Kia ora! 

Air New Zealand is on an accelerated journey to deliver the best flying experience on Earth. Our purpose is to enrich our country by connecting New Zealanders to each other and New Zealand to the world. As part of our brand promise, we embrace Manaaki – taking care further than any other airline and creating meaningful experiences that empower and connect.  

We are seeking a Digital Programme Manager to lead the digital delivery streams within our Cargo Terminal Transformation Programme. This is a once-in-a-generation initiative to modernise our cargo operations. This programme will deliver significant digital, infrastructure and process uplift, transforming how we manage and move cargo across our network. 

This isn’t your standard Digital Programme Manager role. We’re looking for someone who can operate at scale in a complex, safety-critical operational environment, orchestrating end-to-end digital delivery while influencing critical sequencing, readiness, and investment decisions across a multi-year transformation comprising multiple interdependent squads and vendors operating across differing delivery cadences, contracts, and technology lifecycles. 

About the role:

You’ll take a hands-on, “roll your sleeves up” approach to delivery, guiding teams through complexity, breaking down work and working with stakeholders to make sure outcomes are achieved, issues are unblocked, and progress sticks. You won’t just set the plan; you’ll help bring it to life.  

You will champion and leverage our agile operating rhythm to deliver outcomes via large-scale cross-functional initiatives. This will require you to manage complex dependencies between teams, third parties, and across the organisation to ensure end-to-end delivery success.   

This role is suited to people who have previously held accountability for delivery across large, interdependent programmes (e.g. infrastructure + digital + operational change), where sequencing, cutover, and business readiness were materially complex. 

If you’ve previously been the person brought in when delivery was hard, ambiguous, or at risk — and you’re comfortable carrying that weight — this role will stretch and reward you. 

Key Roles and Responsibilities:  

• Own and drive the end-to-end digital delivery roadmap for the Cargo Terminal Programme, decomposing programme outcomes into digital value streams and releases, aligned to terminal construction, operational readiness, technology sequencing, and people readiness. 

• Shape, recommend, and present delivery positions and trade-offs for executive and investment governance. 

• Define and institutionalise programme squad design and delivery structures to enable effective digital, people and process transformation aligned to terminal construction. 

• Design and run multi-layered governance across programme, vendor, and enterprise forums, including budgets, forecasts, and vendor contracts. 

• Accountable for digital delivery assurance and financial stewardship ation across the programme. 

• Navigate and resolve conflict between commercial, operational, and technology priorities. 

• Relentlessly manage the critical path, risks and issues, unblocking end to end delivery where required. 

• Work closely with initiative sponsors and leaders to ensure change adoption is embedded and well-supported. 

• Develop and maintain effective relationships with diverse internal and external stakeholders and vendors across locations, time zones, and delivery methods to ensure business outcomes and expectations are met. 

• Proactively unblock issues, maintain delivery flow, and adapt delivery approaches in response to programme dynamics, leveraging the Air NZ enterprise agile delivery model to drive the outcomes. 

• Monitor and analyse teams’ throughput, identifying opportunities to improve delivery accuracy and efficiency. 

• Actively ensure the safety and security of all people, assets, systems & procedures in your area of responsibility. 

Experience & Skills:  

• Proven accountability for delivery across programmes with significant cross-domain dependency (e.g. digital + infrastructure + operational cutover). 

• Significant experience as a Digital Programme Manager delivering large-scale digital and technology-enabled transformations. 

• Deep understanding of delivery methods (agile, hybrid, and traditional) and when to flex them. 

• 10+ years’ experience leading delivery of complex, enterprise-scale technology and business outcomes. 

• Thinks critically to assess uncertainty and find clear solutions to complex situations. 

• Strong facilitation, influencing and engagement skills that enable you to work with diverse stakeholder groups while managing expectations. 

• Active listener and clear communicator, enabling effective technical discussions to closure. 

• Experience in aviation, transport, logistics, or operations is highly desirable, supporting fast context uptake. 

• Confidence engaging with sponsors, finance partners, and vendors — with a focus on value, risk and change. 

• A collaborative, growth-oriented mindset and ability to coach, mediate and guide without needing to control. 

Why this role? 

• This is a rare opportunity to help shape how Air New Zealand delivers its most complex work in a way that’s practical, purposeful and people-first. You’ll join a passionate team focused on continuous improvement, delivery momentum and real-world outcomes. If you love making things happen and want to be part of something meaningful, we’d love to hear from you. 

This role will close by 11:59pm, Sunday 22 February. 

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. We encourage candidates from diverse backgrounds, including those with a disability, additional health and mental health needs, and/or are neurodiverse to apply for our roles.

If you have encountered any accessibility barriers and require further information or reasonable accommodations to our recruitment process, please reach out to the recruiter listed on this job advert so they are able to support you to freely participate equitably in our recruitment and selection process.

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."