Senior Principal Systems Engineer — Flexible, Growth & Lead

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi; Auckland; On-site; NZD 150,000 - 210,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Five weeks annual leave

Income protection and critical illness

Professional development and career成长

Flexible working arrangements

Collaborative and inclusive culture

Job summary

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi is seeking a Principal Systems Engineer to provide technical leadership across critical enterprise platforms, shaping secure, scalable solutions for NZTA’s digital services. You’ll work across cloud and on‑prem environments, influence direction, resolve complex issues, and ensure platforms remain resilient and future-ready.

This role blends hands‑on engineering with strategic influence, guiding decision‑making, roadmaps, service integrity, and continuous

Qualifications

• Experience in senior technical leadership roles.
• Strong infrastructure, systems engineering and cloud expertise.
• Advanced problem solving and troubleshooting capabilities.
• Experience operating within large and complex technology environments.
• Strong knowledge of Agile, DevOps and continuous improvement practices.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement, communication and collaboration skills.
• Willingness to gain understanding of Te Ao Māori and Te Tiriti o Waitangi as it applies in the public service.

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 critical 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

Infrastructure

Cloud

Agile DevOps

Stakeholder engagement

Education

Bachelor's degree in a related field

Tools

Cloud platforms

Automation tools

Job description

NZ Transport Agency Waka Kotahi is seeking a Principal Systems Engineer to provide technical leadership across critical enterprise platforms, shaping secure, scalable solutions for NZTA’s digital services. You’ll work across cloud and on‑prem environments, influence direction, resolve complex issues, and ensure platforms remain resilient and future-ready.

This role blends hands‑on engineering with strategic influence, guiding decision‑making, roadmaps, service integrity, and continuous