Project Investigations Group Manager

Our purpose is to empower New Zealand’s energy future, enabling a net-zero carbon economy and a reliable, secure electricity system. Our context Few electricity organisations globally operate across grid ownership, power system operation, renewable integration, and HVDC transmission. At Transpower, these responsibilities come together in our role at the centre of New Zealand’s national electricity system. The scale and complexity of our work programme is expected to more than double in the next five years. To meet this challenge, we are evolving the way we work, strengthening capability, and positioning ourselves to deliver the infrastructure, planning, and system outcomes New Zealand will need for decades to come. Grid Delivery is responsible for the work that keeps the National Grid safe, reliable, resilient and ready for New Zealand’s changing electricity needs. The division brings together the operational, maintenance, programme delivery, planning, engineering and service provider capabilities required to turn grid strategy and investment decisions into coordinated national delivery. It works across regions, customers, service providers and internal partners to deliver safe field work, maintain asset performance, manage outages and operational risk, and improve how work is planned, prioritised and delivered across the grid. The Project Investigations group provides the leadership, discipline and consistency required to translate investment intent into well-scoped, delivery-ready projects. It brings together project investigation practices, capable people, effective governance and fit-for-purpose frameworks so early-stage definition, options assessment and investment decisions are integrated, consistent and aligned to organisational priorities. The opportunity — lead a new project investigation function! Lead the Project Investigations group and evolve the systems, practices and delivery disciplines that support successful investigation and definition of Transpower’s investment projects before they move into delivery. Working across Transpower and with external partners, you will strengthen how project investigations are planned, governed, resourced and integrated with wider delivery priorities. You’ll provide active leadership across: * Project investigation practice leadership: setting direction for investigation activities, practices, standards, controls, assurance and quality. * Capability, resource deployment and workforce planning: building leadership depth, professional standards, workforce pathways and effective deployment of project investigation resources. * Integration and delivery alignment: aligning project investigations with project delivery, programme delivery, project engineering and investment priorities. * Performance and continuous improvement: using delivery insights, lessons learned and industry practice to improve safety, efficiency, quality and delivery predictability. * Governance and assurance: strengthening stage-gate, assurance and delivery review processes, monitoring performance and identifying areas requiring intervention or improvement. * Operating model stewardship: strengthening accountabilities, interfaces and decision rights as the new Grid Delivery model matures. The experience you will bring You’ll be an experienced senior leader across complex project, programme, infrastructure delivery, project investigation, project management or asset-intensive environments. Commercially astute and collaborative, you will be confident leading through people managers, building capability, lifting performance, operating at pace, and influencing across multiple teams, partners and senior stakeholder groups. You’ll also bring a visible commitment to health, safety and wellbeing, and be confident creating clarity, coaching leaders, supporting development, and fostering an inclusive, collaborative and improvement-focused culture. In your CV we’ll be looking for evidence of: * Senior leadership accountability for project management, programme management, project investigation, infrastructure delivery or comparable delivery functions, including leading leaders or specialist teams. * Experience building capability, strengthening accountability, improving performance, and planning resources across demand, capacity, capability and future workforce needs. * A track record of establishing or improving project investigation practices, methodologies, controls, assurance processes, stage-gate disciplines or operating frameworks. * Commercial judgement and strong stakeholder influence across senior internal teams, delivery partners, engineering consultants, service providers, industry bodies or peer organisations. * Experience using performance insights, lessons learned and delivery data to drive improvement, with exposure to electricity transmission, regulated infrastructure, utilities or other asset-intensive environments advantageous. * Experience with business planning, budgeting, performance reporting, governance metrics and risk-based decision support. Join us at Transpower At Transpower, our people are connected by purpose: empowering New Zealand’s energy future. We bring diverse perspectives together to solve complex challenges, make considered decisions, and deliver work that matters for generations to come. As a senior leader, you’ll be part of an organisation where visibility, connection, and communication matter. You’ll help create clarity, bring people together, and lead through complexity as we deliver infrastructure outcomes of national significance. We offer intellectually stimulating work, ongoing learning, and a range of health, wellbeing, and insurance benefits. Learn more here: Staff benefits | Transpower
Next steps If you are interested in shaping project investigation capability for nationally significant infrastructure, we encourage you to review the position description and information pack (on our careers site) to better understand the scale, operating context and expectations of the role. Applications close Tuesday 1st September, and will be reviewed as they are received. We may contact candidates ahead of the closing date for an initial exploratory conversation.