Senior Cost Modelling & Value Analyst

He kōrero mō mātou | About Watercare

Ki te ora te wai, ka ora te whenua, ka ora te tangata

When the water is healthy, the land and the people are healthy

Now is an exciting time to join Watercare, we're planning to spend $14 billion over the next 10 years to ensure we can continue to support our growing city in a climate-resilient way. When you average that out, that's an investment of $3.8 million every day!

He whakamārama mō te tūranga mahi | About the role

Shape the future of how Watercare understands cost, creates value, and drives performance.

Watercare is looking for an exceptional analytical and commercially minded

Senior Cost Modelling & Value Analyst to establish and lead Watercare's enterprise-wide cost modelling capability.

This is a highly visible role that sits at the intersection of strategy, finance, operations, regulation and investment decision-making. You'll develop the financial models, insights and analytical frameworks that help guide investment, influence key organisational decisions, and identify opportunities to deliver greater value for our customers.

This newly created role will be the centre of excellence for cost modelling across Watercare. You'll develop and maintain robust driver-based cost models, provide deep value analysis, and ensure financial assumptions are consistent, transparent and defensible.

You'll partner with leaders across Finance, Operations, Asset Management, Planning and Engineering to challenge assumptions, uncover insights and provide evidence-based analysis that supports both day-to-day decision-making and long-term strategic planning.

You'll also play a critical role in supporting Watercare's regulatory environment by ensuring our cost models are transparent, defensible and capable of standing up to external scrutiny.

Key Responsibilities Include

• Developing and maintaining driver-based cost models across operating expenditure and Totex environments.
• Turning complex operational, engineering and asset data into powerful financial insights and forecasts.
• Partnering with business stakeholders to define and validate key cost drivers.
• Supporting the Driving Value Programme through cost baselining, benefits validation and savings tracking.
• Identifying opportunities to improve efficiency, productivity and long-term customer outcomes.
• Developing analytical frameworks that enable better forecasting, business planning and performance management.
• Supporting regulatory submissions by providing robust, evidence-based financial analysis and modelling.
• Enhancing modelling tools, methodologies and analytical capability across the organisation.

Ngā pūkenga e rapu nei mātou | About you

You're naturally curious, commercially astute and thrive on solving complex problems.

You enjoy translating messy, real-world operational challenges into clear analytical insights and can confidently engage stakeholders at all levels of the organisation.

To Be Successful, You'll Have

• Extensive experience in cost modelling, financial planning and analysis, business performance or commercial analytics.
• Strong expertise in driver-based costing, forecasting and financial model development.
• Advanced Excel modelling capability and a passion for analytical excellence.
• A deep understanding of cost structures, value drivers and performance improvement.
• Exceptional communication skills with the ability to influence and challenge constructively.
• The ability to turn complex data into clear, actionable recommendations for executive leaders.
• A tertiary qualification in Finance, Economics, Engineering, Mathematics or a related discipline.

Experience within utilities, infrastructure, asset-intensive industries, regulatory environments, lifecycle costing or Totex frameworks will be highly regarded.

Ngā hua mōu | What's in it for you

We offer a competitive salary and staff benefits package including:

• Training and development opportunities
• Life and income protection insurance plans
• Generous parental leave
• Employee discounts at a range of large retailers

Me pēhea te tono mai | How to Apply

Come and join our team! If you are looking for an exciting career opportunity with a fantastic team then please apply online today - careers.watercare.co.nz.