General Manager (Tribe Lead) Turboprop Availability (Christchurch or Auckland)

JobsCloseBy Editorial Insights

Air New Zealand is seeking a General Manager (Tribe Lead) Turboprop Availability, responsible for the availability, reliability, cost and health of the turboprop fleet, reporting to the Chief Operations Officer, Technical Operations. You will set the strategic direction for the Turboprop Availability Tribe, align maintenance planning, supply chain and engineering, and drive resilience, performance and customer outcomes. This role requires authentic leadership, the ability to unite cross functional teams, and weekly travel between Auckland and Christchurch, with a base in Auckland or Christchurch. Bring senior aviation operations experience, a track record of reliability improvements, data driven decision making, and strong stakeholder influence. Highlight strategic impact, change leadership, and quantified results in your resume and cover letter.

Job Description

Kia ora!

Lead the performance and strategic direction of Air New Zealand's turboprop fleet and shape the future of Technical Operations.

As General Manager (Tribe Lead) Turboprop Availability, you will lead one of the most critical teams in our Tech Ops business, with responsibility for the availability, reliability, cost, and overall fleet health of our Turboprop operation. This is an enterprise leadership role with significant influence across the organisation, where your decisions will directly impact operational performance, customer experience, safety, and commercial outcomes. Our Tribe Leads set the vision and strategy for their Tribe, delivering on its purpose from end to end. They align and empower cross functional teams, setting clear priorities, enabling collaboration, and driving collective performance.

Reporting to the Chief Operations Officer, Technical Operations, you will define the strategic direction for the Turboprop Availability Tribe, setting priorities, aligning cross functional teams, and delivering against ambitious business outcomes. This is an opportunity to influence high performance at scale by creating an environment where people feel valued, empowered, and connected. You'll role model how we show up every day by welcoming different perspectives, raising the bar for performance, and shaping the future of Tech Ops.

This role can be based in Auckland or Christchurch. As a highly visible enterprise leadership role, you'll build strong relationships across both locations and be comfortable travelling between Auckland and Christchurch on a weekly basis.

How you'll make an impact

• Define and execute the strategic direction for the Turboprop Availability Tribe, setting priorities, sequencing, stopping or de-prioritising work that does not serve fleet availability, and delivering against business objectives and key performance indicators.
• Own the strategic performance of Air New Zealand's turboprop fleet, setting the direction that enables world class operational resilience, sustainable commercial performance, and exceptional customer outcomes.
• Build across functional tribe into a genuinely high-performing unit, empowering teams to make decisions, solve complex challenges, and consistently deliver value.
• Act as a connector across Tech Ops and the wider enterprise, bringing people together, breaking down silos, and aligning stakeholders to achieve shared outcomes.
• Continually design and own the team boundaries, cadence and governance of the Fleet Availability Tribe, including the interface with maintenance planning, supply chain and engineering, in line with Air New Zealand’s operating model.
• Shape investment and operational decisions that optimise long term fleet performance, balancing safety, commercial outcomes, risk, and operational resilience.
• Build organisational capability by coaching others, continuously enhancing the existing culture.

What we're looking for

• A proven senior leadership track record within complex operational aviation environments.
• Demonstrated success leading enterprise scale operational performance and delivering measurable improvements across reliability, customer outcomes, and financial performance.
• An authentic leader who creates belonging, builds trust, develops capability, and inspires people to raise the bar while embracing new ways of working.
• Experience leading established operational environments through significant cultural change, bringing the resilience, persistence, and influencing capability needed to shift mindsets, embed new ways of working, and deliver lasting performance improvements.
• A strategic systems thinker who understands how complex organisations operate and can own and interact within these systems - identifying the critical levers for success, and naturally connecting people, teams, and priorities to achieve enterprise outcomes.
• Strong commercial acumen, with the ability to balance operational performance, safety, cost, and risk while making informed, data driven decisions.
• Exceptional stakeholder leadership skills, with the credibility to influence across diverse teams, challenge constructively, and align leaders around a shared vision.
• A leader who can face issues early, create clarity amongst ambiguity, set boundaries, and own what is delivered.
• A passion for continuous improvement and modern ways of working, with experience creating cultures of innovation, learning, transparency, and continuous development.

We know great talent comes in many forms. If you bring strong experience and a fresh perspective, we'd love to hear from you.

Ready for take-off?

This role can be based in Auckland or Christchurch and offers the opportunity to lead some of the most strategically important teams within Air New Zealand. You'll influence enterprise performance, develop exceptional leaders, and help shape the future of one of New Zealand's most iconic organisations. If you're energised by complexity, lead with authenticity, inspire others to raise the bar, have experience developing established cultures, and are driven to shape the future, we'd love to hear from you.

Applications close 9th September 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."