Customer Experience and Service Design Manager

• Shape better end-to-end experiences across our Passenger businesses and influencing a major transformation programme
• Senior manager-level opportunity leading a team while staying hands-on with customers, operational teams crew and the work
• Play a leading role in bringing the new Interislander ferries and services to life; Wellington based

He kōrero mō mātou | About us

At KiwiRail, we're proud to connect people, goods and communities across Aotearoa. Through Interislander and Great Journeys New Zealand, our Passenger business delivers some of the country's most recognised transport and tourism experiences.

Our Passenger experiences span some of Aotearoa’s most iconic journeys. We’re looking for a customer experience leader who can help us make those experiences even better and accessible, with a major immediate focus on the next generation of Interislander.

This is an opportunity to influence experiences across digital, terminal, onboard and frontline touchpoints, turning customer insight and good ideas into practical change.

And with new ferries on the horizon, you'll be right at the heart of defining what the future Interislander experience looks and feels like for our customers and our people.

He whakamārama mō te tūranga mahi | About the role

Reporting to the Head of Customer, Product & Brand – Passenger, this is a senior leadership role responsible for leading the design and customer readiness of the future Interislander experience as part of the Ferry Replacement Programme, and broader Passenger services.

We're looking for someone who is equally comfortable thinking and doing. You'll lead and coach a small specialist team, but you'll also stay close to the work: listening to customers, engaging crew and frontline teams, facilitating conversations, working through problems, testing ideas and helping turn insight into action.

You'll bring strong customer experience and service design thinking, helping translate customer needs and approved propositions into experiences that are practical, connected and deliverable.

Spanning discovery and booking through to terminals, boarding, onboard services, disembarkation and post-travel, you'll establish the blueprints and plans to help ensure future experience works seamlessly across physical, digital and frontline touchpoints.

You'll work alongside Product, Operations, Digital, Marketing, Revenue, People and ICT, bringing people together around the experience we're trying to create, influencing senior stakeholders and programme decisions to ensure customer requirements are considered early, tested effectively and embedded into delivery plans.

This is a highly collaborative leadership role requiring strong strategic thinking alongside the ability to turn customer ambition into practical, operationally achievable experiences.

Your key responsibilities will include:

• Leading customer experience and service design across Passenger business, with a major focus on shaping the future Interislander experience and Ferry Replacement Programme.
• Designing connected end-to-end customer journeys across digital, terminal, vessel and frontline experiences.
• Turning customer insight and approved propositions into action, through practical service blueprints, experience standards and operational requirements.
• Leading, coaching and developing a team of three, providing clear direction and priorities while staying hands-on and close to the work.
• Working closely with customers, crew and frontline teams, listening, engaging them early and using research and insight to shape better solutions.
• Bringing fresh thinking and constructive challenge, questioning established ways of working while bringing people with you.
• Embedding accessibility and inclusive design across physical, digital and service experiences.
• Leading Passenger’s CX and service-readiness contribution to the Ferry Replacement Programme, including customer and frontline trials, testing and clear acceptance criteria.
• Identifying and maintaining visibility of CX gaps, dependencies, readiness risks and decisions, driving these towards resolution at pace.
• Balancing customer outcomes with commercial priorities, cost, programme milestones and operational feasibility, while building strong cross-functional ownership and handover.

Ngā pūkenga e rapu nei mātou | What you'll bring

You're comfortable zooming out to see the whole customer journey, then zooming straight back into the detail to help solve a problem.

You'll bring:

• Strong experience in customer experience, service design, customer strategy or service transformation, with evidence that you've turned insight into real customer and operational outcomes.
• Practical experience translating customer insight into end-to-end journeys, service blueprints, experience standards and operational requirements.
• A hands-on approach. You're as comfortable talking with frontline teams, running a workshop or testing an idea as you are influencing senior stakeholders.
• Genuine curiosity and strong listening skills. You seek to understand before reaching for the answer.
• The ability to engage frontline teams and design with people, not just for them.
• Strong people leadership, with the ability to coach, give direction and build confidence and capability in your team.
• The confidence to challenge established ways of working constructively, without losing the people you need to bring with you.
• The ability to work through ambiguity, make sense of complexity and move at pace rather than wait for perfect information.
• Practical service-design capability across physical, digital and human experiences.
• Sound judgement. You understand that a great customer experience also needs to be operationally achievable and commercially sensible.
• The confidence to influence across a complex programme without needing to own the programme itself.
• Strong communication skills and disciplined management of priorities, requirements, risks, decisions and dependencies.
• Experience in transport, travel, tourism, hospitality or another complex operational environment would be valuable, as would experience working alongside major capital, engineering or technical programmes.

Nōu te rourou | What's in it for you

Few CX roles give you the opportunity to influence something this tangible.

You'll help shape experiences that customers will see, use and remember, across our ferries, terminals, digital channels and frontline services. You'll work alongside the people who understand today's operation best while helping imagine what could be different tomorrow.

And you'll have the opportunity to leave behind more than journeys and service blueprints: better experiences, stronger capability, and ways of working that continue long after the work is rolled out.

• Shape the end-to-end experience customers will have across the next generation of Interislander services.
• Influence customer, digital, operational, terminal and vessel experiences from design through to readiness.
• Work on complex customer challenges where your thinking and recommendations can directly influence future services.
• Play a key role in ensuring new services are ready to deliver a safe, accessible, consistent and high-quality experience for customers.

Kua rite, kia rite | Ready to make a difference?

If you're an experienced customer experience or service design leader who can bring together strategy, customer insight, people and operational delivery, we'd love to hear from you.

Join KiwiRail and help shape the future Interislander experience, creating stronger connections and memorable journeys for customers travelling across Te Moana-o-Raukawakawa, the Cook Strait.

Applications close: Thursday 5 November 2026

To apply and to view a position description, please go to careers.kiwirail.co.nz