Group General Manager System Leadership - NZTA

Overview

The NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi (NZTA) is New Zealand’s largest safety regulator and a Crown entity with over 2,500 staff.

NZTA’s broad range of functions and accountabilities include long-term transport planning, investment management, and oversight of land transport initiatives including the delivery of a multi-billion-dollar programme. They regulate safety and compliance, deliver improvements to the transport system, maintain the state highway network, and provide customer services for transport access and use.

Role and leadership

The Group General Manager - System Leadership is a key member of the Executive Leadership team and requires the capacity to lead, think and operate at a pan sector, whole-of-system level. This pivotal role is accountable for leading close to 200 staff, through teams with expertise in organisational and sector strategy, “small p” policy, planning, analytics, safety, environment and kaupapa Māori.

You will be accountable for providing strategy, policy and thought leadership, informed by research, data, insights and intelligence. The Group’s mahi supports internal clients as well as regional and local government and other stakeholders to innovate, improve and effectively target interventions and investment across our land transport system.

In order to be credible and effective, you will need to be adept at traversing commercial, central and local government strategy, relationships and perspectives. You will be an integrator with the capacity to synthesise and simplify complexity to inform the long term ‘direction of travel’ as well as medium term decision making across the land transport network.

You will require proven leadership experience across strategic, policy, economic, financial and people / culture domains, gained within complex organisations and sectors. Other requirements include :

An engaged people leader, able to develop collaborative, high performing teams

Capability to think and operate across systems and sectors

Strategy and policy development experience

Ability to lead and understand change impacts, including unintended consequences

Capacity to lead strategic, enduring Crown Māori partnerships

Exceptional communication, influencing and relationship management skills, including with Ministers, Boards, iwi and commercial leaders.

Contact

Confidential enquiries and applications should be directed to Guy Brew or Vishnu Nair at Ichor Leadership Search by 5.00pm on Monday 6 October 2025. Contact us via email at or call +64 .

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