Programme Manager - Value - Based Healthcare

Southern Cross Health Insurance is shaping a healthier Aotearoa New Zealand. Our purpose is simple: empowering our members to live well for longer. We're here to give peace of mind through timely access to quality care, inspire healthier living, and lead positive change across the health system. As a New Zealand-owned, member-based organisation, we're building a future where wellbeing is at the heart of everything we do -- delivering exceptional value for our members and creating an environment where our people thrive.

Now is an exciting time to join us. You'll be part of a high-performing, values-driven team where people are at the heart of everything we do -- and in return for your talent, you'll have the opportunity to grow, make an impact, and be proud of the difference your work makes.

About The Role

We’re looking for a Programme Manager to join our Healthcare Partnerships team on a fixed-term basis of 12 months, covering a parental leave period. This role is a rare opportunity helping shape how Southern Cross approaches healthcare in a way that hasn’t been done before.

We are launching a set of specialty strategies that define what we want healthcare in those areas to look like for our members by 2030. Your job is to take that ambition and turn it into a structured, coordinated programme of work across the business. You won’t be doing it alone, but you’ll be the one holding it together.

Reporting to the Head of Value Based Healthcare, you’ll be working across Product, Healthcare Partnerships, Legal, Marketing, and clinical teams. You will be facilitating, aligning, and driving forward a cross-functional programme that involves and influences multiple parts of our business.

This is a role for someone comfortable working in ambiguity where there’s no existing blueprint. You’ll be building the structure as you go, which means knowing how to create clarity for others even when things are still evolving. If you find that kind of environment energising, read on.

What You’ll Do

• Facilitating multidisciplinary working groups across the business to develop and refine specialty strategies, building consensus and keeping momentum going.
• Setting up and maintaining structured programme plans that turn a vague initiative into a structured plan - workstreams, milestone reporting, stakeholder maps, risk registers
• Engaging and influencing senior stakeholders across the business to keep them aligned and actively contributing, even when this programme isn’t in their direct reporting line.
• Developing business cases to support investment decisions aligned to the specialty strategy goals.
• Maintaining strong co-design relationships with healthcare providers and ensuring pilots are scoped, governed, and evaluated well.
• Communicating clearly about value-based healthcare concepts, helping people across the business understand what we’re trying to achieve and why it matters.
• Using data and insights to track progress and inform decisions and adapting the programme as priorities shift.

What you’ll bring

• Solid programme management experience, you know how to set up workstreams, run milestone reporting, and create structure from scratch (PRINCE2 or equivalent is a bonus, not a requirement).
• Strong facilitation skills and the ability to lead by influence rather than authority, you’re someone who can get a room full of people with competing priorities moving in the same direction.
• A low-ego, collaborative working style. This role requires bringing multiple stakeholders along on the journey.
• Comfort working in ambiguity - you’re someone who can make a call, set a direction, and adapt when things change.
• Change management capability - you know how to get people genuinely excited about new ways of working, not just compliant with them.
• Business case development experience - you can translate strategic goals into clear, well-reasoned investment proposals.
• Strong experience in health system delivery, strategy, or transformation programmes. Clinical knowledge is helpful but not essential - we’ve got clinical expertise in the business; what we need is someone who can coordinate and drive.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to bring diverse audiences along on the journey.

Who we are

Ngākau nui. Āhurutanga. Tikanga.

Join a proud diverse team, that’s always there, always real, always true. If you thrive in a caring, honest and open culture, we think you’ll love working with us.

We know that it is our team’s culture and wellbeing that will drive us forward. That’s why we prioritise not only professional development opportunities but opportunities to thrive personally, too. We offer exceptional work/life balance and our employees are encouraged to — and rewarded for — living well.

What we offer you

Based at our Auckland office Te Kupenga, we offer an excellent work/life balance. You will be supported to continually learn and improve your skills, share knowledge and ideas and be part of an amazing values-based culture where people are at its heart.

You will be able to participate in aspects of our employee wellness programme to help empower you and your whānau to live your healthiest lives.

At Southern Cross, our strength is our people. Your wellbeing shines through every aspect of your work.

This role is Auckland-based. While we appreciate interest from candidates in other locations, we’ll manage remote working options on a case-by-case basis for the right candidate. Have questions? Check out our FAQs for help with the application and recruitment process.

We are proud to have taken the Pride Pledge, reflecting our commitment to inclusion and belonging. We also facilitate an active, employee‑led Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Forum, which includes our Rainbow Network, Māori Network, Pasifika Collective, and Neurodiversity and Whānau Support networks.

If you share our commitment and passion, we'd love to hear from you.