Kia ora!
This is a pivotal leadership opportunity to shape the safe, compliant and high performing conduct of Air New Zealand’s flight operations. As Flight Operations Lead, you will hold accountability for one of the airline’s most critical value streams, influencing safety outcomes, operational excellence, strategic delivery, and enterprise performance at scale.
Reporting to the Chief Safety & Risk Officer, and holding regulatory accountability as the CAANZ Senior Person Air Operations, you will lead the Flight Operations business unit while contributing as a senior leader across the wider airline. This is a ground based senior leadership role, focused on governance, standards, and systems that underpin safe and effective flight operations. The role combines deep operational authority with enterprise leadership and strategic influence, requiring sound judgement, credibility and the ability to lead in a complex, highly regulated environment.
At Air New Zealand, flight operations sit at the core of our licence to operate and our reputation as a safe, trusted airline. This role operates in a demanding regulatory and operational context, delivering safety, performance, and system integrity while contributing to the airline’s strategic direction and long-term success. You will work alongside highly experienced aviation professionals, with clear authority, enterprise visibility, and the mandate to make decisions that matter when it counts most.
The role you will play
- Lead the Flight Operations business unit, responsible for the aircraft operating framework, standards, and governance, setting direction and driving safety as a core business outcome
- Enable operational excellence across performance, reliability, cost, productivity, and efficiency
- Act as the accountable Senior Person Air Operations, ensuring compliance with the Air Operator Certificate, regulatory requirements and airline exposition
- Own and manage flight operations risk, with authority to restrict, suspend or modify operations where safety, security or compliance is at risk
- Establish and maintain flight operations policies, standards and procedures, ensuring alignment between manuals, approvals and operational practice
- Provide visible leadership, strengthening engagement, capability, and succession
- Contribute as an enterprise leader through the Senior Leadership Forum, leading cross functional initiatives and modelling Air New Zealand leadership behaviours
- Represent Air New Zealand with regulators, industry bodies and external stakeholders on flight operations matters.
What we’re looking for
- Extensive senior leadership experience within flight operations or a comparable commercial aviation environment
- An appropriate Airline Transport Pilot Licence, current or previously held
- At least three years’ experience as pilot in command under Part 121 commercial air transport operations
- At least three years’ experience in an operational control or equivalent senior operational leadership role
- Experience in transformation leadership, change management programmes, and knowledge of agile operating models
- Strong knowledge of aviation regulations, airline operational procedures and Safety Management Systems
- Proven ability to lead large, complex operational teams with safety, performance and engagement outcomes
- Executive presence and the credibility to influence at Board, Executive, union and regulatory level.
Leadership with purpose
If you are an experienced aviation leader with the credibility to hold regulatory accountability and the judgement to lead in complex, high consequence environments, this role offers the opportunity to make a lasting impact. You will operate with clear authority, strong executive support, and the mandate to protect and strengthen Air New Zealand’s operational performance now and into the future.
Applications close 8 February 2026
Additional Information
At Air New Zealand, we are proudly committed to diversity, equity and inclusion and believe in creating a truly inclusive workplace where everyone can be themselves and thrive. Our people are our greatest asset – because while everything else we do in our operation can be replicated by our competitors, it is our people that truly set us apart. We are firm believers in celebrating the differences and diversity of thought our people bring to their roles.
Whāia te pae tawhiti kia tata. Ko te pae tata whakamaua, kia tina.
"Seek to bring distant horizons closer. Once near, seize them and make them your reality."
