Software Engineering Practice Lead: Grow Teams & Excellence

New Zealand Government Joba; Wellington; Hybrid; NZD 138,000 - 172,000; Full time

Job summary

The Ministry of Social Development invites applications for a Practice Lead in Software Engineering to guide and develop engineers, ensuring delivery of secure, scalable digital services. The role connects engineering strategy to daily practice while upholding standards across product, platform, architecture and delivery.

Based in Wellington, this ongoing full-time position emphasizes coaching, performance, wellbeing and continuous improvement in DevOps, CI/CD and cloud-native development.

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading software engineering teams in a complex tech environment.
• Experience delivering modern software solutions using contemporary engineering practices.
• Strong coaching, mentoring and performance leadership capability, with a focus on growing technical talent and fostering career development.
• Experience driving engineering excellence through software quality, testing, automation, DevOps, CI/CD, and continuous improvement practices.
• Strong understanding of modern software engineering principles, including secure coding, cloud-native development, system reliability, and maintainable architecture.
• Strong stakeholder management, influencing, and relationship-building skills across product, platform, architecture and delivery functions.
• Excellent communication, facilitation, and problem-solving skills, with the ability to translate complex technical concepts for diverse audiences.
• A collaborative leadership style and a passion for innovation, continuous learning, and engineering excellence.

Responsibilities

• Lead and develop software engineers through coaching, performance management, wellbeing support, and career development.
• Building engineering capability and maturity by identifying capability needs, supporting recruitment and workforce planning, and contributing to continuous improvement initiatives.
• Embedding engineering standards and best practices, including secure coding, software quality, testing, automation, DevOps, and modern development methodologies.
• Providing technical leadership and guidance by supporting teams to navigate complex technical challenges, manage technical debt, and deliver sustainable engineering solutions.
• Contributing to practice leadership through stakeholder engagement, operational insight, and active participation in the ongoing development of the Software Engineering Practice.
• Supporting decision-making through the evaluation of technical options, working through ambiguity, and providing clear and practical recommendations.

Skills

Leading teams

People leadership

Coaching

Performance management

DevOps

CI/CD

Cloud-native

Stakeholder management

Communication

Problem solving

Education

Tools

Job description

The Ministry of Social Development invites applications for a Practice Lead in Software Engineering to guide and develop engineers, ensuring delivery of secure, scalable digital services. The role connects engineering strategy to daily practice while upholding standards across product, platform, architecture and delivery.

Based in Wellington, this ongoing full-time position emphasizes coaching, performance, wellbeing and continuous improvement in DevOps, CI/CD and cloud-native development.