Position Overview:
Lead Change. Build Capability. Drive Results.
The City of Saint John is Canada's oldest incorporated city and one of Atlantic Canada's most historic and evolving municipalities. Nestled on the Bay of Fundy, Saint John is a vibrant urban centre with a rich heritage, strong industrial foundation, growing multicultural population, and a bold vision for the future. Guided by its mission to "Grow the City. Serve the City. Be the city of choice," the City is committed to delivering exceptional services, fostering growth and inclusion, and creating a thriving community for residents and businesses alike. The City employs more than 600 permanent staff who work together across six service areas to provide essential municipal services and support continued community growth.
As part of an exciting evolution of its executive leadership structure, the City of Saint John is strengthening organizational alignment, accountability, and performance to build a more collaborative, integrated, and outcomes-focused organization capable of meeting the needs of a growing community.
The Opportunity
The City of Saint John is seeking a strategic and transformational leader to serve as its next Chief Corporate Officer (CCO). Reporting directly to the Chief Administrative Officer and serving as a key member of the executive leadership team, the CCO will provide leadership for the City's corporate services portfolio, including Human Resources, Communications, Information Technology, Organizational Performance, Occupational Health and Safety, and enterprise-wide project management capability. The CCO will play a central role in helping define and build a high-performing municipal organization by strengthening the people, systems, technology, governance practices, and organizational capabilities that support service delivery across the City.
This role offers a unique opportunity to influence the organization at an enterprise level, leading major initiatives including workforce modernization, digital transformation, organizational effectiveness, performance management, project governance, customer service, intergovernmental affairs and ERP implementation. Working closely with executive colleagues, Council, and organizational leaders, the CCO will help establish the management systems, accountability frameworks, and performance practices necessary to support evidence-based decision-making, continuous improvement, and long-term organizational success.
Essential Qualifications:
As the ideal candidate, you are an accomplished executive leader with experience leading corporate services, organizational effectiveness, people and culture, or related enterprise-wide functions within a complex organization. You bring strong business acumen and a demonstrated ability to lead transformation, modernize systems and processes, and strengthen organizational performance. Experience operating within unionized environments is essential, while municipal, public sector, or broader government experience would be considered an asset.
You have successfully led large-scale initiatives involving people, technology, processes, and culture. Whether through digital transformation, organizational redesign, performance management, workforce strategy, or process improvement, you understand how to align people, systems, and leadership practices to build more effective, accountable, and high-performing organizations.
A collaborative and enterprise-minded leader, you are skilled at building relationships, fostering alignment across diverse stakeholder groups, and leading through influence. You are comfortable balancing strategic priorities with operational realities and introducing new approaches while respecting organizational history and culture. You possess strong communication, change leadership, and relationship-building capabilities, along with the judgment and credibility required to operate effectively in a highly accountable public environment.
Above all, you are energized by the opportunity to help shape the future of a growing municipality and build the organizational capacity needed to deliver meaningful value to residents, employees, Council, and the broader community.
How to Apply
If you are interested in pursuing this exciting opportunity, please apply online at http://www.kbrs.ca/Career/17824069080350000008srb. For more information or to ask any questions, please contact Daniella Sam at [email protected], Katherine Risley at [email protected], or Erin MacDonald at [email protected].
Diversity and Accessibility Statement
The City of Saint John is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We are committed to building a workforce that reflects the diversity of the communities in which we live and which we serve. We encourage and support applications from Indigenous persons, persons with disabilities, and members of visible minority groups. Candidates who belong to such groups, and who are qualified, will be given preference at the time of selection.
KBRS will provide support in its recruitment processes to applicants with disabilities, including accommodation that considers an applicant’s accessibility needs. If you require accommodation to participate as a candidate in the recruitment process, please contact [email protected] or communicate your needs to our team.
