Senior Project Manager - Terminal Enabling Works

Capstone ·www.capstonerecruitment.com.au

Location Mangere, Auckland, New Zealand
Type Full time
Level Senior
Source Shazamme
Project Management
Apply direct
Confidential
Senior Project Manager
May 2025
Reporting Relationship and Location
Reports to:
Programme Director I Project Director
Team I Business Unit:
Delivery I Infrastructure
Purpose
The purpose of the Senior Project Manager role is to lead the successful planning and execution of single or multiple airport infrastructure projects totalling between $0.1B and $0.4B, ensuring alignment with the airport’s strategic objectives and operational needs. This role is critical in delivering complex capital works safely and efficiently while maintaining the continuity of airport operations. The Senior Project Manager acts as a strategic conductor between assigned staff, suppliers, stakeholders, functional teams, and executive leadership to ensure that all project components are integrated, compliant, and delivered to meet or exceed business imperatives.
The role oversees all phases of the project lifecycle—from planning, design, procurement, and construction through to commissioning and handover —ensuring delivery within scope, schedule, and budget while meeting all safety, regulatory, and quality standards. The success of the role relies on the Senior Project Manager’s ability to champion projects internally, ensuring appropriate resourcing and securing timely, considered decisions from the business.
This role will help shape Aotearoa’s gateway by supporting the successful delivery of critical infrastructure, ensuring a lasting legacy for stakeholders, travellers, and whānau at a strategic and national level.
Key Accountabilities
Project and Governance Management
• Takes ownership for holistic project performance.
• Manages projects across all stages to achieve expected benefits and brief requirements, ensuring efficient management of scope, cost, time, quality, risk, safety, stakeholders, and environment.
• Creates and maintains detailed project execution plans outlining tasks, timelines, resources, and key milestones.
• Develops a resource plan to ensure sufficient resources, skill, and care are applied to all project aspects.
• Understands the full scope of the project, including enterprise-wide dependencies and ensures that project(s) programmes take account of airport requirements such as other project(s), operational interfaces, restricted access, peak periods, flight schedules and stakeholder relocations etc.
• Actively manages project/programme dependencies within the enterprise integrated schedule.
Confidential
Project and Governance Management
• Tracks project progress and performance proactively, adjusting plans as necessary to ensure successful completion.
• Actively manages project interfaces and promotes enterprise level, best for business solutions even if these may not be to the immediate advantage of projects under direct control.
• Ensures that project dashboards and progress reports are accurate, on-time and complete.
• Ensures regular and effective project meetings are held for progress, control, governance etc.
• Provides input to executive level governance papers and presentations and prepares documentation for governance Gate (Gates 3, 4, 5) submissions.
• Using a deep understanding of unique airport requirements, proactively identifies and critically analyses project(s) risk, identifies synergies, opportunities and mitigations, and ensures that these are incorporated into project risk management practice. Ensures that formal risk management remains throughout the life of the project(s).
• Escalates risk and opportunity to senior management where necessary.
• Understands the value of process and ensures the application of infrastructure delivery methodologies.
• Establishes and monitors processes for efficient and robust management of documents and submittals and ensures that these are reviewed, responded to or otherwise processed in accordance with requirements.
• Makes time to consider alignment, coordination and working relationships within the project team and wider business and stakeholder groups. Provides clear direction on roles and responsibilities and promotes the value of teamwork.
• Recognises conflicts and resolves them before they affect performance.
• Recognises and understands the breadth of specialist knowledge within the airport and uses it to the project’s advantage.
Design and Construction, Management
• Ensures that business requirements are captured and aligned to optimal business outcomes, and that design is robustly controlled though all phases of asset development.
• Ensures that design deliverables are reviewed for completeness and compliance with project requirements, briefs and Auckland Airport design standards, and that findings are appropriately addressed and closed in a timely manner.
Confidential
• Ensures that regulatory peer reviews are performed and closed in a timely manner.
• Actively champions tight control of scope and careful management of scope change with all parties.
• Acts to mitigate the impacts of change through decisive action on early warnings.
• Assesses project changes against requirements, proactively engages with the business to negotiate best-for-business outcomes, and expedites change decisions through governance.
• Enables site possession and facilitates project kick-off.
• Develops a permitting plan to ensure compliance and timely approvals.
• Monitors site compliance in collaboration with the Construction Operations Manager.
• Ensure the external appearance of sites is given appropriate care and attention, using hoardings as storytelling opportunities
• Expedites the resolution of non-conforming items ensuring that AKL’s interests as a long term asset owner and maintainer are protected.
• Ensures that Testing and Commissioning Plans are developed and executed in alignment with AKL operational and maintenance activity.
