Engineering Practice Lead

BNZ; New Zealand; On-site; NZD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working

Generous leave

Wellbeing programs

Job summary

BNZ is seeking an Engineering Practice Lead to set direction for engineering practices across BNZ. You will champion best practices, standards and guidance to enable high-quality software at scale.

The role emphasises influence, enablement and evidence-based improvements rather than direct delivery ownership. You will partner with leadership to support career progression and practice maturity across Technology.

Qualifications

• Strong technical credibility across modern software engineering practices.
• Experience defining or evolving engineering standards or role frameworks in large/regulated environments.
• Pragmatic adoption-led mindset with pattern recognition across teams.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve engineering practice standards across coding, software design and the SDLC.
• Create and maintain reference practices, patterns and guidance for BNZ engineering teams.
• Act as custodian of the engineer role, clarifying expectations across levels and specialisations.
• Partner with people leaders to support clear career progression grounded in practice.
• Coach and support engineering leaders to uplift practice maturity via enablement interventions.
• Measure and report engineering practice health and adoption to guide improvement efforts.
• Connect engineering practice to governance and assurance outcomes, reducing risk.
• Collaborate with Engineering Product, Architecture and Security to reflect standards in tooling and processes.

Skills

Engineering leadership

Coaching

Standards definition

Influence without authority

Career progression

Systems thinking

Tools

SDLC concepts

Software design principles

Job description

Worker Type: Permanent

Here at BNZ, it's about more than just banking. We work together in an agile, energising environment to create innovative solutions through our promise "If you can imagine a better future, let's find a way." We support wellbeing, flexible working and have a generous leave offering. There is the opportunity for growth, learning and career development. No two days are the same. Ko mātou tēnei | This is Us

About the role

We sat down with the Engineering Excellence Enablement Manager (who you’ll report to), and they let us know the following about the role. This is an enterprise-wide engineering practice leadership role focussed on setting direction for engineering practices at BNZ. As Engineering Practice Lead, you will be the custodian of engineering excellence across BNZ. Rather than owning delivery outcomes or technology platforms, your focus will be on defining and championing best practice, ensuring our teams have the standards, frameworks and guidance needed to build high-quality, resilient and sustainable software at scale. The role operates primarily through influence, enablement and evidence, rather than positional authority.

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve engineering practice standards across coding, software design and the SDLC, ensuring they are clear, practical and adoptable.
• Create and maintain reference practices, patterns and guidance that provide teams with a consistent foundation for how we engineer at BNZ.
• Act as the custodian of the engineer role, clarifying expectations across engineering levels and specialisations.
• Partner with people leaders to support clear engineering career progression paths that are grounded in real engineering practice.
• Coach and support engineering leaders and teams to uplift practice maturity through hands‑on enablement and targeted interventions.
• Measure and report on engineering practice health and adoption across Technology, using evidence to guide where improvement effort delivers the most value.
• Connect engineering practice to governance and assurance outcomes, reducing systemic risk through consistent, well understood expectations.
• Partner with Engineering Product, Architecture and Security teams to ensure standards are reflected in tooling, delivery processes and control frameworks.

Engineering career progression and capability

• Clear articulation of engineering expectations across roles and levels, aligned to BNZ’s standards and ways of working.
• Consistent signals to engineers about how they grow their craft, influence and impact over time.
• Guidance that helps leaders have meaningful conversations about capability development, strengths and growth areas.
• Alignment between engineering standards, training investments and career progression so learning translates into better outcomes.
• A balanced view of engineering excellence that values quality, resilience, collaboration and sustainable delivery alongside speed.

Success criteria

Success in this role looks like clear, measurable adoption of engineering practices across Technology that enable teams to move forward faster. Teams are using common standards and patterns, delivery expectations are more consistent, and engineering role clarity supports stronger capability development. Governance and assurance signals improve as practice maturity improves, and engineers have greater confidence in how they grow and develop at BNZ.

Skills & experience

• Strong technical credibility across modern software engineering practices, including coding standards, software design and SDLC disciplines.
• Experience defining or evolving engineering standards or role frameworks in a large, complex or regulated environment.
• A pragmatic, adoption led mindset with the ability to see patterns across teams, knowing when to standardise and when to provide flexibility.
• Proven ability to influence behaviour and support change without relying on formal authority.
• A strong coaching orientation and the ability to build trusted relationships with engineers and engineering leaders.
• Systems thinking and comfort working across multiple technology stacks, domains and delivery contexts.

Nau Mai ki te Pēke o Aotearoa

Come to the Bank of New Zealand

Please note applications close Tuesday 1st September 2026

Closing Date: 01 September 2026

We are the bank for New Zealand. Our purpose is to serve customers well and help our communities prosper. Every day we find ways for our customers, our people, and our communities to thrive through strong values, diverse teams, and great people - just like you.