The positions, which all include roles on the council’s executive leadership team, make up half of the senior management at the council.
Chief executive Richard Saunders said yesterday the council would continue to operate with a total of six general managers when the three new roles were filled.
Mr Saunders declined to say which roles were being disestablished and whether staff were being asked to re-apply for their jobs.
"We are following appropriate processes with all of our impacted staff", he said.
The council has hired Platinum Recruitment Ltd to fill the roles of science and resilience, environmental delivery, and people and corporate general managers.
None of those roles exist at present.
And no further general manager roles appear to be advertised.
Mr Saunders was unable to say yesterday why only three general manager positions were advertised.
He said the impetus for the new structure was "to ensure Otago Regional Council is structured in a way that gives us the best chance of providing excellent service to our community".
"Structure on its own will not achieve this, but it will create the right foundation for us to keep improving as an organisation."
He said councillors had not been involved in the review of the organisational structure.
Operational matters such as the staff structure were the responsibility of the chief executive, he said.
The Otago Daily Times asked yesterday whether general managers had been asked to re-apply for their roles and whether any had indicated they would not do so.
As it was an employment matter, Mr Saunders said he could not comment in detail on the process.
"The new structure has six general managers, which is the same as the number that interim CEO Pim Borren introduced when he created a standalone position for public transport", Mr Saunders said.
The council website lists the general managers at the council as corporate services; policy and science; regulatory; operations; and governance, culture and customer general managers.
The new science and resilience general manager would be responsible for leading the council’s scientific research, investigation and monitoring of the environment, an online advertisement said.
The people and corporate general manager would oversee human resource activities, internal communications and organisational culture development.
The environmental delivery general manager would look after biodiversity, biosecurity, compliance, and consenting at the council, another ad said.
Each position requires a minimum of 10 years’ strategic leadership experience, "preferably in a local government setting", the job ads said.
The last major leadership shake-up at the council saw the sudden departure of former chief executive Sarah Gardner, who resigned giving only one week’s notice last year.
Mrs Gardner received her regular remuneration package and an extra $313,785 on her departure, which included accrued annual leave of $73,978 and $25,000 as severance.
