With a 45 year history as a specialist workplace health insurer, UniMed has been expanding its service portfolio. They are looking for a proven industry leader to join the team to enhance innovation, customer experience, and operational excellence to better serve their members. Looking beyond traditional models, UniMed is focused on keeping people in lifelong good health and helping businesses thrive, through personalised, customer-centric solutions. This is an exceptional opportunity for a leader to be instrumental in driving UniMed’s evolution into New Zealand’s leading health, safety, and wellbeing partner.
UniMed is seeking a visionary and experienced Chief Operating Officer (COO) to join their Executive Leadership Team. This is not a “hold the fort” role—it is an opportunity to:
• Lead a high-performing operations team through a period of significant transformation and development
• Drive standardisation and integration of operations, including the successful alignment of processes and systems following recent acquisitions.
• Champion service excellence, continuous improvement, and operational sustainability.
• Deliver cultural transformation by creating a unified, high-performing, and engaged team aligned to UniMed’s values and strategic direction.
• Strengthen technical health insurance functions across claims, underwriting, care services, and other key operational areas.
• Build new health and wellbeing service capabilities to meet changing customer needs
• Partner closely with the CEO, Board, and executive team to align strategy, optimise resources, and future-proof operations.
This role is pivotal in building robust processes, enhancing efficiency, and delivering personalised services that support UniMed’s strategy of improving health outcomes, and contributing to the performance of leading New Zealand businesses as their preferred health, safety, and wellbeing partner.
• Health insurance expertise with extensive leadership experience in insurance or health services, and a deep understanding of operational best practices.
• Transformational leadership with the ability to lead teams through change, deliver cultural transformation, and build organisational alignment to create a “one team” culture.
• Operational excellence with experience in streamlined, customer-centric processes and systems that drive measurable efficiency and performance outcomes.
• Strategic collaboration, including strong skills in cross-functional leadership, executive-level engagement, and Board-level communication.
• A customer focus with a passion for improving customer experience through innovative, sustainable, and member-focused service models.
• Transformative opportunity: Play a key role in shaping UniMed’s operational future and elevating their industry leadership.
• Creating new market categories: Be part of an organisation committed to redefining the industry with fresh ideas and innovative services.
• Helping people and businesses thrive: Make a meaningful impact by leading a customer-centric team focused on improving health outcomes for UniMed’s membership and community of businesses.
• For purpose not profit: While maintaining a focus on commercial sustainability, this is an opportunity to really make a difference to people’s lives and wellbeing
• Driving evolution: Be instrumental in positioning UniMed as New Zealand’s leading health, safety, and wellbeing partner.
• Potential successor to CEO: This role offers clear career progression, positioning the right candidate as a potential future CEO.
• Lifestyle and location: New Zealand offers unmatched work-life balance, whether you choose Christchurch—a hub of innovation and natural beauty—or Wellington, the country’s vibrant capital city.
• Team leadership: Oversee 60+ team members across Membership services, Claims, Underwriting, Care services, Continuous improvement
• Location: Christchurch (preferred) or Wellington.
• Collaboration: Actively engage as a member of the executive leadership team and with the Board.
This is a rare opportunity to lead an organisation through growth, innovation, and modernisation. If you are a dynamic leader with the expertise and vision to align teams, deliver cultural transformation, and elevate processes to achieve operational excellence, we invite you to apply.
Contact: Johnny Bass at Bass Consulting
Tel: +64 22 156-0566
Email: johnny@bassconsulting.co.nz