Chapter Lead Resilience

Kia ora! 

Step into a critical leadership role where you will help strengthen the resilience of one of New Zealand’s most iconic organisations. As Chapter Lead Resilience, you’ll lead work that protects our people, customers, operations and reputation, ensuring Air New Zealand is prepared to respond, recover and adapt in an ever-changing environment. 

Based within the Operational Safety and Risk portfolio, the Resilience Team plays a vital role in supporting the Airline’s capability to prevent, manage and recover from emergencies, business crises and disruptions. This is a unique opportunity to lead enterprise-wide resilience initiatives while shaping the future direction of emergency management and business continuity across a complex, fast-moving organisation. In this role, you could be working alongside the CEO and Executive team one day and at the airport supporting operational staff the next. It’s a dynamic and rewarding opportunity that requires confidence, sound judgement and the ability to rapidly build credibility and trust with stakeholders at every level. 

At Air New Zealand, we connect friends and whānau across Aotearoa and the world. Behind the scenes, our specialist teams are helping build a safer, stronger and more resilient airline for the future. Recently recognised as one of New Zealand’s most attractive employers, we continue to earn global recognition for our culture, innovation and customer experience. 

What you’ll be doing 

• Lead the Airline’s emergency management and business continuity portfolios, setting strategic direction and driving meaningful outcomes across the business 
• Act as the primary point of contact for emergency management and business continuity, building trusted relationships internally and externally, including with multi-agency partners 
• Oversee the development and continuous improvement of Air New Zealand’s emergency management system across Reduction, Readiness, Response and Recovery 
• Drive the federation of enterprise resilience initiatives that strengthen organisational capability and operational readiness across the business.  This will include building relationships with wider business units such as Digital and Cyber, Enterprise Risk, Operations, Airports, People Safety and other critical business units. You will also be a confident relationship manager representing the airline across international emergency management bodies with Alliance partners (Star Alliance)
• Confidently and effectively lead and develop a team of resilience specialists, fostering a collaborative and human-centred culture where you will empower them to be their best
• Provide leadership during emergency activations and major disruptions, including acting as the Airline’s Response Manager when required 
• Work with the Security and Resilience Lead to advise and influence senior leaders and stakeholders to build a resilience culture and embed long-term resilience thinking across the organisation. 

What we’re looking for 

• An experienced and courageous leader, with demonstrable experience inspiring, empowering and developing high-performing teams 
• Strong relationship management skills and a people-first approach to leadership and collaboration 
• Significant expertise in emergency management primarily, and additionally business continuity management or enterprise resilience 
• A systems thinker with the skills and knowledge to translate strategy into a workable plan then communicate this effectively to your team and others.  With this will be experience leading programmes and influencing outcomes across large or complex organisations
• Experience working across multiple stakeholders, including external agencies and senior business leaders.  You will be comfortable providing clear reporting at governance forums on resilience maturity, risks and readiness priorities
• The ability to remain calm, decisive and effective in high-pressure or time-critical situations 
• Strong communication skills, with the confidence to engage across all levels of the organisation
• Knowledge of relevant resilience/emergency management/business continuity frameworks, industry standards, and best practice
• Experience in the aviation industry is ideal but not a requirement. Some experience in the transport sector, lifeline/critical infrastructure, or highly operational organisation would also complement this role
• An Emergency Management qualification and CIMS experience is highly desirable
• If you meet the majority of the criteria and are excited by the opportunity, we’d love to hear from you. 

Why join Air New Zealand? 

We want our people to live their best lives and access great benefits that support their lives outside work. 

• Discounted travel for you, your friends and whānau across Air New Zealand and partner airlines 
• FlexiLeave, giving you the option to purchase up to four extra weeks of leave each year 
• Learning and development opportunities that support your growth and future career pathways 
• Access to wellbeing support, including EAP services, wellbeing resources and peer support networks 
• Great employee discounts across hotels, retail, banking, insurance, gyms and more. 

Take flight and apply now!

This is an opportunity to make a genuine impact at enterprise level while leading critical resilience capability for a globally recognised brand. If you are motivated by purpose-led leadership, operational excellence and helping people navigate complex challenges, we’d love to hear from you. 

Applications close Sunday, 5th July 

At Air New Zealand, we are proudly committed to diversity, equity and inclusion and believe in creating a truly inclusive workplace where everyone can be themselves and thrive. Our people are our greatest asset – because while everything else we do in our operation can be replicated by our competitors, it is our people that truly set us apart. We are firm believers in celebrating the differences and diversity of thought our people bring to their roles.

Whāia te pae tawhiti kia tata. Ko te pae tata whakamaua, kia tina.

"Seek to bring distant horizons closer. Once near, seize them and make them your reality."