CX & Service Design Manager

Te Whiwhinga mahi | The Opportunity 
 

This is a senior role accountable for setting the service design direction across Contact’s Retail customer journeys, bringing stronger end‑to‑end thinking to how services are designed and experienced across channels.

In this role, you will:

• Own service design and customer experience across the full customer journey, connecting front‑of‑house experiences with the back‑of‑house processes that support them.
• Shape future‑state journey design as key retail systems are replaced and future retail platforms are designed, ensuring journeys are considered end‑to‑end rather than in isolation.
• Hold the service design vision, with strong influence over how future services and journeys are designed and executed across the Retail environment.
• Build credibility and alignment in a complex stakeholder landscape, using data and insight to move decision‑making forward where opinions are strongly held.
• Partner closely with frontline operations, Retail teams and Technology, creating a shared approach to journey design across teams who own different parts of the customer experience.
• Provide clear direction on priorities and trade‑offs, helping balance customer needs, operational realities and delivery considerations.

The role is both strategic and hands‑on. It requires someone who can step in early, shape direction with confidence, and bring people with them through clarity, credibility and collaboration.

Ko wai koe | About You   

You are a senior service design or customer experience leader (with experience in service design delivery) who enjoys shaping direction while staying grounded in how services are delivered in practice.

You are likely to be successful in this role if you bring:

• Extensive experience leading service design in high‑volume, services environments such as telecommunications, banking, insurance or similar.
• Strong end‑to‑end capability, with a practical understanding of how customer journeys connect systems, processes and people.
• A calm, credible presence that allows you to influence senior stakeholder groups, even where perspectives are strongly held.
• A data‑informed approach, balancing insight, experience and judgement when shaping decisions.
• A collaborative mindset, with the ability to build alignment and influence without relying on hierarchy or formal authority.

The ability to step into a complex environment, contribute quickly and help lift how service design is understood and applied across the business will be integral to your success in this role.

Additional Information 

If you’re looking for a senior role where you can make a tangible difference, grow your influence, and be part of a future‑focused team, we’d love to hear from you.

We support flexible working where it works for the individual, the team and the business. Our main hubs for this role are in Wellington and Auckland, and this role is best suited to someone who can work flexibly from one of these locations to enable strong in‑person connection and collaboration. While we do have smaller sites across other centres in Aotearoa, proximity to a main hub is important for this role.

Contact is not a place you’ll stagnate. We are growing and offer superb learning and development opportunities along with a bunch of other perks  like free health insurance cover, boosted KiwiSaver, access to Contact Shares, a ‘Good to be Home’ annual payment toward your home set up & wellbeing, a trail-blazing parental leave policy, twice yearly payments towards our products if you’re a Contact customer, and more!

Applications close on Thursday 11th June. But just like peak demand, great talent surges early, so if this role sparks your interest, power up your application now!

We love a good story at Contact, it’s what keeps our energy flowing! If you’ve got one that connects with this role, send it our way.
                 

Here at Contact Energy (Te Mata Hiko), we know our strength lies in developing a sense of belonging - one that helps us attract and retain people with a broad range of perspectives and experiences.

We’re committed to creating a workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to bring their whole selves to work. Our goal is to reflect the diversity of our customers and communities to help build a better Aotearoa New Zealand.

We have a rich community of talented people that we support to thrive at Contact.

Our inclusive hiring process is designed to embrace the diversity of Aotearoa New Zealand, ensuring a wide range of perspectives are included in our decision-making and helping reduce bias along the way.

The wellbeing of our kaimahi is super important to us.

We use employee insights to offer a range of initiatives and resources to support physical, mental, financial and emotional wellbeing – including flexible working arrangements, employee network groups and a market-leading parental leave policy.

At Te Mata Hiko, we want everyone to thrive. We welcome applicants far and wide - of every age, stage, background, and pride. Join us and be part of a team that values your passion and attitude just as much as your experience and skills.

Please note, only candidates with the right to live and work in New Zealand will be considered for this role.

Research shows that while men apply to jobs where they meet 60% of the criteria, women and those in underrepresented groups tend to only apply if they tick every box. We're not about box ticking, so if you think you have what it takes but don't meet everything stated above, please still get in touch. We'd love to kōrero.

Te Mata Hiko (Contact Energy) does not accept any CVs received from recruitment agencies where a formal engagement has not been confirmed and agreed to with our Talent team. In the event that unsolicited CVs are submitted by recruitment agencies, Te Mata Hiko (Contact Energy) reserves the right to contact these candidates directly and consider them for current/future vacancies without any financial obligation to the recruitment agency in question. This will also apply to any CVs sent directly to line managers.