Team Leader River Management - Northern

The role How would you like to use your skills and experience to make a real difference in one of the most diverse landscapes in New Zealand? We have an exciting role available within the Catchment Operations Group that plays a key part in helping to protect our communities from flooding via our river and drainage assets.

As caretakers of our expansive region, Horizons Regional Council offers you a diverse and challenging environment to put your well-developed engineering and leadership skills to good use. We have an opportunity for a motivated and committed engineer to manage the northern regional river management team. This is a full-time permanent position based from our Marton service centre.

As a Team Leader River Management, you will be responsible for leading a team of river and drainage staff, providing mentoring and guidance to build the capability of the team. It is an opportunity to have in-depth involvement in the many and varied projects focussed on river and drainage operations as well as asset management, keeping people and property safe from flooding.

About you To apply for this position, you will hold a relevant tertiary qualification to degree level plus at least five years relevant experience or hold a relevant undergraduate certificate or diploma plus at least five years direct industry experience in a relevant management discipline. You will preferably have extensive experience in:

• river and drainage engineering,
• contract and financial management,
• regulatory compliance,
• staff management, and
• have a high level of public liaison and advocacy skills.

You will need to be equipped with strong leadership and communication skills. An understanding of rural New Zealand is an advantage, along with strong relationship management skills as you'll be working with landowners, iwi and territorial authorities. A current Class 1 full New Zealand driver's licence is a must.

If you can bring passion and enthusiasm to work then look no further, we have the training and career progression to provide you with a great opportunity!

Why join us? When you join us, you can look forward to a rewarding career full of opportunities to develop a positive and supportive work environment. We do this through:

• Positive focus on employee health, wellness and wellbeing initiatives across the organisation including your birthday off, wellbeing day, life insurance for all permanent staff and 5 weeks leave after 2 years of service.
• Flexible family friendly work environment.
• Ongoing development and opportunities across the organisation to grow, specialise or diversify your skills.
• Working together for a better environment across our region.
• A supportive and social work environment across the organisation.

About us The Horizons region extends over 22,200km2 – from Ruapehu in the north and Horowhenua in the south, to Whanganui in the west and Tararua in the east. We work with and for our community in the use and protection of our environment, managing our precious resources of land, air and water; as well as public transport and a key role in emergency management. At Horizons Regional Council we work to make our region a healthy environment where people are thriving, including our staff.

Applications close at 5pm on Sunday 24 May 2026. Horizons are an equal opportunity employer and are committed to ensuring we have a diverse and inclusive workplace so our people reflect the diversity of our region.