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Career opportunities

Thank you for your interest in a role at Castalia. We recruit and onboard new team members quarterly, and the next round of career opportunities will be posted by 13 January 2025 (for a 24 March 2025 start date).

In the meantime, please feel free to submit your materials to our talent pool using the link below. We will notify you if we have an opportunity that may be a good match.

Submit your interests here.

Five big problems with Three Waters

OPINION: The need for reform in the New Zealand water sector…
September 2, 2022/by admin

Five lessons from Cape Town’s Day Zero Crisis for Better Urban Water Resilience

If you’re working on urban water resilience, you must read…
November 13, 2024/by admin

White Paper on the Flexibility of Concentrated Solar Power

Castalia wrote a White Pater on the role of Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) in the power system of the future. Given significant decreases in costs and the ability to provide flexible power, CSP is expected to play a key role as a local and renewable source of power to cope with increasing amounts of variable renewable energy (vRE) in power systems.
July 8, 2021/by admin

Force majeure in the power sector

July 2, 2020/by Site Admin

Assessing the impact of force majeure on emerging markets PPPs

April 27, 2020/by Site Admin

Freight Forecast Due Diligence for Inland Multimodal Terminal, Australia

Castalia performed due diligence on the proposed intermodal freight terminal at Moorebank in Sydney. To support the investment required, project developers needed independently verified freight projections.
April 13, 2020/by Site Admin

Fund Financing Energy Efficiency and Small-scale Renewable Generation, Barbados

Castalia designed the Energy Smart Fund to help households and businesses invest in energy-saving technologies, solar water heaters, and small-scale solar PV systems. The cost of electricity was too high in Barbados. Installing solar systems and energy efficient technologies could help save energy, money, and emissions—but lack of finance made these investments unaffordable for most households and businesses
July 18, 2019/by Site Admin

Geothermal Energy Market Analysis, Eastern Caribbean

The Eastern Caribbean States rely heavily on expensive fossil fuels despite having great potential for renewable energy. The IDB wanted to explore investment opportunities for affordable, reliable renewable energy to move the region away from fossil fuel.
March 2, 2023/by Oxygen Digital

Webinar: How Germany plans to phase out coal without losing all the coal jobs

A discussion about Germany's commitment to competely decarbonize its national energy system and how that could affect jobs in the power plants and save emissions.
May 2, 2019/by rebecca

Guardian Homes, New Zealand

Castalia calculated a rest-home operator’s market share if it purchased its competitor’s business assets. We concluded that its new market share would not be large enough to raise questions about reduced competition. Castalia’s client, a rest-home operator, wanted to purchase a competitor’s facilities and expand its business. The operator needed to know if the Commerce Commission would block the purchase due to concerns about reduced competition.
June 19, 2019/by sophie

Guidance for the Regulation of Mini Grids

We wrote a report that will help governments scale-up electricity access with privately-financed mini-grids by selecting the appropriate regulatory, contract and subsidy designs. The World Bank identified that although creating mini-grids could accelerate the pace of electrification, information about best practices for regulating mini-grids wasn’t widely available.
June 29, 2019/by Site Admin

Hawkes Bay Irrigation Plan, New Zealand

Castalia forecast irrigation demand and assessed volume risk for the proposed Ruataniwha Plains Water Storage Project. Irregular rain in the region caused periodic droughts and reduced farmers’ ability to raise high value crops on the Ruataniwha Plains.
July 11, 2019/by Site Admin

We look for candidates who are:

competent

Competent

We are experts in finance, economics, law, and policy applied to infrastructure, natural resources and social service provision. You’re a great fit for us if you can demonstrate excellent technical and analytical abilities, and if you’re willing to learn new skills.

creative

Creative

We’re passionate about solving the infrastructure and resource problems of the world in creative and innovative ways. We’re building a team that is insightful, resourceful and visionary. You’re a great fit for us if you’re a creative problem solver.

consistent

Consistent

Castalia is respected for the quality of our work. We’ve achieved this by being reliable, organized and efficient. You’re a great fit for us if you’re conscientious, reliable and keep your promises.

concientious

Conscientious

We’ve nurtured a culture of excellence, but we’re able to maintain it because our team is made up of disciplined self-starters. You’re a great fit for us if your passion and creativity is matched with discipline, commitment and follow-through.

committed

Committed

It takes focus and hard work to be successful. Solving the world’s most difficult problems is never easy! You’re a great fit for us if you want to put achievement of team goals above personal interests, know how to work in a team, and can persevere through set-backs.

collaborative

Collaborative

Consulting demands a lot from the individual and the team. We are looking for team members who are patient, approachable, good-natured and willing to work with others to solve big problems. You’re a great fit for us if you bring empathy, humility and excellent communication skills and would like to help the team achieve our mission.

