, Law, Business, Economics, Public Policy, Government/Public Administration, Social Sciences and Research is desirable
• Listed company experience and experience working with the New Zealand Government and its stakeholders is desirable
• Established Australian Government stakeholder networks and political system expertise, including Australian Parliamentary and party processes for identifying, prioritising and progressing policy reform       
• An in-depth understanding of the public policy issue cycle in Australia, including empathy for the multitude of potentially competing stakeholder perspectives
• Demonstrated issue management expertise, including identification, analysis, prioritisation and influence Demonstrated stakeholder management expertise, including identification, mapping, research and strategy development