Key skills
Collaboration
About this role
Shape tomorrow in Rotorua: Your career starts here!
Ready to make a lasting impact? Te Kaunihera o ngā Roto o Rotorua | Rotorua Lakes Council is your platform for meaningful change. With a team of over 500 staff, we're committed to forging a better tomorrow for the Rotorua community. In the heart of this thriving city, you'll find yourself immersed in natural wonders like geothermal pools and ngāwha | geysers, while enjoying the exhilarating mountain biking scene. Join a council that thrives on collaboration with Te Arawa, our local iwi, and embraces biculturalism at its core. Start your journey with us today!
Kei ā koe te toki, kei ā koe te kuru, whaoa te anamata! You have the chisel, you have the mallet! Join us and carve the future today!
We are looking for a compassionate and dependable Sexton to join our Community Experience team. This role carries significant meaning, combining practical outdoor work with sensitive support for bereaved families, funeral directors, and visitors. You will help ensure our cemeteries remain places of dignity, respect, and comfort for the community.
In this position, you will prepare graves accurately and professionally and deliver burial, cremation related, and memorial services in accordance with council procedures. This includes supporting full burials, ash interments, ash scatterings, memorial placements, and any other sexton services required. You will provide calm, respectful support to families during emotionally significant moments, ensuring all services are carried out with dignity and care.
The role also involves maintaining cemetery grounds to keep them tidy, safe, and welcoming through general maintenance, as well as ensuring burial, cremation, and plot records are accurate and up to date. You will contribute to the upkeep of cemetery assets, assist with public and funeral director enquiries, prepare sites for services, and play an active part in the wider Asset Services and Community Experience teams. A strong commitment to health, safety, and wellbeing is essential to this role.
To be successful, you will bring experience in cemetery operations, grounds maintenance, or other practical outdoor work. You should be confident using and maintaining small machinery and tools, and you must be able to communicate clearly and compassionately in sensitive situations. Knowledge of burial processes, cemetery legislation, and cultural practices, including tikanga Māori, is important. Strong administrative skills, good attention to detail, and the ability to work independently as well as collaboratively are also key requirements.
Working for Rotorua Lakes Council means being part of a team committed to delivering high-quality services for our community. You will be supported in your development, including opportunities to further build understanding of Māori cultural practices and work effectively within a diverse community. This role allows you to make a meaningful impact, ensuring our cemeteries remain places of care, dignity, and remembrance.
If you value meaningful work, take pride in what you do, and want to contribute to a team that serves the community with professionalism and respect, we would welcome your application.
Click this link to view the position description for this role
This vacancy closes on Friday, 27 March 2026.
Te Kaunihera o nga Roto o Rotorua (Rotorua Lakes Council) is committed to working in partnership with Te Arawa, our local iwi. We aspire to being a bicultural organisation and we value staff who speak te reo Maori, have an appreciation of Maori values, and a working knowledge of tikanga Maori.
Sound like you? Click the Apply button.
Ready to make a lasting impact? Te Kaunihera o ngā Roto o Rotorua | Rotorua Lakes Council is your platform for meaningful change. With a team of over 500 staff, we're committed to forging a better tomorrow for the Rotorua community. In the heart of this thriving city, you'll find yourself immersed in natural wonders like geothermal pools and ngāwha | geysers, while enjoying the exhilarating mountain biking scene. Join a council that thrives on collaboration with Te Arawa, our local iwi, and embraces biculturalism at its core. Start your journey with us today!
Kei ā koe te toki, kei ā koe te kuru, whaoa te anamata! You have the chisel, you have the mallet! Join us and carve the future today!
We are looking for a compassionate and dependable Sexton to join our Community Experience team. This role carries significant meaning, combining practical outdoor work with sensitive support for bereaved families, funeral directors, and visitors. You will help ensure our cemeteries remain places of dignity, respect, and comfort for the community.
In this position, you will prepare graves accurately and professionally and deliver burial, cremation related, and memorial services in accordance with council procedures. This includes supporting full burials, ash interments, ash scatterings, memorial placements, and any other sexton services required. You will provide calm, respectful support to families during emotionally significant moments, ensuring all services are carried out with dignity and care.
The role also involves maintaining cemetery grounds to keep them tidy, safe, and welcoming through general maintenance, as well as ensuring burial, cremation, and plot records are accurate and up to date. You will contribute to the upkeep of cemetery assets, assist with public and funeral director enquiries, prepare sites for services, and play an active part in the wider Asset Services and Community Experience teams. A strong commitment to health, safety, and wellbeing is essential to this role.
To be successful, you will bring experience in cemetery operations, grounds maintenance, or other practical outdoor work. You should be confident using and maintaining small machinery and tools, and you must be able to communicate clearly and compassionately in sensitive situations. Knowledge of burial processes, cemetery legislation, and cultural practices, including tikanga Māori, is important. Strong administrative skills, good attention to detail, and the ability to work independently as well as collaboratively are also key requirements.
Working for Rotorua Lakes Council means being part of a team committed to delivering high-quality services for our community. You will be supported in your development, including opportunities to further build understanding of Māori cultural practices and work effectively within a diverse community. This role allows you to make a meaningful impact, ensuring our cemeteries remain places of care, dignity, and remembrance.
If you value meaningful work, take pride in what you do, and want to contribute to a team that serves the community with professionalism and respect, we would welcome your application.
Click this link to view the position description for this role
This vacancy closes on Friday, 27 March 2026.
Te Kaunihera o nga Roto o Rotorua (Rotorua Lakes Council) is committed to working in partnership with Te Arawa, our local iwi. We aspire to being a bicultural organisation and we value staff who speak te reo Maori, have an appreciation of Maori values, and a working knowledge of tikanga Maori.
Sound like you? Click the Apply button.