This role is fundamentally about trust, accountability and transparency.

As Customer Experience & Relationship Manager, you are the primary relationship lead between Waste, Operations & Transport (WOT) and its asset owners. Your first priority is to build and sustain strong, trusted relationships—grounded in clarity, professionalism and delivery confidence.

You’ll lead the development, implementation and ongoing management of SLAs, ensuring service expectations are clearly defined, well understood and aligned between asset owners and the Operations Strategy & Delivery team. You’ll establish fit‑for‑purpose performance and accountability reporting, providing clear, credible insight into what’s being delivered, where risks sit, and what trade‑offs are being made.

This role plays a critical translation function. You turn operational performance into insight—communicating results early, honestly and pre‑emptively, so there are no surprises. You ensure asset owners have confidence not only in the services being delivered, but in the information, they receive about them.

You’ll work closely with operational leaders to ensure reporting, narratives and messages reflect operational truth, and that accountability is shared and well understood. When performance is strong, you make it visible. When it isn’t, you surface it early, clearly and constructively.

Alongside this, you champion the voice of the customer, ensuring insight and feedback inform service decisions, performance discussions and improvement activity. You lead a customer experience team that supports consistent, professional service delivery and strong information flows.

This is a role for a leader with credibility and conviction—someone who builds trust through facts, consistency and follow‑through, and who understands that strong relationships are built on clarity, not spin.

Te Āheinga - The Opportunity

• Lead how NCC’s Waste, Operations & Transport services are experienced, understood and represented across the community

• Own the customer experience, reputation and narrative—ensuring what we say matches what we deliver

• Build and maintain strong, trusted relationships with asset owners, stakeholders and partners

• Lead SLA accountability reporting, providing clear visibility of performance, risks and opportunities

• Champion the voice of the customer (VOC), driving insight‑led improvement

• Act as the key link between frontline teams and Communications, Marketing & Engagement

• Translate operational activity into clear, practical and timely communications for diverse audiences

• Identify and surface emerging issues, risks and opportunities early

• Lead and develop a high‑performing customer experience team

• Strengthen systems, processes and ways of working to improve service quality and efficiency

He kōrero mōhou - About You

• You’re a credible, values-led leader who builds trust through clarity, consistency and courage. You bring:

• Strong people leadership capabilities, with a focus on clarity, accountability and high standards

• Experience in customer experience, communications or stakeholder and relationship management within complex environments

• Ability to build and deliver customer experience reporting and innovation

• Confidence working with diverse stakeholders and balancing expectations with operational realities

• The ability to translate complex or technical information into clear, meaningful messages

• Sound judgement and comfort working through ambiguity and risk

• An understanding of how performance, contracts and service delivery shape customer experience

• A collaborative, improvement focused approach

• A genuine drive to understand and improve how services are experienced by customers and the community

Ngā painga mōhou - What we Offer

• 5 weeks' annual leave after 2 years service

• Discounted health insurance work scheme + Eye test subsidy

• Retailer discounts + study assistance

• Employee Assistance Program (OCP)

• Quarterly values awards + Birthday vouchers + Social club

• Free flu vaccinations (annual)

• Ka Awatea Cultural Wānanga + NCC Kapa Haka

• Te Reo Māori language classes

This is a permanent, full-time opportunity working 40 hours per week, Monday-Friday. You will be based in Napier.

The annual salary package for this role is $130,195 - $153,170 (including KiwiSaver), with the final offer depending on your skills and experience.

We will be interviewing applications as we receive them and may close the role when we have found the right person.

He kōrero mō Te Kaunihera o Ahuriri - About NCC

At Napier City Council, we are proud to be an equal opportunity employer that values diversity. We welcome applicants from all backgrounds and work to make our hiring process fair and accessible. If you need any support or adjustments during your application or interview, let us know—we’re happy to help!

Our success is grounded in strong partnerships with Mana Whenua and Iwi, supported by our Māori Partnerships team, Te Waka Rangapū, which builds cultural capability through education and training.

Before you join, you’ll need to complete pre-employment checks (including criminal background checks, with some roles requiring health screening and drug & alcohol testing). As an NCC employee, you may also be called on to support Civil Defence emergencies when our community needs us most.

Please visit Napier City Council Careers website to see full job description

Job Description – Customer Experience & Relationship Manager