General Manager – Older Persons Health & Rehabilitation

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is the country’s largest employer, delivering universal public healthcare to 5 million New Zealanders.

We provide essential hospital, specialist, and community health services across 80+ locations from large urban centres to rural towns and remote communities.

Our goal is to improve health outcomes for all New Zealanders by delivering equitable, accessible and innovative care.

About the Role

This executive leadership role is to provide strategic and operational leadership for Older Persons Health & Rehabilitation services across Canterbury. The role leads a complex, clinically significant portfolio spanning inpatient, community and specialist services, supporting older people to live well, recover effectively, and maintain independence.

Reporting directly to the Group Director of Operations, you will operate at an executive level, providing strategic advice, driving service integration, and ensuring high‑quality, sustainable service delivery across the care continuum. Positioned at the intersection of acute care, rehabilitation, and community services, this role is critical to system performance, equity and long‑term workforce and service sustainability.

This is an opportunity for an experienced General Manager who is motivated by whole‑of‑system leadership, strong clinical partnership, and building capability across complex services.

You will play a critical role in:

• Providing executive leadership across older persons health and rehabilitation services
• Driving safe, effective and sustainable service delivery across hospital and community settings
• Strengthening integration across primary, community and specialist care
• Improving equity, access, patient flow and outcomes for older people and their whānau
• Building leadership depth, workforce capability and service resilience
• Embedding Te Tiriti o Waitangi principles across service design and delivery

The Older Persons Health & Rehabilitation Group is responsible for:

• Inpatient and community‑based Older Persons Health services
• Older Persons Mental Health services
• Adult rehabilitation services, including spinal services
• Community Dental Services
• Integrated rehabilitation and recovery pathways across the system

About You

This is a role for a credible, values driven leader who leads with clarity, steadiness and purpose. You thrive in complexity, build trusted clinical and system relationships, and are driven by improving outcomes for older people and their communities.

You are a senior health care leader with the strategic maturity to operate at system level. You bring strong operational and financial leadership, underpinned by a people‑centred approach and a commitment to equity.

Essential:

• Postgraduate qualification in leadership/management and a health‑related tertiary qualification
• Senior health leadership experience (8+ years), including leading large, multidisciplinary teams
• Proven financial, budget and performance management capability
• Strong business, planning and service optimisation expertise
• Ability to lead across complex clinical environments and system interfaces
• Strategic thinker, resilient and outcomes‑focused
• Trusted partner to clinical leaders, system stakeholders and senior executives

Desirable:

• Experience as a Service Manager, Operations Manager or General Manager
• Understanding of NZ health system policy, reform and system pressures
• Strong digital capability and organisational insight

Working for Health New Zealand

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is dedicated to ensuring excellent healthcare for the people of New Zealand. We embrace a workforce that is diverse and inclusive so that we are better positioned to understand and service our community. We welcome applications from our diverse Māori, Pacific, disabled, and rainbow communities.

For a confidential discussion about this opportunity, please contact Kelly Randall Kelly.randall@cdhb.health.nz

While Health New Zealand is undergoing change, affected employees will be given preference and priority for this position.

Position description Apply now

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