Collectively, these are known as our ‘6 C’s’ and they encompass the qualities that lead to success at Castalia.

We look for candidates who are:

competent

Competent

We are experts in finance, economics, law, and policy applied to infrastructure, natural resources and social service provision. You’re a great fit for us if you can demonstrate excellent technical and analytical abilities, and if you’re willing to learn new skills.

creative

Creative

We’re passionate about solving the infrastructure and resource problems of the world in creative and innovative ways. We’re building a team that is insightful, resourceful and visionary. You’re a great fit for us if you’re a creative problem solver.

consistent

Consistent

Castalia is respected for the quality of our work. We’ve achieved this by being reliable, organized and efficient. You’re a great fit for us if you’re conscientious, reliable and keep your promises.

concientious

Conscientious

We’ve nurtured a culture of excellence, but we’re able to maintain it because our team is made up of disciplined self-starters. You’re a great fit for us if your passion and creativity is matched with discipline, commitment and follow-through.

committed

Committed

It takes focus and hard work to be successful. Solving the world’s most difficult problems is never easy! You’re a great fit for us if you want to put achievement of team goals above personal interests, know how to work in a team, and can persevere through set-backs and pain.

collaborative

Collaborative

Consulting demands a lot from the individual and the team. We are looking for team members who are patient, approachable, good-natured and willing to work with others to solve big problems. You’re a great fit for us if you bring empathy, humility and excellent communication skills and would like to help the team achieve our mission.

Collectively, these are known as our ‘6 C’s’ and they encompass the qualities that lead to success at Castalia.

Recruitment FAQs

  • Intern
  • Research Associate
  • Economics and Financial Analyst
  • Senior Analyst
  • Manager
  • Senior Management (Directors, Practice Leaders, CEO/COO/ED)
  • Corporate Services

We’re glad you’re interested in working with us. Please click on the job posting above and start your application.

Once we have screened for candidates, had the informational interview and we’re ready to start with interviews, we aim to have each candidate’s recruitment process completed in 2 weeks.

Informational interview:

This is an introductory interview with someone from the team you’re likely to work with. You have an opportunity to ask questions about Castalia, the work environment and the kind of work you can expect to do. You will also be asked general questions about yourself and your professional education and experience. After this you decide if this is the job for you and if you want to go through our formal assessment process. At this point we also give you feedback on whether we think you’d likely be a good fit for the role.

Team interviews:

These interviews are designed to test your knowledge, based on the position you are applying for. Your understanding and application of finance and microeconomics will be tested if you are applying to be part of our team of analysts. All candidates will have an interview to discuss Castalia’s 6Cs, which is a discussion about our values and the types of candidates we’re looking to hire.

Final interview

The final interview will be with a member from our Senior Management. It will cover all elements mentioned above. Managers and above will have an additional interview with the CEO.

We suggest that you read the following materials in preparation for the interviews. This is what we expect our team to know. If you’re unfamiliar with these concepts and the material, your application is unlikely to be successful.

Interview on microeconomics:

  • Basic Microeconomics, you’d want to brush up by reviewing an introductory microeconomic text book. The interview will typically cover the following areas:
    • Supply and Demand, price formation, market equilibrium
    • Utility maximization, profit maximization, equalization at the margin as a concept
    • Perfect competition model and monopoly models
  • A good Public Finance/Public Economics textbook should cover: these, e.g. Rosen’s textbook:
    • Part 1: Getting Started
      Chapter 1: Introduction
      Chapter 2: Tools of Positive Analysis
      Chapter 3: Tools of Normative Analysis
    • Part 2: Public Expenditure: Public Goods and Externalities
      Chapter 4: Public Goods
      Chapter 5: Externalities
      Chapter 6: Political Economy
      Chapter 7: Education
      Chapter 8: Cost-Benefit Analysis

Interview on finance:

The interview will cover:

  • Financial statement analysis
    • Reading and understanding financial statements (balance sheet, cash flow statements, income statements). You should know the differences, what information can be found on what statement, correct way to record transactions and interpret information from these statements, etc.
    • Calculating and comparing relevant financial ratios
  • Corporate finance – we suggest reviewing:
    • How to value companies including DCFs and calculating present value, WACC and the CAPM model
    • Capital structure and managing risk, financing versus valuation and key differences between debt and equity
  • The Corporate Finance textbook we recommend is written by Myers and Brealey. 

Myers, Brealey. Principles of Corporate Finance (11th Edition). New York: McGraw-Hill, 2014.

