A new chapter is starting for water services in Wellington’s metropolitan area. From 1 July 2026, Tiaki Wai will take over responsibility for providing drinking water, wastewater and stormwater services to approximately 433,000 residents across Greater Wellington, Wellington City, Porirua City, Hutt City, and Upper Hutt City.
As a council-owned water services organisation, oversight will be maintained by a Partners Committee made up of representatives from shareholding councils and mana whenua (Taranaki Whānui ki te Upoko o Te Ika and Ngāti Toa Rangatira). From 1 July, Tiaki Wai will bill customers directly for water services, meaning it can make more prioritised, sustainable investment and borrowing decisions. Councils will also transfer their water assets to Tiaki Wai, giving it the independence, resources, and region-wide perspective to effectively manage and improve water services for current and future communities.
Reporting to the Chief Executive Officer, the Chief Corporate Services Officer (“CCSO”) will play a key role in helping to shape Tiaki Wai through its establishment phase and into long-term operational maturity, ensuring the organisation is set up, resourced, and aligned for future success and delivering to its customers, communities, partners and shareholders.
Based in Wellington, the role of CCSO is a pivotal one, responsible for Tiaki Wai’s corporate functions and ensuring that the organisation is equipped with the capability, culture, systems, governance and commercial discipline needed to succeed and to support the organisation through growth, complexity and regulatory expectations.
The CCSO will lead a broad portfolio spanning Corporate, People, Digital, Commercial and Transformation functions. Key to success will be the ability to create corporate services that are customer focused, efficient and future-ready. This will involve leading transformation, change and maturity uplift in order to ensure the requisite organisational performance and culture that enables Tiaki Wai to perform safely, sustainably and at scale. A dynamic role, this requires a strategic and experienced leader who can establish organisational foundations while supporting substantial growth and operational complexity.
The successful candidate will bring strong enterprise leadership, excellent judgement, and the ability to work confidently within a multi stakeholder environment. They will have deep experience leading large corporate services functions and a proven record of delivering organisational performance, digital transformation, workforce capability, and modern procurement practice. The appointee will demonstrate a leadership style that is motivational, collaborative, people centred and grounded in integrity.
For more information or to apply, please contact Hobson Leavy Executive Search: tiakiwai@hobsonleavy.com.
Applications close at 5.00pm Wednesday 8th April 2026
