Walker is part of an all-female New Zealand management in Sydney next week and in Europe in May and June.
The success of double Olympic champions Georgina and Caroline Evers-Swindell at the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Games led to a rapid increase of female rowers.
There are now more females than males registered in New Zealand rowing, and this has been reflected in the management of the 42-strong team for Sydney.
It is the largest team New Zealand has taken to a world cup. Waikato's Jan Taylor is the manager and Walker is her assistant.
''There are no males in the team management,'' Walker said.
''But there have been male managers in the past.''
Walker (30), the Otago rowing manager, started rowing when she was at school in Queenstown. Her interest in the sport expanded when she studied geography, natural history and film at the University of Otago.
She has managed teams attending international events at a lower level but this will be her first experience of the big time.
''It's a huge honour and something I'm excited about,'' Walker said.
''Every elite athlete strives to get to the Olympics. My goal is the same but in a different way.''
The world cup in Sydney is the start and it will be followed by regattas in Europe in May and June.
''I'd like to continue to be part of the elite team,'' Walker said.
''It is one of my goals.
''Everyone in Rowing New Zealand works hard to try to get rowers to succeed. It is my job to add to that.''
Walker had her first taste of managing rowing teams in the New Zealand Universities transtasman series from 2006 to 2010. She has had a long apprenticeship for her new job.
''Being organised is my job,'' she said.
''I also have back-up plans to foresee any possible problems before I get there.''
Walker also managed the Otago University women's eight at an international regatta in South Africa in 2009.
''I learned to deal with different personalities and with different agendas and realised they were all trying to succeed,'' she said.
''My role is to support that and help it to happen.''
Walker has managed the New Zealand under-23 team at the world championships over the past two years and gained valuable insights about what is required at the elite level.
''I learned how to deal with the coaches and the team as a whole,''she said.
''I'm not only in charge of the rowers but also the coaching staff.
''We looked at ways of getting everyone on board to make it a successful team and not just a group of individuals.''
These tours helped Walker to overcome unexpected problems.
''Oars have gone missing at airports and rowers have got lost in vans on the streets of Amsterdam.
''Some rowers became sick off the planes which was significant in the early stages of that tour.''
Walker is used to managing large teams. The 32 rowers at the under-23 world championships in Amsterdam last year formed the largest team taken to a world championship event.
She has played a key role in coaching novices at the Otago University Club and ''helping rowers get an addiction for the sport like I've got''.
Two novices who Walker coached in their early years, Fiona Bourke and Fergus Fauvel, are members of the New Zealand squad for the world cup in Sydney.
At a glance
Sonya Walker
Age: 30.
Occupation: Otago rowing manager since 2009.
Rowing clubs: Wakatipu, Otago University.
Administration record: Manager NZ University crews 2006-10; NZ under-23 teams 2011 (Lithuania), 2012 (Amsterdam); assistant elite World Cup team 2013.
