Whakatakoto te tūāpapa | Laying the foundation

At Contact Energy, we're on a mission to power a better Aotearoa. As one of New Zealand's leading energy generators and retailers, we're combining innovation, operational excellence and a deep sense of kaitiakitanga to create a more sustainable energy future. From geothermal and hydro generation through to customer solutions, the work we do every day helps keep homes, businesses and communities thriving while supporting the country's transition to a lower carbon future.

The Clutha Hydro Scheme sits at the heart of that mission. Stretching across some of New Zealand's most spectacular landscapes, our hydro assets play a critical role in delivering reliable renewable energy to the national grid. From the powerhouse at Clyde through to the wider scheme, including Paerau and Patearoa, our teams work together to keep these complex assets performing at their best. It's a place where technical expertise, strong relationships and a genuine pride in ownership come together to make a real impact every day.

Te āhua o te tūranga | The nature of the role

As our Clutha Maintenance Lead, you'll be the person bringing maintenance plans to life. Leading a skilled team and partnering closely with contractors and stakeholders, you'll create the environment where safe, high quality work happens every day. You'll balance people leadership with operational excellence, ensuring maintenance activities are delivered efficiently while maximising plant reliability, generation availability and team performance. Whether you're guiding outage execution, supporting fault investigations or helping your team tackle complex challenges, you'll be at the centre of keeping one of New Zealand's most important hydro schemes running strong.

This is a role for someone who enjoys being close to the action while thinking about the bigger picture. You'll work alongside asset management, engineering and planning teams to improve reliability, strengthen maintenance practices and continuously lift performance across the scheme. There will be opportunities to influence long term outcomes, develop capability within your team and champion a culture where safety, accountability and continuous improvement are part of how we mahi every day.

Ko wai koe | About you

You'll likely bring experience leading maintenance teams in a hydro, energy, industrial, manufacturing or other operational environment where safety, reliability and teamwork are critical. You're someone who knows how to build trust, provide clear direction and support others to perform at their best. You enjoy solving problems, making practical decisions and finding opportunities to improve the way work gets done. Most importantly, you're a leader who values people as much as performance and understands that great outcomes come from strong, engaged teams.

To be successful in this role, there are a few things we'd expect you to bring. You'll need experience leading teams and contractors in a safety critical environment, along with a strong background in maintenance delivery and asset reliability. Familiarity with maintenance planning, outage execution and work management systems such as SAP PM will also be important. Beyond that, we'd love to see experience working with complex mechanical, electrical, instrumentation or hydro systems, however if you bring strong maintenance leadership capability from a comparable industry, we'd still encourage you to apply. We're looking for someone who is resilient, collaborative, curious and committed to continuous improvement, a leader who can inspire others, challenge the status quo and help shape the future of hydro maintenance across the Clutha scheme.

This role will be based full time with our Hydro team at our Clyde site. 

There are a bunch of perks to being a permanent Contact kaimahi. Along with great leadership, teammates, development, and growth and progression opportunities, free health insurance cover, better-than-your-average leave, access to Contact Shares, a ‘Good to be Home’ annual payment toward your home set up & wellbeing, a trail-blazing parental leave policy, bi-annual payments towards Contact Energy products, and more!


Applications close 9am Monday the 5th of October

Here at Contact Energy (Te Mata Hiko), we know our strength lies in developing a sense of belonging - one that helps us attract and retain people with a broad range of perspectives and experiences.

We’re committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to bring their whole selves to work. Our goal is to reflect the diversity of our customers and communities to help build a better Aotearoa New Zealand.

We have a rich community of talented people that we support to thrive at Contact.

Our inclusive hiring process is designed to embrace the diversity of Aotearoa New Zealand, ensuring a wide range of perspectives are included in our decision-making and helping reduce bias along the way.

The wellbeing of our kaimahi is super important to us.

We use employee insights to offer a range of initiatives and resources to support physical, mental, financial and emotional wellbeing – including flexible working arrangements, employee network groups and a market-leading parental leave policy.

At Te Mata Hiko, we want everyone to thrive. We welcome applicants far and wide - of every age, stage, background, and pride. Join us and be part of a team that values your passion and attitude just as much as your experience and skills.

Please note, only candidates with the right to live and work in New Zealand will be considered for this role.

Research shows that while men apply to jobs where they meet 60% of the criteria, women and those in underrepresented groups tend to only apply if they tick every box. We're not about box ticking, so if you think you have what it takes but don't meet everything stated above, please still get in touch. We'd love to kōrero.

Te Mata Hiko (Contact Energy) does not accept any CVs received from recruitment agencies where a formal engagement has not been confirmed and agreed to with our Talent team. In the event that unsolicited CVs are submitted by recruitment agencies, Te Mata Hiko (Contact Energy) reserves the right to contact these candidates directly and consider them for current/future vacancies without any financial obligation to the recruitment agency in question. This will also apply to any CVs sent directly to line managers.