Senior Operations Leader – Irrigation & Field Services

Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers; Ashburton; Hybrid; NZD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

One day work from home per week

Company vehicle

Very competitive salary

Long-standing NZ business history

Leadership role across multiple teams

Job summary

Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers in Ashburton seeks a senior operations leader to drive planning, performance and profitability. The role leads installation, service, repair and engineering teams, focusing on people and systems rather than hands-on work.

You’ll monitor margins, resource planning and safety, while shaping how work is delivered across the operation. Based in Ashburton with one day of remote work per week, you’ll partner with the General Manager and senior leaders

Qualifications

• Experience leading field operations, construction, irrigation, trades or project-based business.
• Strong understanding of job costing and gross profit.
• Experience supervising managers and operational teams.
• Confident in performance conversations and follow-through on actions.
• Excellent planning and organisational skills for competing priorities.
• Practical scheduling, quality control and continuous improvement.

Responsibilities

• Review budgets, costs and gross profit across installation, service, repair and engineering.
• Identify margin risks and address labour, material, subcontractor and scheduling issues.
• Document, approve and invoice variations and additional work.
• Oversee work in progress and close out completed jobs.
• Plan workloads and allocate resources across teams/locations.
• Monitor hours and labour utilisation; improve efficiency.
• Improve scheduling, job prep and resource allocation with managers.
• Ensure accurate time, materials and notes recording.
• Support managers to set expectations and develop teams.
• Ensure effective handovers between sales, design, estimating and operations.
• Monitor rework and defects; identify recurring causes.
• Collaborate to implement practical improvements for profitability.
• Lead planning and performance meetings with operations teams.
• Support safe work planning, training and health & safety compliance.
• Communicate with Sales, Design, Estimating, Inventory and GM.
• Provide regular reports on performance, margins and risks.
• Identify process improvements to deliver more consistent work.

Skills

Field operations management

People leadership

Planning & forecasting

Budgeting & cost control

Health & safety compliance

Effective communication

ERP / job management systems

Tools

ERP systems

Job description

Aotearoa New Zealand Association of Social Workers in Ashburton seeks a senior operations leader to drive planning, performance and profitability. The role leads installation, service, repair and engineering teams, focusing on people and systems rather than hands-on work.

You’ll monitor margins, resource planning and safety, while shaping how work is delivered across the operation. Based in Ashburton with one day of remote work per week, you’ll partner with the General Manager and senior leaders