Contact Centre Lead (Customer Portfolio Lead)

Mai te hiku ki te taurapa, whitikina e te ra
From the tail of the fish to the tail of the waka, shines the sun

This whakatauki speaks to our journey across Aotearoa, one waka, one purpose, powered by the natural forces that sustain us. Meridian is Aotearoa's largest renewable electricity producer, generating energy from the winds of Tawhirimatea, the waters of Tangaroa, and the warmth of Tama-nui-te-ra.

Together, our two brands, Meridian and Powershop retail electricity to more than 400,000 homes, businesses and farms across New Zealand. Now that's a pretty impressive combo!

Our retail structure uses empowered teams focused on delivering value to customers. The way we work is as important as the work itself, guided by our values and key behaviours: 'Make people awesome', 'Set your compass on customers', and 'Progress over perfection'.

Mo te turanga | What you'll be doing

At Meridian, we're on a mission to make energy cleaner and cheaper for Aotearoa New Zealand - and in this role, you'll lead the Home Customer Portfolio teams who help our customers feel that difference every day. Leading a network of empowered contact centre Teams, you'll be the person who makes our people awesome: coaching and growing our Home Team Leads into confident, capable leaders, building the successors who'll grow alongside us, and shaping the capability and training plans that bring out the best in everyone. Lifting capability across the contact centre is at the heart of this mahi, keeping your teams strong, supported and ready for whatever change brings.

With your compass set firmly on customers, you'll drive service and sales outcomes across the portfolio - using data to keep an eye on the things that matter (e.g. speed to answer, first contact resolution, customer happiness, employee net promotor score and email response times) and to make clear, evidence-based calls. You'll champion the customer voice at every turn, lifting satisfaction and customer happiness scores, sorting out escalations and creating real value through a better experience, all while planning ahead for demand and attrition and supporting your Team Leads to own their teams' performance.

Most of all, you'll lead through change with a calm, steady hand and a progress-over-perfection mindset. You'll champion agile ways of working, lift engagement, and bring your people with you through honest, empowering conversations - building a team culture that's resilient, high-performing and genuinely customer-obsessed.

Nga painga ki a matou | What we can offer

We value work/life balance, so our WFH and flexible work options (where possible) make things easier for you and your whanau. We also offer:

• An attractive and competitive salary package that's reviewed annually, performance-incentive plus discounts from several partnerships
• Southern Cross Healthcare - Wellbeing one insurance, funded scheme for eligible employees to give you that extra peace of mind
• Enhanced leave provisions: three company paid days (over the holiday period), enhanced parental leave and options to buy up to 12 days additional leave
• Life, trauma and income protection insurance (which we hope you won't need!)
• Enhanced KiwiSaver contributions
• Access to the Meridian employee share scheme
• Excellent learning and development opportunities, we want you to be the best version of yourself and will help you get there!
• Award winning wellbeing programme that provides support whenever and wherever you need it
• Employee discounts off your power with Meridian, every bit counts
• a one-off $400 payment to support your work from home set-up (if needed)

Please note the expectation for this role is to be in the office at least 3 days per week.

Nga pukenga kei a koe mo tenei turanga | What you'll bring

We are seeking an experienced leader with expertise in leading teams of teams who manage customer engagement channels and performance (sales, service and operational activity) with a proven ability to drive cultural change and deliver high performance through empowering teams and making people awesome. You'll bring:

• Proven people leadership - a track record of driving exceptional performance by developing individuals and leaders, and building capability at scale.
• A capability-builder's mindset, with the coaching skill to uplift a contact centre team and create genuine bench strength.
• Genuine passion for customers, lifting customer happiness scores, owning escalations and championing the customer voice.
• Calm under pressure, staying composed and keeping a healthy team environment when managing escalations and shifting conditions.
• Data literacy, using dashboards and performance metrics (speed to answer, first contact resolution, customer happiness, employee net promotor score and email response times) to drive evidence-based decisions.
• Credibility and influence with senior and executive leaders, plus the commercial acumen and project management skill to pre-empt problems and deliver.
• A catalyst for change who's comfortable with ambiguity and thrives in an agile, fast-moving environment.

He aha koe i hono mai ai ki a matou? | Why join us?

We see energy as mauri the life force that connects people and place. Joining Meridian means contributing to kaitiakitanga, caring for the environment and future generations while empowering communities to flourish.

We're a team that believes in being in the waka together supporting each other, celebrating our wins, and learning from our challenges. You'll be encouraged to show tu maia, to be bold, curious, and authentic in your mahi, and to practice rangatiratanga by leading with integrity and purpose, no matter your role.

We embrace diversity and inclusion and ensure that everyone feels like they belong, are welcomed, feel valued, and feel comfortable to bring their whole selves to work. We want all our people to be the best that they can be, so we make sure that there's room for everyone to be exactly who they are, and welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and experiences, including individuals with disabilities, diverse health needs, and those who identify as neurodiverse, because we believe our differences make us stronger. We believe that fun is good for you, and we make sure that our office vibe reflects that.

Tono mai inaianei tonu | Apply now

All in all, we're an awesome place to work. If this sounds like you and you want to bring your energy and use your power to make a difference (pun intended), then apply today and tell us why!

To view the full Position Description please click here. We're not necessarily looking for someone who ticks all the boxes, so if you think you have what it takes but don't meet every requirement in the job description, we strongly encourage you to apply!

If you have any general enquiries, please email [email protected] and one of our team will get back to you. We're committed to being accessible and providing support if needed, please get in touch via email or phone if there are any parts of our process you would like assistance with (process found here meridianenergy.co.nz/careers), we're more than happy to help.

The location for this role is Christchurch.

Advertising closes at 11:59pm on 22 July 2026 (please note this may be subject to change).