Chief Financial Officer

Aspire Executive Search; Howick; On-site; NZD 180,000 - 280,000; Full time

Job summary

Real Living Group in Auckland is seeking a senior finance leader to drive growth and act as a strategic partner to the CEO. You will oversee debt strategy, capital planning, and analytics to enable informed decision-making across four villages.

A strong finance leadership track record and the ability to engage with the Board are essential. You will lead a team of accountants and collaborate with village, care, and sales leaders while spending time across sites.

Qualifications

• Proven track record building commercially focused finance functions with strong MIS and BI capabilities.
• Experience with debt facilities, syndicated banking, or capital raising in capital-intensive businesses.
• Strong communication to engage the CEO, Executive, and Board; collaborative leadership style.

Responsibilities

• Take ownership of the Group's debt and capital strategy, including broader banking relationships.
• Shape long-term capital and ownership strategy with CEO and Board.
• Build analytics, cost insight, and live performance data for village, care, and sales leaders.
• Lead cash flow and profitability disciplines through regulatory and market change.
• Lead, develop, and energise a capable team of accountants and finance professionals.

Skills

Financial controls

Compliance

Reporting

Commercial finance

Debt facilities

Syndicated banking

Capital raising

Communication skills

Board engagement

Leadership

Tools

BI systems

Excel

ERP systems

Job description

Lead finance for one of New Zealand's most respected independent retirement village groups as it enters its most ambitious chapter of growth.

For forty years, Real Living Group has been doing retirement living its own way. Exclusively New Zealand owned and operated, , the Group has grown from a single village at Pakuranga Park, a genuine pioneer in New Zealand retirement living when it opened in 1985, into a collective of four thriving villages across greater Auckland: Pakuranga Park, Epsom Village, Remuera Gardens, and Warkworth Oaks. Its promise to residents is simple, "right where you belong", and it is a promise the team takes to heart every day.

Now the Group is gearing up for its next chapter, and it’s a big one. With exceptional landholdings in some of Auckland's best locations, Real Living has the opportunity to substantially grow its portfolio by redeveloping and intensifying the sites it already owns, with a major new development at Warkworth about to get underway. It is an exciting time to join, and this appointment will be central to what comes next.

The Opportunity

Reporting to the Chief Executive and sitting on the Executive Leadership Team, you will be a true commercial partner to the CEO, bringing ideas, options, and solutions to the table. The finance function already delivers accurate, timely, and well-controlled reporting; your mandate is to lift it into a genuine commercial and strategic engine for the business. You will:

Take ownership of the Group's debt and capital strategy, including broadening its banking relationships into a syndicated arrangement to fund an ambitious development pipeline

Help shape the Group's longer-term capital and ownership strategy alongside the CEO and Board

Build the analytics, cost insight, and live performance data that village, care, and sales leaders need to make great decisions

Lead cash flow and profitability disciplines through a period of significant sector and regulatory change

Lead, develop, and energise a capable team of qualified accountants and accounts professionals

Engage confidently with a Board that brings together shareholders and experienced professional directors

About You

You are an accomplished senior finance leader who has built a broad and versatile toolkit across different industries and situations, and who would relish the chance to put all of it to work. Retirement village or aged care experience, while advantageous, is not required. What matters is:

Rock-solid foundations in financial control, compliance, and reporting

A track record of building commercially focused finance functions, with strong management information and BI capability

Direct experience in debt facilities, syndicated banking, or capital raising, ideally within a capital-intensive, asset-backed, or development-led business

Outstanding communication skills and the credibility to engage the CEO, Executive, and Board with equal ease

A collaborative, low-ego, solutions-first style and a natural ability to bridge finance and operations

Energy, resilience, and a hands-on, pragmatic approach suited to a family-owned business moving through a period of real change

Why Real Living?

This is a rare chance to join an independent, business with the stability of forty years of history, exceptional assets, and a leadership team that is energised and ambitious about the future. You will enjoy the empowerment, flexibility, and pace of a private organisation, a direct line of sight between your work and the Group's success, and a role that will genuinely shape the business for its next generation. The role is based principally at the Group's Pakuranga Park support office, with time spent across the villages, and offers a competitive base salary plus short-term incentive.