Senior Government & Community Relations Manager, Australia

About the role

Hipcamp is looking for a strategic, highly independent government affairs leader to help build a safe, durable future for low-impact camping on private land across Australia.

In this role, you will lead Hipcamp’s government affairs strategy across Australia with a focus on reducing regulatory risk, strengthening relationships with decision-makers, and creating the conditions for long-term market growth and Host retention. You will work primarily at the state and local level, with a particular focus on navigating council planning systems, engaging planning departments and elected officials, participating in public processes, and building strategic partnerships that can influence policy and regulatory outcomes.

This is a highly autonomous role. The rest of Hipcamp’s Government and Community Relations team is based in the United States, across significantly different time zones, so you will be the primary government affairs leader on the ground in Australia and a solo operator. You will need to be comfortable operating independently, setting your own priorities with your manager, making sound strategic decisions, and moving work forward without frequent direction or day-to-day support from the broader team. You will also work with a small, distributed Australia-based team across company functions. 

You are a sophisticated relationship builder and strategic operator who understands that government affairs is a long game. You will need to be exceptionally good at building trust, understanding different perspectives, navigating adversarial conversations, and finding paths toward constructive outcomes, even when the starting point is challenging. You know how to identify who actually influences a decision, build relationships before you need them, navigate complex planning and political processes, and bring together unlikely partners around shared interests. You are comfortable working through ambiguity and setbacks and know when to push, when to negotiate, when to build broader support, and when to change course.

What you'll do

• Own Hipcamp’s government affairs strategy across Australia, identifying and prioritising the regulatory risks and opportunities that have the greatest potential impact on Host growth and retention.
• Build and maintain trusted relationships with local and state decision-makers, including councillors, mayors, council CEOs, planning staff, tourism officials, state government officials, and other influential stakeholders.
• Navigate council planning systems and public processes to influence outcomes, including planning proposals, development processes, public consultations, hearings, working groups, and other government engagement opportunities.
• Develop strategies to prevent, mitigate, and resolve regulatory threats to avoid significant marketplace disruption.
• Represent Hipcamp as a constructive, solutions-oriented participant in public discourse and the media on topics including: land use, tourism, outdoor recreation, agriculture, and regional economic development.
• Build strategic partnerships with organisations including agritourism and farming associations, tourism and destination management organisations, outdoor recreation groups, conservation organisations, caravan and camping associations, and public land managers to influence state and local decision-makers. 
• Develop relationships with Hipcamp Hosts and other community stakeholders and, where appropriate, engage them as credible voices in government affairs efforts.
• Use media, public affairs, community engagement, research, data, and other advocacy tools to help shape our work and priorities.
• Bring the Australian government and political landscape into the broader GCR team’s strategic planning while independently owning execution in Australia.
• Develop clear recommendations for senior leadership based on political dynamics, stakeholder relationships, regulatory risk, business impact, and likelihood of success.
• Travel regularly within Australia to build relationships, participate in government processes, and support priority markets. International travel may also be required.
  
  

Qualifications

• 8+ years’ experience in government relations, public policy, politics, advocacy or public affairs, with a strong track record of influencing state and/or local government outcomes in Australia.
• Deep understanding of Australian local government planning processes, including council planning processes, planning schemes, elected member dynamics, community consultation, and decision-making.
• Proven ability to influence decision-makers and navigate complex or politically challenging environments, with strong political judgement and an ability to read stakeholder motivations and institutional dynamics.
• Exceptional relationship-building skills, including the ability to build trust across political and professional differences and turn challenging stakeholder relationships into productive ones.
• Experience in community organising, coalition-building and strategic partnerships across government, industry, community and advocacy groups. Media, public affairs and/or grassroots advocacy experience is highly regarded.
• Strategic and analytical thinker who can assess regulatory risks and opportunities, use evidence to build compelling arguments, and prioritise the issues that matter most to the business.
• Highly self-directed and comfortable working with significant autonomy, exercising sound judgement and adapting strategy as circumstances change.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to engage effectively with planners, councillors, industry leaders, community members and senior executives.
• High standards of integrity and confidentiality, and a passion for supporting rural and regional communities, responsible land stewardship and greater access to the outdoors.
• Comfortable working remotely across time zones and travelling domestically and internationally up to 25%.
  
  

About our Work Environment

Compensation will be a mix of salary and stock options. It will be highly competitive compared to similar-stage companies and based on location.

Health is essential to happiness. In addition to full health insurance, all team members receive $1K in Hipcash because we believe getting outside is excellent preventative medicine in addition to increasing your creativity, lowering your stress, and making you an overall more awesome human.

We focus on results, not hours. We believe that clearly defined goals combined with great people, empowerment, and autonomy create the best results. We feel confident that inclusive and diverse teams working on an important cause can accomplish extraordinary things.

Hipcamp is an equal opportunity employer and value diversity at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, age, marital status, veteran status, or disability status. In fact we are confident that the most inclusive and diverse teams accomplish the most extraordinary results.