He kōrero mō mātou | About Watercare
Ki te ora te wai, ka ora te whenua, ka ora te tangata
When the water is healthy, the land and the people are healthy
Now is an exciting time to join Watercare, we're planning to spend $14 billion over the next 10 years to ensure we can continue to support our growing city in a climate-resilient way. When you average that out, that's an investment of $3.8 million every day!
He whakamārama mō te tūranga mahi | About the role
This is a pivotal leadership opportunity within our Programme Delivery team.
Based at Rosedale, reporting to the Programme Director, you will lead the commercial strategy and management of the Rosedale Upgrade Programme (RUP), a major infrastructure programme exceeding $800M in value. From procurement and contract strategy through to delivery, commissioning, and handover, you will ensure strong commercial outcomes across the full project lifecycle.
You will provide strategic oversight across a complex portfolio of projects, leading commercial decision-making, managing risk, and ensuring robust financial and contractual controls are in place. You will also lead and grow a high-performing commercial team supporting the successful delivery of this critical programme.
To be successful in this role, you will bring significant commercial leadership experience across major infrastructure programmes, along with strong strategic and stakeholder capability.
Your skills and experience will include:
- 10+ years’ experience in commercial management within large-scale infrastructure projects or programmes.
- Chartered professional qualification (CPEng, MRICS, CPA, CA or equivalent).
- Proven experience leading commercial teams on programmes exceeding $500M in value.
- Strong track record delivering projects within budget while effectively managing commercial risk.
- Extensive experience with NZS 3910, NZS 3916, NEC, and other contract frameworks
- Advanced knowledge of procurement strategy, contract law, and commercial risk management.
- Experience operating within public sector governance and audit environments
- Demonstrated ability to influence and engage senior executives and board-level stakeholders.
- Exceptional leadership, communication, and stakeholder engagement skills.
Experience in water or wastewater infrastructure is advantageous but not essential.
Ngā hua mōu | What's in it for you
We offer a competitive salary and staff benefits package including:
• Training and development opportunities
• Life and income protection insurance plans
• Generous parental leave
• Employee discounts at a range of large retailers
Me pēhea te tono mai | How to Apply
Come and join our team! If you are looking for an exciting career opportunity with a fantastic team then please apply online today - careers.watercare.co.nz.
Skills Required
- 10+ years' experience in commercial management
- Chartered professional qualification (CPEng, MRICS, CPA, CA or equivalent)
- Proven experience leading commercial teams on programmes exceeding $500M in value
- Extensive experience with NZS 3910, NZS 3916, NEC, and other contract frameworks
- Advanced knowledge of procurement strategy, contract law, and commercial risk management
- Experience operating within public sector governance and audit environments
- Demonstrated ability to influence and engage senior executives and board-level stakeholders
- Exceptional leadership, communication, and stakeholder engagement skills
What We Do
At Watercare we’re proud to provide a lifeline service to the people of Auckland, while protecting the environment for future generations. Every day we provide the highest quality drinking water to 1.7 million Aucklanders, and take it away again once it’s been used in the sink or flushed down the loo. Without using chemicals, we treat wastewater to a very high standard and safely return it to the environment. We also plan for new and upgraded infrastructure far into the future to ensure we can meet the needs of our fast-growing city. We operate assets worth more than $9 billion – but it’s our people who are our most valuable assets. Our staff are passionate, motivated and trustworthy people who are the leaders in their fields. They’re not afraid of a challenge and are constantly looking for new ways of improving our processes and the service we offer our customers. If this sounds like you, please visit our careers centre to see our job vacancies and be notified of future opportunities: https://careers.watercare.co.nz
