Product Manager

Southern Cross is guided by purpose, powered by people and technology. We're here to help almost one million members across Aotearoa New Zealand live well for longer - work with real scale, real responsibility, and a real opportunity to make a meaningful difference.

As we embed a product operating model across our Technology Platforms function, we're looking for a Product Manager to own the strategy and outcomes of a complex platform product area - driving discovery, prioritisation and investment decisions that keep our platforms desirable, feasible, usable, viable and sustainable across their lifecycle.

This is a senior product role for someone who wants to translate complex, cross-business problems into clear value propositions and roadmaps, and who's comfortable holding decision rights on prioritisation, scope and value while working closely with engineering, architecture and senior stakeholders.

About the role

Reporting to the Modern Workplace Lead, you'll partner with business units across Southern Cross to bring order, prioritisation and strategic direction to our portfolio of business-managed applications. You'll help business owners make sense of a landscape that's grown organically by identifying tools that overlap or duplicate effort across the estate, clarifying ownership, and building a shared view of what we have, why we have it, and where investment should go next.

You'll work closely with business stakeholders, Architecture and Technology Platforms to balance business unit autonomy with enterprise coherence to ensure Business Managed Applications remain fit for purpose, cost-effective, secure and aligned to enterprise strategy across their lifecycle.

What you'll do

• Partner with business units to understand their application needs, priorities and pain points across the Business Managed Apps portfolio

• Build and maintain a clear view of the Business Managed Apps landscape with a defined framework clarifying ownership, purpose, overlap and lifecycle status to support informed investment decisions

• Advise business owners on application value and utilisation, helping them understand whether their tools are delivering the expected return and where there's room to simplify

• Define prioritisation principles for Business Managed Apps investment, balancing business unit needs against enterprise cost, risk and strategic alignment

• Partnering with the business units, share market trends and insights to regularly refresh the Business Managed Apps roadmap with emerging tools and platform options relevant to the business unit

• Partner with Architecture and Cyber Security to ensure Business Managed Apps meet enterprise standards for integration, data governance, security and compliance

• Manage relationships with vendors and partners across the BMA portfolio, holding them accountable for roadmap delivery, support quality and commercial value

• Influence business stakeholders to adopt enterprise-aligned solutions over one-off or shadow procurement

• Track portfolio health metrics (cost, utilisation, risk, technical debt) to inform prioritisation and continuous improvement

• Uplift business owners' capability in product thinking, prioritisation and lifecycle management for the applications they manage

• Partner with business to drive lifecycle decisions across the portfolio: from onboarding and renewal through to migration or retirement to ensure each application remains fit for purpose

What you'll bring

• Strategic product leadership, able to shape multi-year direction for a complex, cross-business portfolio and translate business and enterprise-level problems into clear priorities and roadmaps

• Portfolio, vendor and stakeholder leadership, with the capability to oversee the operational health, cost-effectiveness and lifecycle sustainability of a diverse application estate across the enterprise

• Strong portfolio and enterprise mindset, able to build a coherent, prioritised view from a fragmented landscape of business-owned applications

• Business, regulatory and risk awareness, ensuring portfolio decisions align with health-industry requirements and Southern Cross's risk framework

• Analytical strength, able to define value measures, interpret metrics, and make evidence-led trade-offs under uncertainty

• Strong influencing ability, able to drive consensus and prioritisation decisions across autonomous business units and senior stakeholders

• Skilled at partnering with non-technical business owners, translating between business priorities and enterprise technology standards

• Influential communication, building organisational alignment through transparent reasoning, data and storytelling

• Commitment to long-term portfolio health and sustainability, ensuring technical health, operational performance, compliance and cost-effectiveness are continually strengthened across the lifecycle

• Growth-focused, empowering approach that builds capability and confidence in business owners managing their applications

• Leadership collaboration, able to align and enable stakeholders to balance value, feasibility, design quality and delivery flow

Why join us

We're investing - in people, in technology, and in the mission. We're taking a long-term view - investing in our foundations, our people, and the capabilities that will shape the future of healthcare. You'll have a clear mandate and the opportunity to genuinely shape how we build and evolve our technology platforms as products.

We're building something worth joining. Our teams are growing, our employer brand is gaining real traction in market, and the way we show up for our members and each other is being noticed. This momentum has also been reflected externally - in 2026, Southern Cross placed 8th in the Kantar Corporate Reputation Index and 5th in New Zealand for Trust.

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 our team's culture and wellbeing drive us forward. That's why we prioritise not only professional development but opportunities to thrive personally. We offer exceptional work/life balance, and our people are encouraged - and rewarded - for living well.

Southern Cross employee benefits include:

• Five days of wellbeing leave per year

• Health insurance for you and your immediate whānau

• Life insurance cover and discounts on pet and travel insurance

• Extra parental leave benefits and financial wellbeing support

• Participation in our workplace wellbeing programme

• The option to purchase flexi leave for study, volunteering, or supporting your whānau

• An annual volunteer day to contribute to a cause with your team

This role is Auckland based. While we appreciate interest from candidates in other locations, we're unfortunately not able to consider remote options. Have questions? Check out our FAQs for help with the application and recruitment process.