Manager Planning & Strategy - Protection - NPHS

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is the country's largest employer, delivering universal public healthcare to 5 million New Zealanders.

We provide essential hospital, specialist, and community health services across 80+ locations from large urban centres to rural towns and remote communities.

Our goal is to improve health outcomes for all New Zealanders by delivering equitable, accessible and innovative care.

About the Role

We have a full time, permanent opportunity available for an experienced manager to step into the role of Manager Strategy and Planning . Reporting to the Group Manager, Communicable Disease, this role sits within the Protection Directorate of National Public Health Service.

In this role, you will translate Health Protection strategy into deliverable plans and programmes for the National Public Health Service and Health New Zealand, with particular emphasis on communicable disease management and control, pandemic planning, and wider outbreak control, as well as an all-hazards approach to support positive outcomes.

This leadership role has a focus on planning and readiness activities for HNZ and National Public Health Service (NPHS) including maintaining a national readiness and response plan to enable the NZ government to stand-up a national quarantine capability (NQC) in the event of a border closure.

About the Team / Service / Location

The NPHS within Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora, work towards Pae Ora (healthy futures) for all by engaging with the wider determinants that impact people's health, focusing on oranga / wellbeing, prevention, protection, and population-level intervention. We are connected across boundaries to deliver public health services that are nationally planned, regionally delivered and locally tailored.

About you

Our ideal candidate will be a leader, a planner and a doer. We need someone who brings with them proven experience in planning activities who can then get stuck in and lead a team to implement on the plan. You will be driven to get better health outcomes for New Zealand. You will have a background in developing and maintaining strategic and operational plans in complex environments. You will lead and your team to navigate through stressful situations and empower them to deliver better outcomes both in preparation and implementation of strategic and operational plans.

You engage with leaders, teams, partner agencies and wider stakeholders to capture and understand their vision. You are a clear communicator who can take complex information and play it back in a relatable manner to wider audiences with differing needs. You understand how to best position an organisation to meet current and future needs and can blend expert advice, policy and practical solutions together to create outcomes that matter.

Our Preferred candidate will be :

• Experienced in developing and maintaining strategic and operational plans
• Skilled in implementing on a plan to get measurable outcomes
• Able to show a demonstrated ability to use expert advice, engagement and data to create insights enabling future focused planning and outcome driven solutions
• An experienced people leader who delegates, supports and empowers teams to make a difference
• Knowledgeable of the machinery of government including policy development and cross agency engagement is preferable
• Experienced in implementing Te Tiriti o Waitangi in action
• Expert in collating and presenting information and planning to complex stakeholder groups
• Hold a relevant tertiary qualification or comparable experience
• Knowledgeable of the requirements of accountability documents such as the Government Policy Statement
• Experienced working with the NZ Health plan or other identified Public Health priorities, such as pandemic planning, outbreak management and an all-hazards approach is a bonus!

Working for Health New Zealand

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is dedicated to ensuring excellent healthcare for the people of New Zealand. We embrace a workforce that is diverse and inclusive so that we are better positioned to understand and service our community. We welcome applications from our diverse Māori, Pacific, disabled, and rainbow communities.

How to Apply

To apply please click “apply now.” All applications must be submitted through our online careers' portal by Tuesday, 25 November 2025 . If you have any questions about the role, please contact Anesha Pillay via

This role is open to internal applications only.

Where retaining preference for those employees disestablished within this directorate, given the number of new positions is greater, we welcome applications from internal candidates in any directorate whose substantive position has been disestablished by an organisational change process.

Job details

Job Reference :

Job Reference : HNZ /

Location :

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