Our People
Rotorua Lakes Council is a large organisation with teams working across a wide range of areas and projects.
Due to this, career progression and diversification within Council is common. Many of our current employees have chosen to stay with Council and work in a range of roles experiencing career progression and development.
Rotorua Lakes Council prides itself in being innovative and future focused, and with this comes exciting opportunities to be involved with some of our key projects. You can learn about these on the Rotorua Lakes Council Capital Projects website.
The team at Rotorua Lakes Council reflects our wider community – diverse, friendly and passionate about creating a bright future for the city. Working here means working for the best outcome for the people of Rotorua. Listen to some of our team share their own stories below.
Shaping a city is proud work, especially when it’s your home
Rotorua Lakes Council’s Development Support Manager Simon Bell was born and raised in Rotorua and eventually returned home to take up a job in council’s Planning team.
“Council has been extremely supportive of me throughout my planning career. I was here during uni holidays, I contracted for a while, I was a Senior Planner and then I had the privilege of leading the Planning Consents team for many years before my current role.”
In 2021 Simon moved into a new role – leading the Development Support function that has been established to proactively support major development in Rotorua. The creation of this new function is part of council’s ongoing work to respond to the need for more housing and employment in Rotorua.
“Rotorua has experienced significant growth in recent years which has created a unique set of planning challenges. These challenges have created a variety of opportunities for Rotorua Planners.
“There is a big focus on revitalisation of the Rotorua CBD and our tourism sector is also well and truly back up and running with a bunch of new and exciting tourism based projects.”
With such a busy workload Rotorua Lakes Council is always on the lookout for new Planners to join the team.
“I get a huge sense of enjoyment out of working on behalf of the community. I am a proud Rotorua person, so being able to make a difference to a place that I care about so deeply is super satisfying,” says Simon.
Internships
Every year Rotorua Lakes Council offer a number of internships in a range of areas.
20-year-old Tara Chemis is studying toward a Bachelor of Urban Planning (Honours) at The University of Auckland.
She chose this pathway as it would provide her a wide range of opportunities and because she says she loves to learn and see things grow.
“My studies revolves around urban environments and creating an environment for the people. I love seeing improvements in the city and thought this degree would be a great way to learn more and help build sustainable futures”
The internship role at Rotorua Lakes Council gives her the opportunity to learn about the relationship between her studies and real world work experience.
“The Council has a diverse amount of roles within my field and I was very interested in learning more about where my studies will take me in the future. I also grew up in Rotorua and thought it would be a good experience to learn more about my hometown.”
Opportunities/expressions of interest are advertised from mid-September annually. To find out more about this years’ intake, please contact Louise Stanley, Recruitment Coordinator on Louise.Stanley@rotorualc.nz