_{11th May, 2026}

Auckland or Wellington
 
ABOUT NEW ZEALAND RUGBY:
Rugby in New Zealand is a key part of the nation's identity and global reputation, fostering pride, unity and cultural expression. This is one of the most influential leadership opportunities in New Zealand sport - a role with the ability to shape the future direction of rugby across the entire system, from community rugby through to the professional and international game.
 
As a key member of the NZ Rugby Executive Leadership Team, the Chief Rugby Officer will lead a newly established Rugby Delivery portfolio spanning Community Rugby, Competitions & Tournaments and Professional Rugby Contracting.
 
About The Role:
The Chief Rugby Officer will provide strategic leadership across the wider rugby system, helping ensure a thriving community game, aligned national pathways and will work closely with the High Performance Director to enable sustained high-performance success. Working across a complex and highly connected stakeholder environment, this role will lead engagement and alignment across Provincial Unions, Super Rugby Clubs, players, governance groups and international rugby stakeholders.
 
Areas of responsibility include:

• Leading and integrating the end-to-end rugby system
• Driving a healthy and sustainable community game
• Leading competitions strategy and delivery
• Overseeing the contracting needs of the professional game including collective bargaining
• Supporting alignment across pathways and high performance
• Leading strategic stakeholder engagement across the game
• Helping shape the future direction and sustainability of rugby in New Zealand

 
About You:
We are seeking an experienced executive leader with the credibility, presence and systems-thinking capability. This is a highly visible leadership role requiring significant experience across the game, strong commercial acumen, exceptional relationship management capability and the ability to lead through complexity, change and competing stakeholder priorities.
 
You will bring:

• Proven executive leadership experience in a complex, multi-stakeholder environment.
• Strong strategic, commercial and operational capability.
• Experience leading transformation, alignment or system-wide change.
• Exceptional stakeholder engagement and influencing skills.
• Strong negotiation and relationship management capability.
• The ability to build trust and alignment across diverse stakeholder groups.
• Courage, decisiveness and a willingness to challenge the status quo.
• Deep understanding of rugby or a comparable high-performance sporting ecosystem.

 
While candidates may come from outside rugby, an understanding of the New Zealand rugby landscape and ecosystem will be important. We are ultimately seeking a genuine systems leader - someone who can bring people together, influence across the game and help evolve rugby for the future.
 
Applications close - Monday 1st June 2026

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