- Lead complex construction in one of the world's most extreme environments
- Senior leadership role in a globally recognised NZ-based not-for-profit
- Rare opportunity to work with a mission-driven, high-performing team
About the Antarctic Heritage Trust
Some roles are just jobs. This one is a chance to lead world-class work preserving iconic cultural heritage in one of the most extraordinary environments on earth.
Antarctic Heritage Trust is a New Zealand-based charity with a vision of inspiring explorers.
Through its mission to conserve, share and encourage the spirit of exploration the Trust cares for the remarkable expedition bases of early Antarctic explorers including, Carsten Borchgrevink, Captain Robert Falcon Scott, Sir Ernest Shackleton and Sir Edmund Hillary.
It shares the legacy of exploration through outreach programmes and encourages the spirit of exploration through expeditions to engage and inspire a new generation.
As it moves into a significant new phase of its world leading conservation programme - the Ross Sea Heritage Restoration Project - it is looking for an exceptional leader to drive delivery.
The Role
Reporting to the Executive Director and sitting on the Senior Leadership Team, the General Manager Antarctic Heritage is responsible for the strategic leadership and operational delivery of the Trust's Antarctic heritage programme - at its core, a large-scale, multi-year building and conservation programme in one of the world's most challenging and logistically complex environments.
This is fundamentally a construction and programme delivery role. You will oversee the full project cycle - design, procurement, contractor management, and on-site delivery - across a portfolio of historic sites on Ross Island, while also helping to shape the future of the Trust's work at Cape Adare, the site of the first building ever constructed on the Antarctic continent.
You will lead a small specialist team and manage an international technical design team, working closely with a wider Senior Leadership Team that is ambitious, collaborative and mission-driven.
What You’ll Bring
You are an experienced construction or infrastructure leader who knows how to deliver in complex, constrained environments. You will bring a combination of the following:
- Significant experience leading large-scale construction or infrastructure programmes, ideally in remote, logistically challenging, or technically demanding environments
- A strong working knowledge of the full construction cycle - design, procurement, contractor management, risk, and delivery
- Proven ability to operate at senior leadership level: setting direction, managing budgets, and providing strategic advice to executives and boards
- Experience managing specialist contractors, consultants, and technical design teams across multiple disciplines
- The ability to think strategically and act practically - comfortable moving between big-picture planning and hands-on problem solving
- Flexibility and agility; an ability to thrive in a small organisation that operates with significant ambition and resource constraints
- Strong stakeholder management skills, ideally including experience working with or alongside government agencies, regulatory bodies, or international partners
- Excellent communication skills and the personal credibility to influence outcomes across a diverse range of relationships
- A relevant tertiary qualification in engineering, construction, project management, architecture, or a related field - or equivalent senior-level experience
- A background in heritage conservation would be an advantage, but is not essential
Why This Role
The Trust offers something genuinely rare: the opportunity to do meaningful, technically demanding work as part of a small team on behalf of the international community. The role also includes occasional travel to Antarctica.
If you are motivated by mission, thrive in complexity, and want to be part of something that will outlast all of us, we would like to hear from you.