Supply Chain and Engineering Development Lead

Hunter Campbell; Christchurch; On-site; NZD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Career development

Job summary

Fiordland Lobster Company is seeking a Supply Chain and Engineering Development Lead to join the Supply Chain leadership team in Rolleston. The role drives the project, engineering and improvement agenda across end-to-end supply chain, logistics and operations.

You will lead hands-on delivery, scope solutions, build business cases, coordinate with contractors, and ensure sustained results across the factory and leadership levels.

Qualifications

• Engineering qualification or equivalent practical technical experience.
• Experience scoping, planning and leading projects to successful implementation.
• Hands-on operational experience in manufacturing or processing environments.
• Lean capability with structured problem-solving and root-cause analysis.
• Experience developing technical scopes and coordinating with contractors and suppliers.
• Experience building CAPEX business cases and quantifying benefits.
• Strong commercial awareness and understanding of cost, value and payback.
• Ability to influence stakeholders from shop floor to senior leadership.
• Knowledge of water chemistry, refrigeration, process systems or live-product handling is advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Scope, plan and lead operational improvement, engineering, and capital projects from concept to implementation.
• Identify problems, analyse root causes, and develop practical, sustainable solutions.
• Develop robust CAPEX proposals quantifying benefits and costs.
• Drive continuous improvement across plant, processing and supply chain using Lean methods.
• Coordinate contractors, suppliers, engineers, and equipment providers.
• Collaborate with operational teams to ensure practical, embeded solutions.
• Track outcomes and benefits post-implementation to realise ROI.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Project delivery

Lean / problem-solving

Stakeholder management

Commercial awareness

Cross-functional collaboration

Education

Engineering degree

Job description

About the Company

Fiordland Lobster Company is dedicated to the sustainable fishing, processing, and live export of wild-caught Southern Rock Lobster. More than 35 years after its creation, the company remains New Zealand’s largest exporter of high-quality live lobster — a business built on operational excellence, innovation, and long-term partnerships.

Description

Fiordland Lobster Company is dedicated to the sustainable fishing, processing, and live export of wild-caught Southern Rock Lobster. More than 35 years after its creation, the company remains New Zealand’s largest exporter of high-quality live lobster — a business built on operational excellence, innovation, and long-term partnerships.

As the business continues to evolve and invest, an exciting opportunity has been created for a Supply Chain and Engineering Development Lead to join the Supply Chain leadership team, based in Rolleston.

The Role

Reporting to the Group Manager Supply Chain, you will help lead the project, engineering and improvement agenda across the end-to-end supply chain, logistics and operational network.

This is a hands‑on delivery role for someone who can take an operational problem or opportunity, understand it properly, scope the solution, build the business case, bring contractors and operational teams with them, and see the project through to implementation and sustained results.

The business has a genuine pipeline of capital, engineering, process improvement, and operational development initiatives waiting for the right person to pick up and drive.

You will work across the whole business — from factory teams and operators through to senior leadership — and will be expected to be equally credible in both environments. This is not a role that sits behind a dashboard. We want someone who is prepared to get onto the factory floor, understand how the operation actually works and involve the people closest to the process before designing the solution.

Key Responsibilities

• Scope, plan and lead operational improvement, engineering, and capital projects from initial concept through to implementation and commissioning
• Identify operational problems and opportunities, analyse root causes, and develop practical, sustainable solutions
• Develop robust business cases and CAPEX proposals, clearly quantifying operational and financial benefits
• Drive continuous improvement across plant, processing and supply chain operations using Lean principles and structured problem‑solving methodologies
• Develop technical scopes and coordinate contractors, suppliers, engineers, and equipment providers
• Work directly with operational teams to ensure solutions are practical, understood, and successfully embedded
• Track project outcomes and benefits following implementation, ensuring improvements are sustained and deliver the expected operational and financial return

Key Skills & Experience

• An engineering qualification or equivalent practical technical experience, ideally within process, mechanical, industrial or manufacturing environments
• Proven experience scoping, planning, and leading projects through to successful implementation
• Direct operational experience within manufacturing, processing, engineering, or a similarly hands‑on operational environment
• Demonstrated continuous improvement and Lean capability, supported by strong structured problem‑solving and root‑cause analysis skills
• Experience developing technical scopes and working effectively with contractors, suppliers and equipment providers
• Experience developing business cases and CAPEX proposals and quantifying the financial and operational benefits of investment
• Strong commercial awareness and an understanding of project cost, value, payback and benefits realisation
• Strong stakeholder management skills and the ability to communicate effectively at every level, from the factory floor to senior leadership
• An understanding of water chemistry, refrigeration, process systems or live‑product handling would be a real advantage

About You

You are naturally inquisitive, practical and genuinely hands‑on. You want to understand how something works before you try to change it, and you would rather spend time in the plant understanding the problem than sit in a meeting talking about it.

You bring energy and momentum and enjoy taking ownership of a problem and driving it through to a result. You are comfortable forming a view, challenging assumptions, and constructively having your own thinking challenged.

You can move easily between the technical and commercial sides of a project. You are equally credible presenting a CAPEX case to senior leadership and standing alongside an operator, engineer or contractor working through a problem on the factory floor.

Most importantly, you are a team player who wants to make things better. You are looking for a business where you can take genuine ownership, continue to develop your capability, and make a visible contribution over the next three to five years and beyond.

What’s In It For You

There is a genuine pipeline of projects and investment ahead, giving you the opportunity to take ownership of meaningful work and see the results of what you deliver.

You will have exposure across the entire operation and direct access to senior leadership, with the opportunity to build genuine breadth across engineering projects, capital investment, continuous improvement, supply chain, and operational development.

You will be joining a business that is investing in its future and wants to build this capability internally. For the right person, that creates significant scope to learn, grow and shape both the role and the way we work.

• The role also offers flexible working hours and the opportunity to build a long-term career within a unique New Zealand business.