- Lead NZ's first regulated refrigerant stewardship scheme from day one
- Build and lead a new delivery team from the ground up
- Register thousands of participants across the whole sector
The Trust for the Destruction of Synthetic Refrigerants
From Voluntary to Mandatory
Synthetic refrigerants - the gases in your fridge, heat pump, air conditioner and car aircon - are some of the most potent greenhouse gases on the planet, many thousands of times worse than CO₂ if they leak into the atmosphere instead of being safely recovered and destroyed. The Trust for the Destruction of Synthetic Refrigerants (TDSR) exists to stop that happening and has been operating a collection and destruction scheme for these F-gases since 1993.
TDSR has just been confirmed by the government as operator of New Zealand's first Regulated Product Stewardship Scheme (RPSS) for synthetic refrigerants - meaning a scheme that's operated informally for over 30 years is about to become mandatory, covering every importer, wholesaler, technician, automotive operator and reclamation facility in the country. That's the reason this role exists now: someone needs to lead the build.
The Role
As Scheme Manager, you'll be the operational leader who turns that mandate into a working scheme. Reporting to the Chief Executive, you'll take the scheme from a standing start through to business as usual - building your team as you go, registering thousands of participants across the country, and putting in place the compliance and reporting framework that ensures accountability.
You'll work alongside a Platform Manager, who's leading the technology build, while you focus on people, participants and delivery. It's a hands-on leadership role: part programme director, part team builder, part relationship manager with government.
What You'll Do
- Build and lead a new delivery team - a Membership Coordinator, Membership Account Managers, and eventually a data/reporting function
- Own the operational delivery programme: milestones, risks, dependencies, and keeping dozens of moving parts on track for launch
- Drive registration and onboarding for thousands of participants
- Establish the scheme's compliance and reporting framework
- Act as the day-to-day liaison with government officials on scheme delivery matters
- Work closely with the Marketing & Communications function to build industry awareness and readiness across industries that have never had to think about this before.
What You'll Bring
- Senior operational or programme leadership experience - you've led or built a team and delivered complex, multi-workstream operations before, ideally from establishment through to steady state.
- A track record of leading large-scale registration, onboarding or member/participant management, ideally where regulated or compliance-driven.
- Proven people leadership, including recruitment and development
- Confidence reporting to Boards and government bodies, with strong writing and presentation skills
- Financial acumen and experience managing budgets and risk
- Fluency in government process – you know how to work effectively within the machinery of government.
- Comfort with ambiguity. This scheme is being built as it goes, and priorities will shift as the organisation matures.
Experience in product stewardship, HVAC&R, automotive, or the wider waste and environmental sector is an advantage.
Why this role?
Not many people get the chance to build something from scratch that will change how an entire industry operates. This is an opportunity to apply your programme leadership experience to an environmental cause that is now supported by government.
You won't be inheriting someone else's systems or working around legacy decisions - the choices you make in the first year will set the pattern for how the scheme runs for years to come.
If the combination of complexity and scale is an appealing challenge to you, we'd welcome a conversation.