Kaihautu / Director Maori & Community Partnerships

Kaihautu Director Maori Community Partnerships

Make a real impact : Become part of our vision to eliminate Family Violence and Sexual Violence in Aotearoa New Zealand

We are a unit with a significant system role, working across government to take collective action against family violence and sexual violence.

We steward the family violence and sexual violence system and drive realisation of the cross-agency strategy—Te Aorerekura. We work in partnership with communities across Aotearoa New Zealand, placing survivors, families, and whanau at the heart of everything we do.

Te Haeata / The Opportunity

As an Interdepartmental Executive Board (IEB) our mandate is clear : joint accountability across government for the elimination and prevention of family violence and sexual violence. As the centre of expertise that stewards the family violence and sexual violence system and the 25-year cross-government strategy, Te Aorerekura, we work in partnership with the communities we serve and always hold survivors, family and whanau at the centre of everything we do.

As Kaihautu / Director, Maori & Community Partnerships, you will lead the thinking, development and delivery of targeted strategies, programmes and frameworks and drive their effective implementation to :

• lead the work to strengthen local and regional multi-agency responses for family violence
• build strategic relationships and enduring partnerships across the sector and with communities to support the delivery of our work
• embed community-led and iwi-led solutions, ensuring these areas seamlessly integrate and operate together
• shape and strengthen capability and capacity across the family violence and sexual violence system through its workforce at a national, regional and local level.

Cultural capability, strategic relationships and partnerships are crucial to the role the Centre plays and ensuring that we deliver meaningfully for Maori. As our Kaihautu, you will be dedicated to strengthening these linkages, building capability as well as positive, enduring relationships with iwi and other Maori organisations.

You will lead the team charged with the local, regional, and national enablement of Te Aorerekura, ensuring the actions and shifts identified are whanau-centred and iwi and community led. Your leadership will embed te ao Maori principles into system design and decision-making, lifting capability and ensuring meaningful delivery for Maori.

As a key advisor to the Chief Executive and member of the Executive Leadership Team (ELT), you will navigate complexity with authority—building strategic relationships with Maori, lifting cultural capability across the organisation, and ensuring a te ao Maori lens is integral to how we work. This is a role for a bold, strategic leader—someone who can inspire, influence, and drive change at scale.

O Pukenga / Skills and Experience

To be successful in this role, you will have :

• proven executive leadership experience in complex, multi-agency environments, with a track record of driving system-level change.
• ability to strategically network and influence, leveraging relationships to secure cross-agency alignment and uplift multi-agency responses
• proven experience as a strategic enabler driving significant delivery impact and embedding continuous improvement
• ability to inspire teams while pragmatically committing to the organisations kaupapa and the people we serve
• track record of bringing a strong focus on delivery and operational discipline.

Nga painga o tenei wahi mahi / What's great about working here

Our Values : Guide how we work, we role model these and the behaviours we want to see in everything we do, every day :

• Innovation and Auahatanga
• Equity and Oritetanga
• Integrity and Tika, Pono
• Collaboration and Kotahitanga
• Compassion and Aroha

One Team : We work as one team to deliver maximum impact. We are flexible, working in cross-functional teams to ensure we have the right mix of capability to do the right work. We are innovative and harness the people across the Family Violence and Sexual Violence system to deliver collective impact.

Professional Development : We support continuous development of technical capability and leadership expertise.

We offer you a range of benefits to support your wellbeing and help make the Ministry a great place to be.

Tono mai / Apply

To apply for this position, please submit your application through our career's portal here. Ensure your application includes a cover letter and CV detailing your relevant experience and qualifications.

Applications close on Sunday 7 December

• ; however, we will be reviewing CVs as they come in and may invite successful candidates to interview before the close date.

If you have any questions, please contact

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