Senior Advisor, Income Portfolio, Wellington
Date: 1 Sept 2025
Location: Wellington, NZ
Company: Ministry of Social Development
About us / Mō mātou
The Ministry of Social Development is a people-centred organisation. We’re in communities across the motu, working with partners to help New Zealanders be safe, strong and independent.
We provide social policy and advice to government and assistance, including income, employment and housing support to people of all ages, families, whānau and communities.
As a Te Tiriti o Waitangi partner we are committed to supporting and enabling Māori, whānau, hapū, Iwi and communities to realise their own potential and aspirations.
Our people are as diverse as the communities we serve. We care about the wellbeing and success of our people and provide a supportive and inclusive working environment where people can thrive and be who they are.
Senior Advisor, Income Portfolio, Wellington
- Permanent position
- Income Group, Service Delivery
- Based at National Office, Wellington
The Income Group has three key focus areas:
- Simplifying and improving the income support system to ensure it is fair, consistent, accurate, and timely; includes new initiatives and enhancements to existing services for staff and clients.
- Developing digital channel and service strategies, including strategic planning of channel journeys, roadmaps, and future activity.
- Managing technology-related issues and incidents; acting as the interface with MSD IT and Insights groups; leading practice in Business Process Management, Business Analysis, and Service Design.
Senior Advisor
The Income Group is seeking dynamic Senior Advisors to support the design, development and implementation of key initiatives within our Income and Digital Portfolio.
These roles provide a significant opportunity to contribute to the development of future state services for our clients; ensuring continuous improvement of our income support systems, making them easier to understand, and navigate - to provide fair, consistent, accurate and timely support to New Zealanders.
We are looking for people who are energetic, confident, driven to succeed, and have a practical approach to supporting a broad range of exciting business work programmes.
You’ll be part of a cross-functional, multi-disciplinary agile delivery team, and will need to be highly collaborative with others from across the portfolio, including the Delivery Lead, Director and wider stakeholders.
Day-to-day the Senior Advisor will provide professional advice (both written and verbal), analysis and support and develop effective relationships with key stakeholders, colleagues and staff throughout the Ministry.
Existing knowledge of MSD’s products and services, and the way we successfully deliver these, combined with the experience and ability to quickly get up to speed with our work, would be ideal.
This is a hands-on, exciting and fast-paced role, where you will utilise your co-ordinating, influencing, leadership and delivery skills to ensure changes are made on-time and within budget.
The ideal candidate will have:
- Experience in providing high quality advice (both written and verbal) to both internal and external stakeholders, to inform decision making
- The ability to lead concept development and support the delivery of initiatives, ensuring collaboration with key stakeholders and smooth implementation, which improves MSD’s ability to deliver services to clients
- Experience of working within diverse teams within an agile environment, ability to lead key deliverables, and able to prioritise and support a wide-ranging work programme
- An understanding of the ins and outs of operations within a government agency, preferably with previous experience in a customer or community facing role
- An open mind with a willingness to learn and grow
- Sound problem-solving skills, with natural attention to detail and a great team player
- Strong written skills across a wide range of documents to various levels of the organisation
- The ability to demonstrate proven experience of operating at a senior level, in a complex environment
- An understanding of equity issues and the Treaty of Waitangi, and the implications of these for the work of MSD
- Experience in strategy and policy development, service design or implementation of projects and initiatives is ideal but not a must
Position Description | He Whakaahuatanga Tūnga:
Salary | Utu-ā-tau: $103,815.00 - $125,958.00
How to apply / Me pēhea te tuku tono
To apply, click the 'Apply Now' button to upload your CV, cover letter and complete the online application form.
Note: Your cover letter will be a key part of our assessment process, so please highlight how your experience relates to the key responsibilities listed in the position description.
All applications must be made online. If this is not possible or if you have any queries, please contact us at jobs@msd.govt.nz
Internal MSD Employees – please apply through your myHR portal at work. This will ensure that your myHR employee profile is visible as internal candidate.
Closing date: 14 September 2025
Joining us / Ko te hono mai
Joining MSD means being part of a whānau that celebrates the diversity each individual represents. We show manaaki, we care about the wellbeing and success of people and want everyone to thrive, and be who they are in a supportive and inclusive working environment. We work together to make a difference for communities while doing the right thing with integrity. We are a Treaty partner committed to strengthening relationships with Māori, Hapū, Iwi and communities to realise their own potential and aspirations.
If you have any support or access requirements, we encourage you to tell us when you apply so we can assist you through the recruitment process.
MSD has a COVID-19 vaccination policy that encourages, but does not require, employees to be fully vaccinated for COVID-19 and its variants, unless the role is identified as requiring vaccination at the time.
