H25_5346

Deputy Chief Executive - Operations

Applications close: Tuesday 31st March 2026

THE OPPORTUNITY

Auckland International Campus (AIC) is entering its next phase of growth and operational maturity as it strengthens its position as a leading provider of high-quality international education in New Zealand.

The Deputy Chief Executive – Operations plays a critical role in ensuring the campus operates as a high-performing, commercially sustainable and learner-centred education business. Reporting directly to the Chief Executive, this role combines strategic leadership with hands-on operational oversight, ensuring campus operations and student services operate efficiently, productively and at scale while supporting sustainable growth and strong learner outcomes.

This is a role for a leader who is equally comfortable shaping strategic direction and rolling up their sleeves to ensure operational delivery. The successful candidate will bring strong commercial and financial acumen, with the ability to improve productivity, strengthen operational processes. This includes improving operational productivity, strengthening service delivery models and ensuring the campus operates with strong financial discipline and commercial awareness.

Working closely with the Chief Executive and leadership team, the DCE will help drive a 5–10 year vision for the campus, ensuring AIC continues to deliver high-quality education while evolving its business model to remain competitive in the international education market.

The role offers an opportunity for an ambitious executive who sees this position as a significant step toward future Chief Executive leadership, and who is motivated to build capability, deliver measurable results, and contribute to the continued success of AIC.

THE ROLE

The Deputy Chief Executive – Operations is responsible for overseeing the campus’s operational functions, ensuring high levels of learner satisfaction, strong learner outcomes, efficient campus operations, and sound financial performance.

The role has oversight across operational functions, student services and campus performance, ensuring systems, processes and people operate effectively to support learner success and organisational sustainability.

Key responsibilities include:

Leading operational performance across the campus to ensure efficient, productive and high-quality delivery of programmes and services.
Driving commercial performance and financial sustainability, including revenue generation, budget management and operational efficiencies.
Identifying opportunities for process improvement, productivity gains and operational innovation.
Working closely with the Chief Executive to deliver the strategic plan and long-term organisational vision.
Providing strong reporting and insights to the Chief Executive and Board, supporting effective governance and strategic decision making.
Ensuring compliance with NZQA, pastoral care obligations and regulatory requirements for international education providers.
Leading and developing a diverse team across operational and student support functions.
Building and maintaining strong relationships with regulators, education partners and industry stakeholders.

This is a highly visible and influential leadership role, requiring a balance of strategic thinking, operational discipline and people leadership.

THE CANDIDATE

The successful candidate will be a highly capable operational leader with a strong education sector foundation and commercial mindset.

They will bring experience operating in complex, performance-driven environments and be comfortable leading complex operational environments, improving productivity and service delivery while maintaining strong educational outcomes.

Importantly, this role requires someone who is hands-on, curious and operationally engaged, a leader who enjoys understanding how organisations work in practice and who works alongside teams to solve problems and deliver results.

The ideal candidate will bring:

Experience of leading operational functions at a C-Suite level ideally within tertiary education or comparable service-based organisations such as campus operations, programme delivery, student services, marketing or business operations.
Experience operating in commercial or private sector environments, bringing a business-oriented perspective to education delivery.
Demonstrated ability to drive productivity, operational efficiency and process improvement.
Strong financial literacy, including experience managing budgets and improving commercial performance.
A strategic mindset, able to balance immediate operational priorities with long-term organisational development.
The confidence and capability to engage effectively with boards and senior stakeholders.
Excellent communication skills and the ability to lead through influence, clarity and collaboration.

This role will suit someone who is mid-career and ambitious, looking to broaden their leadership capability and progress toward a future Chief Executive role.

For a confidential discussion, please get in touch with:

David Price
National Manager, New Zealand
M. +64 (0)21 0239 2211 | E. dprice@hardygroupintl.com

Book a 15 minute consultation