Senior Arborist

Wellington City Council; Wellington; On-site; NZD 74,000 - 87,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

5 weeks annual leave

flexible working options

health and wellbeing support

Council staff discounts

learning and development programmes

Job summary

Wellington City Council – Newtown, North Island is seeking two level 4 qualified arborists to be leaders within a passionate team, delivering modern arboriculture across the city, including utility line clearances and complex dismantles.

As a Senior Arborist, you will manage operations, ensure health and safety, coach staff, maintain records with geospatial data, and support the welfare of people and places while complying with council practices.

Qualifications

• Senior arborist with high technical expertise and leadership capability.
• Coach and develop team members to deliver quality arboriculture work.
• Prioritise health, safety and wellbeing in the workplace.

Responsibilities

• Oversee day-to-day tree maintenance across Wellington City.
• Handle utility line clearances and complex dismantles.
• Perform geospatial data entry and tree asset surveys.
• Carry out tree risk assessments and maintain records.
• Lead a team of arborists and deliver excellent customer service.

Skills

Arborist

People management

Health & Safety

Education

Arborist Level 4 qualification

Job description

Wellington City Council – Newtown, North Island

The Customer and Community (C&C) Group is focused on creating a well-connected, engaged, and thriving community by delivering a variety of essential services in a way that enhances social, cultural, and recreational aspects of Pōneke.

The Parks Operations team provide a crucial customer facing support service, ensuring the city's residents and visitors enjoy a well-managed and maintained environment. The tree team play a crucial role ensuring that Wellington's trees are safe and well managed for everyone to enjoy and benefit from. Join the team and experience the satisfaction of contributing to make Wellington City a green and great place to be.

• Day to day maintenance of over 14,000 street trees and 700km of road network
• Maintaining Wellington's Parks and Reserves, including Karori cemetery, Botanic Gardens and Town Belt
• Contributing to the safe and efficient day to day running of the team and its resources

We are looking for two level 4 qualified arborists, ideally with a Class 2 drivers licence, to be a leader within a team of passionate arborists carrying out all aspects of modern arboriculture.

As a Senior Arborist, you will be responsible for all the operational aspects associated with tree maintenance throughout Wellington City. This includes utility line clearances, complex tree dismantles within Karori cemetery and the Town Belt, geospatial data entry and maintenance for tree asset surveys and tree risk assessments.

You will be someone with a high degree of technical expertise and experience, excellent relationship and people management skills. You will be someone who looks to deliver excellent customer service and inspire your team to do the same.

To be successful in this role you will have;

• A high degree of technical expertise and experience
• People coaching skills
• Excellent understanding of and adherence to health, safety and wellbeing in the workplace
• Clean class 2 NZ driver's licence (preferred)
• Good level of physical fitness

In exchange for your skills, you'll work for an organisation that really values its people - we provide an extremely broad range of training and professional development opportunities and emphasise the welfare of our people and places.

Because this is a safety sensitive role the successful applicant will be required to undergo pre-employment drug and alcohol, health and musculoskeletal testing in addition to Ministry of Justice checks.

The Council uses the AS/NZ drug standard to determine the cut off levels for drug testing. Some prescription drugs may be included within this standard.

For more information, please contact Justin Garbutt - Team Manager Arboriculture **************@wcc.govt.nz

Nōrəourou| What's in it for you

• 5 weeks annual leave
• flexible working options
• health and wellbeing support
• Council staff discounts
• a range of learning and development programmes and opportunities

We expect the appointment to be within the salary range of $74,141 to $87,224 per annum, depending on skills and experience.

Applications close 23 September 2026.

Diversity:

We want your application to enable you to portray the real you. Skills are gained across many areas of our life, not just formal employment. If you can demonstrate the skills listed in the advert through whānau life, community or mahi aroha (volunteering) we encourage you to apply and share your story with us in your cover letter. We welcome applications from all walks of life and like our workforce to reflect the diverse communities we serve.

Accessibility Support:

We want to make sure any accessibility requirements you may have, are well supported so the selection process is equitable for everyone. Please let us know if there are any adjustments or support, we can offer to make our process more accessible to you by emailing: ***********@wcc.govt.nz