Principal Software Engineer: AI-Driven Secure Delivery

New Zealand Transport Agency; Wellington; On-site; NZD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

New Zealand Transport Agency (Waka Kotahi) is establishing Principal Engineering within Software Engineering to drive technical leadership across teams, platforms and delivery. You will combine strategic thinking with hands-on expertise to shape long-term engineering direction and grow capability across NZTA.

You will mentor engineers, lead standards adoption, and steer AI augmented engineering initiatives while maintaining a strong security posture and delivering high-impact solutions across

Qualifications

• Deep software engineering expertise with analytical and problem-solving ability.
• Experience establishing and embedding engineering standards, patterns, guardrails and reusable approaches.
• Future-focused vision for AI augmented engineering with ability to experiment, prove and scale.
• Broad technical expertise across backend, frontend, integration, data and cloud technologies (Java, Spring Boot, React, REST APIs, PostgreSQL, Azure, Docker, Kubernetes, GitHub, GitHub Actions).
• Strong understanding of modern SDLC and DevSecOps, embedding security and automation throughout the lifecycle.

Responsibilities

• Provide hands-on technical leadership across complex, high-impact engineering challenges.
• Lead the development and adoption of engineering standards, patterns, guardrails and reusable approaches.
• Lead the evolution of AI augmented engineering and scale new approaches.
• Bring systems thinking across frontend, backend, mobile and integration engineering.
• Influence software strategy, technical direction and major engineering decisions across teams.
• Provide enterprise-level technical design leadership and assurance for high-risk work.
• Mentor engineers from graduate to senior levels and grow capability across the chapter.
• Build alignment across Engineering, Architecture, Security, Platforms, Product and delivery teams.

Skills

Deep software engineering

Systems thinking

Mentoring engineers

Communication skills

Influencing others

Strategic thinking

Growth mindset

Hands-on leadership

Problem solving

Tools

Java

Spring Boot

React

REST APIs

PostgreSQL

Azure

Docker

Kubernetes

GitHub

GitHub Actions

Job description

New Zealand Transport Agency (Waka Kotahi) is establishing Principal Engineering within Software Engineering to drive technical leadership across teams, platforms and delivery. You will combine strategic thinking with hands-on expertise to shape long-term engineering direction and grow capability across NZTA.

You will mentor engineers, lead standards adoption, and steer AI augmented engineering initiatives while maintaining a strong security posture and delivering high-impact solutions across