Manaaki Marine

Manaaki Marine is a marine recruitment and placement service provider that connects maritime professionals with businesses. It holds certification under the Maritime Labour Convention (MLC) 2006 as a recruitment and placement service, which applies to seagoing roles. It works for commercial vessel owners and operators in New Zealand and the Pacific.

The company fills on-water roles such as vessel masters and skippers, sea-going engineers, electrical technical officers, integrated ratings, able seamen and deckhands. Shore-based roles include operational management, marina and boatyard staff, ship builders and repairers, and marine electricians and system engineers. It keeps a network and database of skippers, crew, engineers and other maritime professionals. Its services run from role scoping to onboarding, and it covers both short-term crew and long-term operational leaders.

Manaaki Marine was founded in 2022 by Barry Nielson, its founder and managing director, who began his career in the Royal New Zealand Navy as a hydrographic surveyor. The team says it comes from seagoing backgrounds, with experience on passenger vessels, vehicle ferries, tourism vessels and workboats.