Team Lead Asset Planning Treatment

Job Spec: The purpose of the Team Lead Asset Planning Treatment position is to Lead and coordinate focused asset planning for treatment facilities and the bulk water network, ensuring strategic, integrated, and future-focused investment planning. This role is accountable for developing and maintaining Facility and Bulk Network Management Plans, commissioning investigations, and acting as an internal customer for capital projects to ensure alignment between planning priorities and delivery. The Team Lead sets condition assessment requirements, interprets asset health data, and translates insights into targeted investment needs and transparent risk reporting. The role fosters a high-performance team culture, supports evidence-based planning, and delivers long-term value and service excellence for the organisation and community

Job holder is responsible for:

Job holder’s deliverables are:

Job holder is successful when:

Asset planning Treatment Facilities and Bulk Water Network

• Provide strategic and operational leadership for treatment asset planning
• Integrate lifecycle planning, investment prioritisation, and technical governance.
• Develop long-term [asset] management plans, treatment renewal strategies, and capacity/quality improvement plans.
• Translate regulatory, resilience, water quality and treatment performance insights into clear investment priorities.
• Develop and maintain Facility and Bulk Network Management Plans
• Ensure plan inputs into the Asset Management Plan (AMP) and capital plan are comprehensive and accurate.
• Asset plans are provided in line with organisational timelines and implemented in line with strategic priorities
• Asset plans are risk informed including lifecycle planning, align with the investment prioritisation
• Plans drive measurable improvements in reliability, water quality and resilience
• The investment programme is prioritised for treatment facilities and bulk water assets.
• Clear line-of-sight between condition/performance insights and investments.
• Plans are current and approved within organisational timeframes.

Condition Assessment

• Set condition assessment frameworks and performance requirements for treatment assets.
• Set condition assessment requirements and lead interpretation of data, translating asset health insights into investment needs and risk reporting.
• Review condition data and determine investment needs and risk-based priorities.
• Condition assessment standards and annual inspection programmes are installed.

Facility and Bulk Network Investigations

• Support commission investigations and briefs.
• Commissioning investigation reports are

Position Description Team Lead Asset Planning, Treatment July 2026

• Act as the planning representative during project scoping to ensure alignment with planning objectives.
• Collaborate with operational and technical teams to integrate asset condition and performance insights.
• completed with clear recommendations
• Investigations and briefs are prioritised based on organisational priorities, risk and impact.
• Work effectively with SMEs in providing timely analysis of performance insights to inform investment decisions and condition assessment requirements.

Collaboration and Regulatory Alignment

• Work closely with Water Quality, Operations, Environmental, Finance and Delivery teams
• Ensure planning outputs support regulatory compliance (e.g., drinking water standards, environmental consents).
• Regulatory submissions or supporting documentation.
• Strong cross-functional alignment with internal stakeholders.
• Investment plans aligned with drinking water quality and environmental obligations.

People Leadership

• Lead the team in a way that fosters accountability, collaboration and consistently high performance
• Ensure team priorities are clear, and workloads are managed effectively to meet organisational goals
• Actively support people development and resolve performance concerns promptly and constructively
• Hold regular development conversations and 1:1 meetings and offer coaching and mentoring to help team members grow
• Clearly define and communicate expectations for delivery, conduct, and collaboration within the team
• Communicate task assignment and resource allocation clearly to enable the team to deliver agreed goals and priorities.
• Evidence of a strong team culture where accountability, collaboration and high performance are consistently demonstrated
• The team delivers predictably and effectively.
• Team members participate in PDPs on time and support and development is evident
• Expectations are communicated clearly, with clear allocation of tasks and resources
• Team is engaged and motivated.
• Performance issues are addressed early and constructively.

Health & Safety

• Champion safety in all aspects of your work
• Champion a health and safety culture and ensure that staff, peers and suppliers are aware of and meet their H&S obligations.
• Demonstrate health and safety is a top priority of your work
• Everyone goes home safely
• Stakeholder confidence remains high.

