Statutory Planner / Urban Designer - Intermediate or Senior

Where others see constraints, we see opportunities.

Saddleback is a small, agile team of statutory planners and urban designers who move quickly from problem to solution. We work across residential, commercial and infrastructure projects, with a variety of work involing land-use consents and environmental compliance. Our clients come back because we’re responsive, practical and easy to work with.

Being a small team means you’ll get real variety and exposure across the business, not just one corner of it. We’re growing with a busy pipeline of work and we’d love to hear from Intermediate and Senior statutory planners and urban designers.

About the role

This is a planning role with real responsibility. Depending on your background, you’ll prepare and manage resource consents or provide urban design advice and assessments. You’ll produce robust documentation, give clear, solution-focused advice and keep projects moving. We prioritise customer engagement, move fast, communicate early and follow things through.

You’ll spend your time across these main areas:

1. Project work. Preparing planning or urban design assessments and reports. Preparing, lodging, monitoring and managing consent applications, and keeping documentation organised.
2. Client relationships. Being responsive and professional with clear updates, follow-ups and no surprises. Owning key client relationships as a trusted advisor, and generating new work through strong delivery, and proactive client conversations.
3. Delivery discipline. Managing tasks, milestones and deadlines, and coordinating inputs from engineers, architects and other consultants. Recording time accurately and keeping job admin tight so projects stay on track.
4. Quality and growth. Building your knowledge of district, regional and national planning requirements, and improving the processes behind high-quality delivery.

You’ll be a great fit if you:

• Take ownership. You notice what needs doing, ask questions early and see it through without needing to be chased. You value proactive progress over perfectionism.
• Communicate early and clearly. You keep clients and the team updated with a “no surprises” approach.
• Deliver quality work. You produce accurate, well-presented work that stands up to scrutiny.
• Are commercially disciplined. You manage your priorities, record time accurately and keep job admin tight.
• Build trust with people. You listen first to understand what matters, then guide clients with clear, practical advice.
• Stay calm under pressure. You handle robust conversations directly and respectfully, and disagree without making it personal.
• Keep growing, and help others grow. You’re always learning. You welcome feedback, learn from those around you, and pass on what you know so the whole team gets better.
• Thrive in a small team. You enjoy pace and variety, pitch in outside strict role boundaries, and want to be part of a business that’s building and growing.

Experience we’re looking for:

• A good level of work experience in statutory planning or urban design, with work you can point to
• For statutory planners: a solid understanding of the resource consent process
• For urban designers: experience providing design advice, assessments or input into consent and development projects
• Strong writing skills and confidence producing high-quality reports and documentation
• Ability to coordinate across interdisciplinary teams
• Confidence with standard office tools, especially Microsoft Word. Exposure to Xero or similar for time and admin is helpful.
• A relevant planning or urban design qualification. NZPI membership (or equivalent) is preferred.

The details:

This is a permanent, full-time role based in our Auckland office on Karangahape Road. Office hours are 8.30am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Please consider whether the location and commute will work for you before applying.

We’re looking for someone who wants to deliver excellent work, build trusted client partnerships and play a key role in a growing business, while enjoying the pace and camaraderie of a small team that backs each other.

If this sounds like you, apply with your CV and a cover letter. Tell us about yourself, and why this role is the right fit.

***Note:***Jules Forbes from Yellow Umbrella is supporting Saddleback with this recruitment process and will be your first point of contact as applications are received and reviewed.

We look forward to hearing from you!