Operations Manager - Manufacture

Wētā Workshop is an award-winning creative design and manufacturing facility based in Wellington, New Zealand — where artists, makers, and storytellers bring imaginary worlds to life. From creatures to costumes, props to miniatures, tours, and entire immersive experiences, we turn ideas into reality.

Our Manufacture crew are world-builders, artists, craftspeople and creative thinkers - building creatures, armour, costumes, props, robots, prosthetics … and more, all from our Miramar workshop.

We’re looking for a highly collaborative Operations Manager to lead a continuous improvement, safety and people-first culture, and bring their systems thinking and process optimisation experience – to enable streamlined delivery of cost-efficient and high-quality production across a diverse array of manufactured work.

Unlike traditional production environments, our work is highly bespoke and creatively driven — requiring systems that support craftsmanship and innovation alongside delivery discipline.

In this role, you’ll have responsibility for:

Safety, risk and compliance

• Championing safe systems of work across machinery, CNC, spray finishing, welding, lifting/rigging and hazardous substances.
• Leading critical risk verification and near-miss learning.

 Planning, scheduling and delivery

• Governing the production schedule across eight manufacturing departments.
• Evolving strong daily and weekly operational rhythms and change-control practices.
• Improving OTIF, WIP flow and queue times across multiple buildings.

 Workforce planning & resource utilisation

• Ensuring a flexible resourcing model for ~80–120 crew (employees and contractors), implementing skills matrices and cross-training plans.
• Maximising utilisation and minimising non-chargeable time.

Continuous improvement & operational excellence

• Reviewing and maintaining SOPs for high-risk and high-frequency activities.
• Supporting consistent quality standards and simple QC processes.
• Driving productivity, waste reduction, cost efficiency and delivery certainty.

 Financial management & planning                                                

• Managing operations within approved budgets, developing and leading annual capex plans and business cases, and supporting capacity and capability planning.
• Partnering with Finance to monitor expenditure and provide insights.

 People leadership & culture

• Leading, coaching and developing leaders and teams.
• Supporting recruitment, onboarding and performance processes.
• Championing capability development and cross-skilling, and fostering an inclusive, psychologically safe, high-performance culture.

 Facilities & assets

• Overseeing maintenance and lifecycle planning for buildings, vehicles and equipment.
• Maintaining high workshop and workspace standards.

We are looking for a seasoned leader, with significant experience in manufacturing or operational leadership.

You can find more details in our job description here.

You’ll ideally bring:

• Proven ability to stabilise delivery and implement structured planning and operational cadence
• Strong health & safety leadership, particularly with machinery and hazardous substances experience
• Sound business and financial acumen
• A calm, structured, credible and low-ego leadership style
• Experience collaborating effectively across diverse functions and building cohesion across teams
• Systems-thinking and the ability to standardise processes and create disciplined operational practices.

It would be an advantage if you have experience in continuous improvement/Lean. Experience working in an environment with ERP/MRP is another plus (especially if you’ve used Odoo previously).

 More information:

We’re based in Miramar, Wellington, and we really need our Operations Manager here in our wonderful Workshop with us. Relocation assistance may be available for the right candidate.

You can find out more about the details of the role in our job description here, or reach out to [email protected] with any questions.

We look forward to hearing from you – applications close 8 March 2026.

If we can do anything to accommodate you during the recruitment or interview process, please let us know.

Successful applicants will undergo background checks as part of our recruitment process.