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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 are available below (for a 8 July 2024 start date).

If you are interested in other roles, 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.

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?

Pharmaceutical Procurement of Targeted High Cost Medicine, New Zealand

Castalia developed proposals to incorporate targeted high-cost medicines into the public health system’s pharmaceutical benefits scheme. New Zealand’s pharmaceutical procurement model favors medicines that provide broad-spectrum benefits to larger population groups. Patients have significantly lower levels of access to high-cost targeted medicines compared to Australia.
July 17, 2019/by Site Admin

Expert Evidence on Nitrate Emissions Trading System to Protect Lake Taupo, New Zealand

Castalia compared effects of a regulatory regime and a cap-and-trade scheme to reduce non-point nitrate emissions into New Zealand’s Lake Taupo. Increased nitrate run-off from dairy farming was threatening the quality of water in Lake Taupo. Environment Waikato proposed what it called an ‘emissions-trading scheme’ which had the effect of stopping land from being converted to dairy-farming while doing little to improve the farming practices of existing dairy-farmers.
July 17, 2019/by Site Admin

Review of Market Competition for Livestock Improvement Services, New Zealand

Castalia compared existing access prices with prices calculated under the Efficient Component Pricing Rule (ECPR) to show that New Zealand’s Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) was not deterring competition through its charges for use of its livestock database. New Zealand’s Commerce Commission suspected the LIC was monopolizing the dairy cattle improvement market by setting high access prices to the livestock database.
July 17, 2019/by Site Admin

Light Rail Transit PPP, Philippines

Castalia advised the Philippines Government on creating a contract management office that would supervise and manage a PPP contract for a US$1.5 billion light rail transit line upgrade and extension. The Philippines Government wanted to alleviate Manila’s serious traffic congestion by upgrading and extending the city’s light rail transit line 1 (LRT1) and increasing throughout from 500,000 passengers to 800,000 passengers each day.
July 11, 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

Standard Chartered Bank (HK) Ltd. v. United Republic of Tanzania ICSID Case No. ARB/10/12

Castalia provided expert testimony to demonstrate that IPTL, an independent power provider, had overcharged the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (TANESCO).
July 11, 2019/by Site Admin

Pharmacy Guild Policy Paper, New Zealand

We identified how pharmacists and District Health Boards could work together to reduce healthcare costs in New Zealand. District Health Boards considered spending cuts to reduce the cost of healthcare in New Zealand. This would result in lower dispensing fees, so the Pharmacy Guild of New Zealand hoped to identify additional services that could be purchased from pharmacists to preserve financial viability of pharmacies.
July 11, 2019/by Site Admin

Design of Regional Utility Regulator for the Eastern Caribbean

We advised Eastern Caribbean nations on establishing a regional electricity regulator. Island states in the Eastern Caribbean face high electricity costs, but are too small to justify a regulator for each country.
July 11, 2019/by Site Admin

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

Advice to Spark on Proposed Telco-Pay TV Merger, New Zealand

Telecommunication company Vodafone and pay-tv company SKY Television wanted to merge. Castalia’s analysis helped convince the Commerce Commission, the competition authority in New Zealand, that the merger was anti-competitive. What are the potential effects on competition when content providers (those who produce programs) and delivery platforms (broadband and mobile services) propose vertical integration? We analyzed the implications and were able to provide a good test of the effects of vertical integration between content and delivery platforms in telecommunications.
June 29, 2019/by Site Admin

Northern Parishes PPP Pre-Feasibility Study, Jamaica

Castalia appraised several options to reduce the water shortage in Jamaica’s North Coast and recommended an economically feasible and financially viable project to increase water supply and meet growing demand. Growing demand for water services driven by hotel developments along Jamaica’s North Coast was putting a strain on existing supply systems, leading to water shortages for residents and tourists.
June 29, 2019/by Site Admin

Umbulan Springs Project

Castalia appraised the Umbulan Springs Bulk Water Supply Project and found that it was economically and financially viable with Viability Gap Funding. We recommended that the IIGF provide a guarantee if the Provincial Government implemented our recommendations that would mitigate the residual Project risks that we identified. The Umbulan Springs Bulk Water Supply Project would increase water access for residents of the East Java Province, but it needed payment guarantee to attract a PPP company. The Indonesian Infrastructure Guarantee Fund (IIGF) would only provide a guarantee if it were satisfied the Project risks were well managed.
June 29, 2019/by Site Admin