Senior Planner

Principal Consultant; Queenstown; On-site; NZD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Queenstown Airport Corporation (QAC) is seeking a Senior Planner to lead the statutory planning for a major infrastructure programme. Reporting to Head of Planning & Sustainability, you will own the consenting strategy, manage designations, and represent QAC in hearings and policy processes as planning evolves.

This standalone role places you at the heart of shaping how growth aligns with airport operations, with a focus on risk management, collaboration with external advisers, and guiding

Qualifications

• Eight to ten years in statutory planning, resource management, infrastructure or environmental planning.
• Advanced command of New Zealand resource management legislation.
• Experience delivering end-to-end consents and designations.
• Experience in hearings and mediation with councils.
• Ability to identify planning risk early and guide external advisers.

Responsibilities

• Set the consenting strategy across the infrastructure programme, choosing the statutory pathway for each project rather than reacting to it.
• Prepare and lodge resource consents, Notices of Requirement and outline plans, and hold QAC's designations.
• Represent QAC at hearings, mediation and expert conferencing, and in the Environment Court where required.
• Protect the airport's ability to operate as Queenstown develops around it, including the reverse sensitivity risk that noise creates.
• Lead QAC's submissions on new planning legislation, national planning standards and the district plan review.
• Form QAC's position on third party proposals that could affect airport operations or safeguarding Brief and direct external planning, legal and technical advisers, and hold them to their advice.
• Give project managers and the executive a clear read on planning risk early enough to act on it.

Skills

Statutory planning

Resource management

Infrastructure planning

Hearing mediation

Policy development

Team leadership

Education

Planning qualification

Job description

Queenstown Airport is entering a significant period of infrastructure development and planning change. With a $65 million airfield programme under construction and a major terminal expansion progressing, it is seeking a Senior Planner to help guide the statutory pathways that will enable its future development.
Capstone Recruitment is partnering with Queenstown Airport Corporation (QAC) to appoint a newly created Senior Planner. QAC owns and operates Queenstown Airport and runs day to day operations at Wānaka Airport on behalf of Queenstown Lakes District Council. It is New Zealand's fourth busiest airport, with 2.82 million passenger movements in the year to 30 June 2026, more than a million of them international for the first time.

About the role

A standalone position reporting to the Head of Planning & Sustainability, this is QAC's lead statutory planning role. You will own the consenting strategy behind the airport's infrastructure programme, hold its designations, and represent QAC in hearings, mediation and policy processes as planning legislation and the district plan evolve. You will set the direction and direct external specialists rather than produce every technical report yourself, and as the first person in the role, you will have a real say in what it becomes.

What you will do

• Set the consenting strategy across the infrastructure programme, choosing the statutory pathway for each project rather than reacting to it
• Prepare and lodge resource consents, Notices of Requirement and outline plans, and hold QAC's designations
• Represent QAC at hearings, mediation and expert conferencing, and in the Environment Court where required
• Protect the airport's ability to operate as Queenstown develops around it, including the reverse sensitivity risk that noise creates
• Lead QAC's submissions on new planning legislation, national planning standards and the district plan review
• Form QAC's position on third party proposals that could affect airport operations or safeguardingBrief and direct external planning, legal and technical advisers, and hold them to their advice
• Give project managers and the executive a clear read on planning risk early enough to act on it

What we are looking for

• Around eight to ten years in statutory planning, resource management, infrastructure or environmental planning
• Advanced command of New Zealand resource management legislation. A planning related qualification is preferred
• Complex consents and designations taken end to end, including evidence you have written and then defended
• Experience in a hearing room, in mediation and across the table from a council
• A planner who starts from how an outcome can be achieved rather than why it cannot
• Comfort in a small team where you own your area outright and the shape of the work will keep changing
• Experience in aviation, transport, ports, utilities, transmission or other significant infrastructure is an advantage, though not essential
• A genuine intention to be based in Queenstown

If you have any questions, feel free to reach out to [e-mail].