• Facilitates project alignment with ORAT activities.
• Ensures that projects have a robust quality assurance programme in place covering all project disciplines.
• Leads post-project evaluations, capturing lessons learned and identifying opportunities for process improvements.
Stakeholder Management
• Working closely with the Stakeholder team, forms a stakeholder engagement plan, maintains strong stakeholder relationships, and manages competing interests among diverse stakeholder groups with diplomacy and strategic awareness.
• Facilitates regular updates to stakeholders on timelines, progress, and impacts.
Commercial
• Works closely with Commercial and Procurement specialist to define and implement well considered procurement strategies which provide optimal commercial value to AKL.
• Ensures that procurement activity is executed efficiently and professionally.
• Supports the Commercial Manager to ensure professional contract administration for project(s), and that this is documented in accordance with departmental procedures.
Confidential
Commercial
• Ensures that airport risk coverage requirements (financial due diligence, bonds, insurances, retentions etc.) are in place throughout the life of the project(s)
• Ensures that progress payments are properly analysed for entitlement prior to certification. Processes and approves payments under delegated authority level.
• Champions active claims prevention by driving the resolution of issues at the early warning stage.
• Ensures that claims are professionally reviewed for entitlement and determines entitlement on behalf of the airport.
• Ensures that contract deliverables are logged and verified as received throughout the life of the project(s). Reviews recommendation for Practical and Final Completion certificates and authorises on behalf of the airport where appropriate.
• Ensures that project estimates and budgets are robust and appropriate for the scope of work, the stage of development, and the operational environment.
• Manages project cost and forecast to complete tightly against budget. Is able to transparently and quantitatively articulate overall commercial position with reference to cost, change, forecast to complete, schedule and risk.
• Ensures all documents created during the project lifecycle are stored, managed and turned over in accordance with business procedures.
Matrix Leadership
• Acts as day-to-day manager for Infrastructure functional staff (engineering, controls, commercial) assigned to project, providing direction, support, guidance and mentorship.
• Works with other AKL Business Unit functional teams to support their specialist activities across legal, communications, stakeholder, safety, customer and operations
• Monitors resource utilisation and proposes allocations as required.
People Leadership
• Leads cross-functional teams including Project Managers, Design Managers, Commercial Managers, Construction Operations Managers, Cost and Controls Managers etc., fostering a high-performance, collaborative work environment.
• Guides and supports internal staff, consultants, and contractors to meet project goals, setting clear expectations, providing feedback, and fostering a high-performance culture.
• Promotes effective communication and collaboration across business departments and stakeholders to ensure project alignment and smooth execution.
Confidential
• Leads teams through project changes and shifting priorities while maintaining focus, morale, and momentum.
• Manages by empowering people to provide solutions.
• Contributes to team growth through mentoring, performance evaluation, and identifying development needs.
• Develops and maintain a productive, harmonious and motivated team through the implementation of Auckland Airport’s People & Capability strategies and policies
• Leads by example, living the Auckland Airport values every day
Health,
Safety and Wellbeing
• Role models Auckland Airport’s commitment to “People First” Health, Safety & Wellbeing approach
• Leads by example, demonstrating and communicating visibly safe work.
• Ensures all incidents are reported and investigated in a timely manner to enable continuous learning and improvement.
• Consults, engages and communicates within your team and to others, to manage and improve Health, Safety and Wellbeing.
• Understands and communicates the Health, Safety and Wellbeing risks and controls across all the work your team carry out and maintain high levels of risk awareness within your team.
Key Challenges
• Leading a multi-million-dollar project(s) within an operational airport with competing priorities and multiple interdependencies within the programme and other programmes.
• Ensuring the project goals remain aligned with evolving operational/stakeholder needs and regulatory requirements.
• Managing and influencing multiple internal and external stakeholders balancing competing priorities and maintaining buy-in while continuing to deliver against target deliverables
• Proactively managing any risks to ensure the project(s) are delivered on time and within budget.
• Managing resources across multiple projects within the programme, balancing timelines, budgets and staff to meet project objectives without compromising quality.
• Ensuring the project(s) comply with all regulatory and operational requirements throughout their lifecycle.
• Leading collaboration, internally within cross-departmental and functional teams but also externally with stakeholders and contractors
Financial Responsibilities and Authorities
Not Accountable for an Opex expenditure budget
Accountable for a Capex Programme expenditure budget between $0.1 - $0.4 billion.
See Project Scope Addendum for value of project
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Accountable to
Accountable to the Programme and Project Director, and supporting inputs into the enterprise-wide facing business units.
