Head of Customer Partnerships

Kotahi is on a mission to help New Zealand businesses compete and thrive on the world stage. If you're an accomplished commercial leader with a track record of building strategic customer partnerships, leading high-performing teams through change, and influencing outcomes at executive level, this is an opportunity to shape the future growth of a uniquely New Zealand business.

About Us – Kotahi

At Kotahi, we enable New Zealand businesses to win globally through reliable, efficient and  digitally powered supply chain solutions. Kotahi means standing together as one, and our values, We Before I, Seek to Understand, Discover Opportunities, and Driven to Deliver, guide how we work every day.

We're proud of our inclusive culture, strong focus on wellbeing through our Hauora programme, and commitment to continuous improvement.

About the Opportunity

We're looking for a Head of Customer Partnerships to join our Customer & Growth leadership team. Reporting to the GM Customer & Growth, you'll provide strategic leadership across Kotahi's customer partnerships function and play a critical role in shaping the future growth of the organisation.

Leading a team of Strategic Account Managers, Account Managers, and Account Associates, you'll be responsible for developing and executing customer growth strategies, strengthening executive-level customer relationships, and identifying opportunities that create long-term value and growth for both customers and Kotahi.

This role sits at the intersection of strategy, commercial leadership, customer engagement, and execution. You'll work closely with senior stakeholders across the business to align customer priorities with enterprise objectives, influence strategic decisions, and ensure Kotahi continues to deliver exceptional outcomes for New Zealand exporters.

Beyond leading the Customer Partnerships function, you will be a trusted member of the Customer & Growth leadership team, helping shape strategic direction, influence enterprise-wide decisions, and contribute to the future growth of Kotahi. This role will suit a leader who is energised by broad organisational impact.

About You

You're an experienced commercial leader who combines strategic thinking, customer centricity, and strong people leadership. You have experience leading through complexity and change, influencing senior stakeholders, and building credibility quickly with both customers and internal teams. Most importantly, you bring the leadership presence and commercial maturity to inspire confidence, drive change, and elevate performance.

You enjoy navigating ambiguity, solving complex business challenges, and bringing people together behind a common goal. You're equally comfortable coaching teams, engaging with CEOs and senior executives, and driving commercial outcomes through strategic partnerships.

You have aspirations to sit at the Executive table as a key member of the business

You'll also bring:

• Significant experience in senior business development, strategic account management, commercial leadership, customer growth, or related leadership roles.


• Proven success growing and retaining enterprise-level customers within complex B2B environments.


• Strong people leadership experience, with a demonstrated ability to build, coach, and develop high-performing teams.


• Demonstrable skills in implementing significant change whilst continuing to deliver the day to day goals of the business


• Exceptional stakeholder management skills, with the credibility to engage and influence at CEO and Executive level.


• Strong commercial acumen, including experience in pricing, negotiations, contract management, and value creation.


• Experience developing and executing customer growth strategies and identifying new market opportunities.


• The ability to operate effectively in complex, matrixed organisations and influence outcomes across diverse stakeholder groups.


• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to turn insights and data into compelling commercial narratives.


• A continuous improvement mindset and a strong focus on delivering results.

Experience within shipping, freight, logistics, supply chain, transport, telecommunications, IT,  professional services, or other complex B2B environments will be highly regarded.

Why Join Kotahi?

You'll be supported with a competitive benefits package, including:

• Flexible working, with up to two days from home each week.


• Wellbeing leave and access to our Kotahi Hauora platform.


• Southern Cross and Marsh insurance discounts.


• Learning and development support, including LinkedIn Learning and study assistance.


• The ability to purchase additional annual leave.


• Employee referral bonuses and retail discounts.


• Access to fuel savings and employee rewards programmes.


• A supportive, collaborative culture where people genuinely care about each other's success and wellbeing.

Stand Together With Us

If you're looking for an opportunity to shape customer strategy, influence enterprise-wide outcomes, lead a talented commercial team, and play a key role in the future growth of a purpose-driven New Zealand organisation, we'd love to hear from you.

Apply today and help us deliver great outcomes for our customers and New Zealand exporters.

Thank you for your interest in joining Kotahi.  While you are applying for a role within Kotahi, with Fonterra Co-operative Group as its majority shareholder, a member of the Fonterra Talent Acquisition Team will be supporting you throughout the recruitment process. Rest assured, your application details and personal information will be treated with the strictest confidence and handled in accordance with the Kotahi Privacy Statement for Job Applicants which can be found here:  Kotahi Privacy Statement for Applicants

Your information will not be shared within Fonterra beyond the Talent Acquisition Team.