Stead, whose pedigree in cricket includes a career as a New Zealand test batsman, a stint as Canterbury coach and a spell in charge of the White Ferns, said he was looking forward to building on the progress of the past couple of years.
"It's an honour and a privilege to be re-appointed", he said. "I think this group of players is growing as a team; there's an exciting schedule ahead of us and I know everyone is feeling very optimistic about our chances in all three formats.
"I'm very appreciative of the backing I've enjoyed from the players, the support staff and NZC and hope I can repay that confidence by helping the Black Caps achieve their goals and objectives over the next three years."
NZC chief executive David White said Stead's re-appointment followed a robust and formal process which included consultation with players, NZC high-performance staff, and Major Association high-performance personnel.
He confirmed Stead had been interviewed by an appointments panel last week, following which a recommendation had been made to, and had been approved by, the NZC Board.
"What was immediately clear was that Gary had overseen a particularly successful chapter in New Zealand cricket history, during which time his team had been very strong in the Test and ODI formats," said White.
"Winning an away test series against Pakistan and a test in Sri Lanka was a tremendous effort, as were the home Test series wins against Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, England and India.
"To tie the World Cup final and miss out on winning the trophy through a countback was a gut-wrenching experience, but I think we can all agree on how well the team played during that campaign and, equally, how well they conducted themselves afterwards."
White said that, now Stead's re-appointment was confirmed, a process would begin to appoint a new batting coach, following the move from Peter Fulton to take on the head coaching role with Canterbury.
