PMO Lead

New Zealand Transport Agency; Wellington; On-site; NZD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency is seeking an experienced PMO Lead to establish and maintain programme governance across the Service Modernisation programme. You will lead dependency management, integrated planning and delivery controls to bring clarity and confident decision-making for complex, enterprise-wide changes.

Working across business, digital, policy and change teams, you will map dependencies, monitor risks and issues, and report to governance forums with options and recommended

Job description

The opportunity

Establish and maintain programme governance and control for Service Modernisation Lead dependency management across a complex, enterprise-wide modernisation programme Bring clarity, coordination and confidence to integrated planning and delivery Te Whiwhinga mahi | The opportunity We are looking for an experienced PMO Lead to establish and maintain programme governance, strengthen delivery controls and lead integrated planning across Service Modernisation within Te Mahau | Customer and Services. You will bring clarity, coordination and confidence to a complex, enterprise-wide modernisation programme. This includes establishing practical governance arrangements, providing clear oversight of delivery performance and ensuring risks, issues and decisions are managed through effective reporting and escalation. Working across business, digital, operational, policy and change teams, you will lead the identification, mapping and active management of dependencies. You will ensure cross-programme impacts, delivery constraints and sequencing risks are understood early, with clear ownership and practical plans to resolve them. You will develop and maintain integrated delivery plans and dependency roadmaps that connect priorities, milestones, resources and decision points across the programme. By identifying competing demands and capacity constraints, you will provide practical advice on what should proceed, pause, combine or be re-sequenced, helping teams coordinate delivery and reduce duplication. You will lead programme reporting and delivery controls, bringing together performance information, budget and resource tracking, risk and issue management, and benefits measurement and realisation. Your advice to governance forums will clearly set out progress, emerging risks, options, trade-offs and recommended actions, supporting timely, informed decisions. This role brings together governance, dependency management and integrated planning to support coordinated delivery of customer-centred outcomes. It is an opportunity to bring structure to complexity and contribute to a more customer-centred and digitally enabled future for NZTA. To view a copy of the position description click here.

Ko koe tēnei

About you To be successful in this role, you will bring strong experience working within complex programme, portfolio, project, product or transformation environments. You will be confident navigating ambiguity, connecting delivery activity across multiple teams and translating complex information into clear, practical advice for decision makers. You will also bring: Proven experience identifying, mapping and managing dependencies across multiple initiatives, systems, processes, teams and delivery partners. A strong understanding of programme planning, delivery controls, governance, reporting, risk and issue management, and benefits realisation. The ability to develop integrated plans and provide clear advice on sequencing, capacity, critical paths and competing priorities. Strong analytical skills and the ability to turn complex delivery information into concise, evidence-based and decision-ready material. Excellent facilitation skills, with experience leading workshops, testing assumptions, surfacing constraints and building agreement across diverse stakeholders. Highly developed relationship management and influencing skills, including the confidence to constructively challenge and elevate where required. A practical, solutions-focused approach and a commitment to raising risks early and avoiding delivery surprises. Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to make complex interdependencies clear and accessible. A relevant degree or equivalent experience. Experience working across digital delivery, service design, customer operations, policy, regulatory, data, privacy, security or organisational change environments would be an advantage. Experience within the public sector or a large operational organisation would also be beneficial.

Ko wai mātou

About us The Customer and Services group delivers transactional products and services that support the effective operation of New Zealand's land transport system. We work to make services simple, easy to use and effective, while continually improving the experience of people interacting with NZTA. The Service Modernisation function leads an agency-wide programme of continuous modernisation and improvement, championing a customer-centric, digitally enabled future. Working closely with Digital and other teams across NZTA, we are enhancing our channels, increasing automation and delivering technology-enabled solutions that support our wider customer strategy.

At Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency, it all starts with our people. The organisation's performance and success depends on the people who choose to make this a great place to work and make a difference for Aotearoa. Waka Kotahi has a strong future focus, understanding that new technologies and changing customer expectations mean the transport system we know today will not be the one we deliver in ten years time.

Waka Kotahi is an equal opportunity employer (EOE). We recognise the importance of diversity and inclusion and are committed to providing a working environment that embraces these values.

To be considered for this position you must have a legal right to live and work in New Zealand.

Applications close: 23 November 2026