Principal Systems Engineer: Cloud, DevOps & Leadership

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi; Palmerston North; On-site; NZD 170,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi is seeking a Principal Systems Engineer to provide technical leadership across enterprise platforms and to shape secure, scalable digital services for NZTA. You will guide decisions with Platform Leads and Product Owners, influence technology roadmaps, mentor engineers, and drive continuous improvement through Agile and DevOps practices.

This role blends hands‑on engineering with strategic leadership while growing engineering capability and fostering collaboration

Qualifications

• Experienced systems engineering leader with deep infrastructure, cloud, and platform operations expertise.
• Strong strategic thinking with hands‑on delivery and mentoring experience.
• Proven ability to drive continuous improvement through modern engineering practices.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and delivery of enterprise technology solutions
• Drive platform reliability across cloud and on‑prem environments
• Provide leadership during complex incidents and outages
• Champion Agile, DevOps, and continuous improvement practices
• Influence technology roadmaps and engineering direction
• Mentor engineers and strengthen technical capability
• Collaborate across teams to deliver secure, scalable services

Skills

Senior leadership

Cloud expertise

Infrastructure

Agile/DevOps

Stakeholder engagement

Systems engineering

Job description

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi is seeking a Principal Systems Engineer to provide technical leadership across enterprise platforms and to shape secure, scalable digital services for NZTA. You will guide decisions with Platform Leads and Product Owners, influence technology roadmaps, mentor engineers, and drive continuous improvement through Agile and DevOps practices.

This role blends hands‑on engineering with strategic leadership while growing engineering capability and fostering collaboration