  • Part 1: Value
    Chapter 1: Introduction to Corporate Finance
    Chapter 2: How to Calculate Present Values
    Chapter 3: Valuing Bonds
    Chapter 5: Net Present Value and Other Investment Criteria
    Chapter 6: Making Investment Decisions with the Net Present Value Rule
  • Part 2: Risk
    Chapter 7: Introduction to Risk and Return
    Chapter 8: Capital Asset Pricing Model
    Chapter 9: Risk and the Cost of Capital
  • Part 3: Best Practices in Capital Budgeting
    Chapter 10: Project Analysis
  • Part 4: Financing Decisions and Market Efficiency
    Chapter 13: Efficient Markets and Behavioral Finance
  • Part 5: Payout Policy and Capital Structure
    Chapter 17: Does Debt Policy Matter
    Chapter 19: Financing and Valuation

Why choose Castalia?

Interested in learning more?

Interested in learning more?

Valuing Contact Energy for an Investor, New Zealand

Castalia advised an international strategic investor on its bid for a controlling stake in Contact Energy, one of New Zealand’s biggest energy providers. Our client needed a deep understanding of pricing, regulation and market rules in order to value Contact Energy.
November 7, 2019/by Site Admin

Evaluation of Facility to Promote Health PPPs, New Zealand

Castalia assessed the effectiveness of the Pilot Health PPP Advisory Facility. International donors for the Facility wanted to know if their money was well spent.
November 7, 2019/by Site Admin

Castalia conducts solar PV workshop in Turkey

A Castalia team presented their findings from financial and economic analysis of rooftop solar PV projects in a workshop in Turkey on October 25, 2019.
October 29, 2019/by Site Admin

Development of the Cervena Venison Appellation, New Zealand

Castalia recommended turning a poorly coordinated Cervena Appellation into a brand under a consolidated ownership structure to increase value of New Zealand venison exports. A New Zealand venison brand would be valuable, but the Cervena Appellation failed to deliver the benefits, despite requiring compulsory subscription by deer farmers.
October 28, 2019/by Site Admin

Securing Private Participation in Regional Electricity Distribution Cooperatives, Philippines

Castalia designed a model for private sector participation in the Philippines’ rural electric cooperatives to attract operational expertise and finance for development. Many rural electrification cooperatives in the Philippines were struggling as a result of poor management and lack of finance.
October 28, 2019/by Site Admin

Privatization of the Port of Newcastle, Australia

Castalia helped the Newcastle Port Consortium prepare a growth strategy for the Port of Newcastle. The Government of New South Wales was going to privatize the Port of Newcastle and the Consortium, made up of local business people with commitment to city and the Port, was interested in aligning with a bidder that would seek to implement a growth strategy to ensure the best outcome for the community.
October 28, 2019/by Site Admin

Competition Effects of Physiotherapy Contracts, New Zealand

Castalia gave expert evidence that a new contracting model to pay physiotherapists did not breach competition law. Physiotherapists had claimed that the new contracts, which prevented them from charging patients additional out-of-pocket fees, limited competition and amounted to price-fixing.
October 28, 2019/by Site Admin

Renewable Energy Arbitrations Against the Kingdom of Spain

Castalia undertook case studies of international experience to determine if the market reform that the Kingdom of Spain had commenced breached investors’ legitimate expectations about protection of their returns. When the electricity sector was in crisis in 2012, Spain pursued wide-ranging reforms. Solar PV IPPs claimed that these reforms breached bilateral investment treaties.
October 23, 2019/by Site Admin

Castalia Presents 8th annual Renewable Islands Index and Marketplace at CREF

Castalia presented the eighth annual Renewable Energy Island Ranking, an index that ranks Caribbean jurisdictions by investment and success in developing renewable energy.
October 18, 2019/by Site Admin

Reforming Bermuda’s Electricity Sector Overhaul

Castalia led a comprehensive advisory that reformed Bermuda’s electricity sector, created a new Electricity Sector Policy and the New Electricity Act, a Fuels Policy, and allowed completing its first Integrated Resource Plan and procuring the first large-scale solar PV project. Bermuda needed to overhaul its electricity sector regulatory framework to attract large-scale renewable and alternative fuel projects to reduce its emissions from burning fossil fuels.
October 17, 2019/by Site Admin

Non-revenue Water Performance Based Contracts

Castalia co-authored the World Bank published operational manual The Use of Performance-Based Contracts for Nonrevenue Water Reduction: Output of the Global Program on Developing Good PBC Practices for Managing NRW. This loss of non-revenue water (NRW) prevents utilities from improving services or expanding access. Sometimes, high NRW leads to water rationing which often causes contamination of the network and unsafe drinking water.
October 17, 2019/by Site Admin

TIFIA Portsmouth Bypass PPP Advisory, USA

Castalia assessed the creditworthiness of a highway project to relieve congestion in Ohio, and recommended approving private financing. Due to fiscal, the Ohio Department of Transportation sought private funding help with the Portsmouth Bypass project, requesting a loan of US$230 million from the Transportation Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (TIFIA).
October 17, 2019/by Site Admin