Business Operations

ELab Ltd.; New Zealand; Hybrid; NZD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

ELab Ltd. in New Zealand seeks an experienced operator or advisor to lead AI delivery across professional services, industrial operations, construction and field services. The role blends advisory work with hands-on AI development, from discovery to implementation and adoption.

You will run interviews, map workflows and build AI-enabled workflows, automations or tools, while collaborating with engineers and client teams to ensure practical, reliable solutions.

Qualifications

• Substantial experience in business operations, advisory work, consulting or process improvement.
• Experience delivering process improvements through to implementation and measurable outcomes.
• Ability to work with senior leaders and delivery teams to translate insights into action.
• Hands-on experience building and testing AI workflows, automations or tools in real projects.
• Capability to assess AI usefulness, data needs and where human judgment remains essential.
• Ability to convert operational detail into clear requirements, business cases and delivery plans.

Responsibilities

• Understand the business by running interviews and mapping workflows and information gaps.
• Find opportunities where AI can improve quoting, reporting, planning or delivery.
• Capture knowledge and establish sources, ownership and review practices.
• Build prototypes, workflows or tools using AI and test with end users.
• Support adoption by keeping responsibilities and human review clear.

Skills

Operational experience

Advisory work

Process improvement

AI workflow building

Leadership with stakeholders

Delivery teamwork

Job description

Combine operational experience with hands-on AI building. Work with business leaders and their teams to find, build and adopt practical improvements.

Full-time. New Zealand: Remote or hybrid. Australia: Remote.

You'll lead advisory and hands-on AI delivery with businesses across sectors, including professional services, industrial operations, construction and field services. We need someone who understands how businesses run, can work with leaders and the people doing the work and can turn what they learn into working solutions.

We're AI-first. You'll use AI in your own work and build with it, staying involved from discovery through implementation and adoption. This role suits an experienced operator or advisor who can personally build, test and improve AI workflows, automations or tools alongside our engineers.

What You'll Do

Understand the Business

Run interviews and workshops with leaders and teams. Map workflows, decisions, handovers and information gaps that affect performance.

Find the Right Opportunities

Assess where AI can improve work such as quoting, reporting, planning, client delivery or access to procedures. Prioritise against business value, effort and risk.

Make Expertise Accessible

Capture the knowledge and data experienced people rely on. Work with client teams to establish clear sources, ownership and review practices so others can use that expertise.

Build and Test Working Solutions

Turn findings into clear requirements and build prototypes, workflows, automations or tools using AI. Test outputs and reliability with the people who will use them, improve what doesn't work and collaborate with engineers where production delivery needs deeper technical work. Account for existing tools and working conditions.

Support Lasting Adoption

Keep responsibilities and human review clear. Support teams as they adopt new practices and measure changes in turnaround time, quality or capacity against the starting point.

What You’ll Bring

• You bring substantial experience in business operations, advisory work, consulting or process improvement. Your experience may come from professional services, industrial businesses, construction, field services or another operationally complex organisation.
• You've led process improvements or operational change through to implementation and can explain what improved in practice.
• You can build trust with senior leaders and delivery teams, and understand why a process works differently on paper and in practice.
• You use AI in your own work and have personally built and tested an AI workflow, automation or tool used in real work. You can explain your contribution, how you checked its reliability and what improved.
• You can assess where AI is useful, what information it needs and where human judgement remains essential.
• You can turn operational detail into clear requirements, business cases and a practical delivery plan.
• You bring sound judgement about confidentiality, quality, safety and compliance, including when to involve a specialist.

Useful Experience

These would give you a head start. You don't need every one.

• Client delivery, service operations, reporting, resource planning or commercial workflows.
• Industrial operations, maintenance, estimating, production planning or field service delivery.
• Lean Six Sigma or another practical process improvement discipline.
• Knowledge management, documented procedures and operational data.
• Introducing software or AI tools alongside technical teams.

Working Arrangements

This is a full-time role. We welcome people based in New Zealand for remote or hybrid working and people based in Australia for remote working. You'll organise your work around delivery commitments, time with colleagues and client needs.