Purpose of Relationships
• Gaining co-operation, advising, liaising, resolving conflicts.
• Providing information, influencing and negotiating mutually beneficial outcomes, stakeholder management, collaboration
• Explaining things to people, clarifying, giving clear understanding
Key Experience
• Extensive experience (15+ years’) in project management across a variety of infrastructure.
• 5+ years experience as project manager for complex infrastructure over $0.1B in value.
• End to end project delivery
• Detailed knowledge and understanding of project delivery and construction industry
• Proven leader of people with the ability to work with professional, operational, technical and trades staff and contractors
• Ability to both think and act efficiently in a changing and complex environment with project-specific objectives in mind
• Demonstrated ability to leverage optimal outcomes from diverse and sometimes conflicting priorities
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills including working with Senior Management and Executives
• Outstanding stakeholder management skills
• Demonstrated commercial acumen and ability to successfully navigate and resolve significant challenges effecting project performance and/or outcomes
• Proactive in finding and implementing practical solutions to technical problems
• Client-side, private enterprise experience is an advantage
Confidential
Structure Chart
Key Relationships
Internal Purpose of contact with this person/s
• Programme Director, Project Director, Infrastructure Leadership Team (including the Chief Infrastructure Officer at times)
• Wider Infrastructure team, particularly those in programme and functional support.
• ORAT, Operations and Retail, Airport Emergency Services (AES), Engineering Services (ES), Finance, Safety and Risk, Compliance and Legal teams.
• All sponsoring customer facing business units
• Business Unit Managers and other Internal stakeholders
• Gaining co-operation, advising, liaising, resolving minor conflicts
• Facilitating, motivating, influencing and persuading
Confidential
External
• Consultants, contractors, Airlines, Border Agencies, Government Agencies, suppliers, passengers and public.
• Providing information and key updates
• Influencing and negotiating mutually beneficial outcomes
• Stakeholder management
Person Specification
Qualifications (or equivalent level of learning)
Essential:
• A tertiary qualification, preferably in Engineering, Construction, Science or Management
Desirable:
• Post-graduate qualification in project or programme management
• Membership of an appropriate professional institution
Knowledge / Experience
Essential
Desirable
• Extensive experience (15+ years’) in project management across a variety of infrastructure.
• 5+ years experience as senior project manager for complex infrastructure over $0.1B in value.
• End to end project delivery
• Detailed knowledge and understanding of project delivery and construction industry
• Proven leader of people with the ability to work with professional, technical and trades staff and contractors
• Ability to both think and act efficiently in a changing and complex environment with project-specific objectives in mind
• Demonstrated ability to leverage optimal outcomes from diverse and sometimes conflicting priorities
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills including working with Senior Management and Executives
• Demonstrated commercial acumen and ability to successfully navigate and resolve significant challenges effecting project performance and/or outcomes
• Private sector experience.
• Client-side experience is an advantage
Confidential
Key Skills / Attributes / Job Specific Competencies
Expert Level
• Outstanding stakeholder management skills
• Organised, rational and understands the critical details
• Acts assertively, communicates constructively and makes timely decisions.
Our Values
Whiria te tangata. Our values weave us together. They’re what we stand for, who we are and how we think, feel and act.
ALL IN Tātou tātou
• People first
• Seek understanding
• Acknowledge others
• Empathise and support
• Diverse & inclusive
Know How Kōkiri Tahi
• Explore and solve together
• Curious and open
• Bring your voice & share your skills
• Unite and collaborate
• Right people in the room
Let’s Go Karawhiua
• Challenge yourself
• Take pride
• Act with intent and integrity
• Keep your word
• Deliver excellence
Changes to Position Description
From time to time it may be necessary to consider changes in the position description in response to the changing nature of Auckland Airport’s work environment, including technological requirements or statutory changes. This position description may be reviewed as part of the preparation for performance planning for the annual performance cycle, or as required.
Confidential
Sign-Off
Job-Holder
People Leader
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Date: ________________________
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Frequently asked questions

Who is hiring for the Senior Project Manager - Terminal Enabling Works role?
Capstone is hiring for the Senior Project Manager - Terminal Enabling Works position, a Shazamme client. Apply directly on the employer's career site.
Where is the Senior Project Manager - Terminal Enabling Works job located?
The Senior Project Manager - Terminal Enabling Works role with Capstone is based in Mangere, NZ.
Is the Senior Project Manager - Terminal Enabling Works role full-time or contract?
This is a full time position at Capstone.
What experience level is the Senior Project Manager - Terminal Enabling Works role?
The Senior Project Manager - Terminal Enabling Works position is aimed at senior-level candidates.
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