The posting
Job Description
Kia ora!
The safety of our airline depends on more than strong operational performance. It relies on safety management systems that enable informed decision making, provide independent assurance, and drive continuous improvement across one of the world's safest airlines.
As Tribe Lead (General Manager) Safety Assurance, you will lead one of Air New Zealand's most critical enterprise capabilities. Reporting to the Chief Safety & Risk Officer, you will shape the strategic direction, effectiveness and continual evolution of our Integrated Airline Safety Management System (IASMS), and People Safety Management System (HSEW MS), ensuring they remain fit for purpose in a dynamic operational and regulatory environment.
This is a senior leadership role that holds the regulatory appointment of Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand (CAANZ) Senior Person, Safety Management System, for activities conducted under Air New Zealand's Air Operator Certificate.
Working across the enterprise, you will provide independent oversight and assurance of our Safety Management Systems for people and operational safety, while enabling leaders and Risk Owners to effectively identify, assess and manage safety risks within their own areas of accountability. Success in this role relies on balancing assurance with partnership, providing independent challenge while building trusted relationships that strengthen safety performance across the airline.
Importantly, this role does not own people and operational safety on behalf of the business. Accountability for activities and performance, hazards, risks, and controls remains with our leaders and Risk Owners. Your role is to ensure the systems, assurance, and governance are in place to enable effective safety management across the airline, independently assess their effectiveness, provide expert advice and constructive challenge, and ensure significant safety and regulatory issues are appropriately identified and escalated.
About the role:
- Provide enterprise leadership for the implementation, maintenance, effectiveness and continual improvement of Air New Zealand's Integrated Airline Safety Management System (SMS), and People Safety Management System (HSEW MS).
- Set the strategic direction, and establish and maintain, policy, standards, governance, processes and safety risk management frameworks.
- Lead the airline's independent Safety Assurance and regulatory compliance monitoring programmes through risk-based audit, surveillance and assurance activities.
- Ensure leaders and Risk Owners have the frameworks, methodologies, training and guidance needed to effectively identify, assess and manage safety risk.
- Provide independent review and validation of Change Management and Risk Management Plans, monitoring the effectiveness of safety controls and the quality of safety risk management across the business.
- Lead the development of safety monitoring and analytics, using operational and safety intelligence to identify emerging risks, systemic issues and opportunities to strengthen organisational resilience.
- Champion organisational learning through safety promotion, Just Culture, capability development and continuous improvement initiatives.
- Lead the annual Management Review of the SMS, chair the Group Safety Review Board, and provide Executive and Board Governance forums with deep insights into safety performance, emerging risks and system effectiveness.
- Maintain Air New Zealand's IOSA registration and coordinate associated assurance activities and regulatory oversight.
- Represent Air New Zealand with the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand and other aviation authorities on safety system and assurance matters.
- Lead and develop a high performing Safety Assurance function, ensuring it has the capability, independence, authority and resources required to deliver effective enterprise assurance.
What we're looking for:
- Significant leadership experience in aviation safety within complex operational environments, ideally in commercial air transport.
- Demonstrated experience in aviation safety management, safety investigation or a comparable operational safety leadership discipline.
- Deep expertise in aviation Safety Management Systems, operational safety risk management, safety assurance and the regulatory frameworks that govern airline operations.
- The credibility, judgement and executive presence to provide independent professional advice and constructive challenge while establishing trusted relationships across senior operational and executive leadership.
- Outstanding leadership, communication and influencing capability, with the ability to translate complex operational, regulatory and safety information into strategic insight that informs decision making at all levels of the airline.
- A proven track record of strengthening organisational capability, embedding continuous improvement and fostering a mature safety culture.
- You will meet the experience and competence required for acceptance by the Civil Aviation Authority of New Zealand as Senior Person, Safety Management System, including the regulatory requirements relating to aviation operational and safety management experience.
If you bring most of this experience, along with transferable leadership capability and the drive to strengthen one of the aviation industry's most important enterprise safety systems, we'd love to hear from you.
This is a rare opportunity to shape the effectiveness of Air New Zealand's safety systems at an enterprise level. You will influence how safety is enabled across the airline, providing the independent oversight, assurance and strategic leadership that helps ensure our systems remain effective, our risks are understood, and our people continue to operate safely every day.
If you're ready to lead a function that is central to the future of aviation safety at Air New Zealand, apply now.
Applications close 17 November 2026.
Additional Information
At Air New Zealand, we are proudly committed to diversity, equity and inclusion and believe in creating a truly inclusive workplace where everyone can be themselves and thrive. Our people are our greatest asset – because while everything else we do in our operation can be replicated by our competitors, it is our people that truly set us apart. We are firm believers in celebrating the differences and diversity of thought our people bring to their roles. We encourage candidates from diverse backgrounds, including those with a disability, additional health and mental health needs, and/or are neurodiverse to apply for our roles.
If you have encountered any accessibility barriers and require further information or reasonable accommodations to our recruitment process, please reach out to the recruiter listed on this job advert so they are able to support you to freely participate equitably in our recruitment and selection process.
Whāia te pae tawhiti kia tata. Ko te pae tata whakamaua, kia tina.
"Seek to bring distant horizons closer. Once near, seize them and make them your reality."