Compulsory position requirements & qualifications

• Bachelor or Master of Engineering in Civil, Environmental or Process Engineering

Position Description Team Lead Asset Planning, Treatment July 2026

• 10 plus years in water infrastructure planning, with 3 plus years in a leadership role

Required capabilities and experience

• Deep understanding of water supply, wastewater treatment, and drainage systems; asset lifecycle planning; regulatory frameworks
• Desired
  Familiarity with Three Waters reform, Te Mana o te Wai

Your key attributes

• Leadership, with proven ability to lead technical teams, manage performance, and drive strategic outcomes
• Communication with strong stakeholder engagement, report writing, and visual presentation skills

Job Brief:

AdChaseText:

Consultant Notes: Tiaki Wai is a council-owned water organisation established under the Local Government (Water Services) Act 2025, taking over long-term ownership and investment for water services across Wellington's metro area (pre-1 July, Wellington Water focused on maintenance, not ownership). The Asset Planning team is newly created (~12 months old), still forming, and sits under Manager Asset Planning (Leon). Three team leader roles in total: Asset Planning Networks (filled internally — new to leadership, a development case), Asset Service & Planning, and this one, Treatment. Treatment is the most technical of the three: complex treatment assets plus bulk water network. Leon is currently absorbing a lot of the leadership load on top of his own role, so this hire must land ready — not a development appointment. Team is under heavy external scrutiny (Commission), with real pressure on investment rigour, prioritisation and justification. Leon: easy-going, soft-spoken, deeply passionate about asset management, asks insightful and in-depth interview questions, long-tenured and knows Tiaki Wai well. Wider team: highly skilled principal-level engineers, grads through to hardened principals, gets on well, ridiculously busy. Org is keen to lift diversity generally.

Role Details

• Reports to: Manager Asset Planning
• Direct reports: two — one Principal, one Senior Engineer, both well established
• Location: Petone
• Employment: Permanent, full-time
• Package: Grade 20, $130k–$183k incl. KiwiSaver (James confirmed this range is correct for Treatment). Leon keen to maintain internal relativity — target level to be confirmed; mid-point typical
• Financial delegations: Nil
• Qualification: Bachelor or Master of Engineering (Civil, Environmental or Process) — civil engineer confirmed as essential in brief

Recruitment Process

• SEEK ad closes Sunday 18 October
• Role has been live a while; no applicants for Treatment at time of brief
• Candidates to apply/register via website
• Frog engaged exclusively — no other agencies briefed
• James to confirm target salary point back to Peter

Recruitment Notes

Selection Priorities:

• Engineering depth across drinking water, wastewater and stormwater — how treatment and network actually work
• Strong asset management and asset planning capability
• Facility and Bulk Network Management Plans; inputs into AMP and capital plan
• Condition assessment frameworks, interpreting asset health data into investment need and risk reporting
• Investment prioritisation and justification under constrained funding
• Regulatory alignment — drinking water standards, environmental consents
• Proven leadership maturity: performance management, coaching, PDPs, clear expectations

Preferred Backgrounds:

• Water infrastructure planning; three waters
• Engineering consultancy (Peter to approach a contact with redundancies in a consulting engineering team)
• Familiarity with Three Waters reform and Te Mana o te Wai (desired)

Candidate Traits:

• Self-sufficient leader who won't need development — critical given Leon's current load
• Comfortable with technical governance and influencing operational staff to shift from a maintenance mindset to long-term investment thinking
• Strong stakeholder engagement, report writing and visual presentation
• Able to hold their ground in prioritisation conflicts

Red Flags:

• Past hires had technical capability but lacked leadership capability/maturity — the recurring failure point
• Client acknowledges being "very picky", driven by nervousness about the investment in this person
• Principal-level candidates who deliberately avoid people leadership
• Non-engineers (e.g. Lara is an asset management fit but is not an engineer, so not suited to Treatment)

At people2people, Edge Recruitment and Frog Recruitment, we welcome everyone and encourage people to be their authentic selves. If you require reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please contact your recruitment consultant so we can support your needs.