Head of Research Support - Empower Researchers

REANNZ; Wellington; On-site; NZD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

REANNZ is seeking an experienced Head of Research Support to lead the critical function that connects researchers with REANNZ’s services, ensuring world-class support and engineering capability.

The role focuses on setting strategic direction for Research Support, building a high-performing team, and partnering across Service Delivery, Advanced Computing, Product & Innovation, Networks and Partnerships to deliver an exceptional end-to-end researcher experience.

Qualifications

• Senior leadership experience in customer support, service delivery, professional services, engineering or technical operations environments.
• Proven success building and leading high-performing, multidisciplinary teams.
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills and the ability to build trusted relationships across complex environments.
• Experience driving service improvement, operational excellence and customer-focused outcomes.
• Ability to translate technical complexity into practical, meaningful outcomes for users and stakeholders.
• Collaborative leadership style focused on enabling teams, building capability and delivering impact.

Responsibilities

• Set the strategic direction for Research Support across REANNZ, aligning researcher needs, service delivery and organisational priorities.
• Lead and develop a high-performing team that delivers expert support, advice and engineering capability to the research community.
• Partner across Service Delivery, Advanced Computing, Product & Innovation, Networks and Partnerships to deliver a seamless end-to-end researcher experience.
• Ensure researcher insights, challenges and opportunities are translated into service improvements and organisational learning.
• Champion operational excellence, continuous improvement and best practice approaches to research support and engineering.
• Contribute as a senior leader, supporting REANNZ's mission, strategic direction and organisational success.

Skills

Senior leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Team leadership

Customer service

Engineering/technical operations

Job description

REANNZ is seeking an experienced Head of Research Support to lead the critical function that connects researchers with REANNZ’s services, ensuring world-class support and engineering capability.

The role focuses on setting strategic direction for Research Support, building a high-performing team, and partnering across Service Delivery, Advanced Computing, Product & Innovation, Networks and Partnerships to deliver an exceptional end-to-end researcher experience.