Technical Lead

Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora - Southern; Christchurch; On-site; NZD 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora - Southern in Christchurch is seeking a Technical Lead to provide governance and technical direction for critical enterprise applications within the Digital Applications & Products team.

You will mentor developers, drive architecture, and ensure secure, scalable solutions while collaborating with vendors, delivery teams, and stakeholders across the health system.

Qualifications

• 7–10 years' experience in software development
• 3–5 years' experience in a Technical Lead or Senior Developer role
• Proven experience leading and mentoring development teams
• Designing and implementing complex software solutions
• Experience working within Agile development environments
• Strong understanding of software architecture patterns and modern development practices
• Experience with DevOps practices and tools including CI/CD pipelines, containerisation, and cloud deployment
• Experience with database technologies such as SQL Server, PostgreSQL, or NoSQL databases
• Strong problem-solving, analytical, communication, and interpersonal skills
• A relevant tertiary qualification in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field
• Experience working within the health sector or a large, complex enterprise environment
• Knowledge of the New Zealand health system and health information privacy requirements
• Experience working with strategic software vendors and technology partners
• Strong knowledge of the applications and products used within a complex digital environment
• Experience working with clinical, operational, or other enterprise stakeholders
• Supporting mission-critical enterprise or healthcare applications
• Managing vendor-delivered solutions and third-party service providers
• Application integration, interoperability, and service management practices
• Business continuity, disaster recovery, and operational support of critical services

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership and governance for critical enterprise and clinical applications throughout their lifecycle
• Lead the resolution of complex technical issues, major incidents, problem management activities, and service recovery efforts
• Work closely with software vendors and service providers, including roadmap planning, service reviews, escalations, and ongoing service improvement initiatives
• Ensure compliance with security, privacy, risk management, and information governance requirements
• Support business continuity, disaster recovery planning, resilience testing, and operational readiness for critical systems
• Contribute to architecture reviews, technical standards, and long-term technology planning
• Overseeing system integrations, interoperability, and data exchange across platforms while supporting change management and change request activities
• Providing expert technical advice, mentoring team members, working on ServiceNow tickets, and championing continuous improvement

Skills

Software development

Technical leadership

Mentoring teams

Agile development

DevOps / CI-CD

Cloud deployment

Database technologies

System architecture

Stakeholder management

Problem solving

Education

Relevant tertiary qualification

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Software Engineering/IT

Tools

ServiceNow

Job description

Health New Zealand - Te Whatu Ora - Southern - Christchurch, South Island

• Preference will be given to candidates based in the South Island, preferably Christchurch
• Full-time, permanent role
• Be part of our Digital Services team - shaping the future of digital healthcare for all New Zealanders

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is the country's largest employer, delivering universal public healthcare to 5 million New Zealanders.

We provide essential hospital, specialist, and community health services across more than 80 locations - from large urban centres to rural towns and remote communities. Our goal is to improve health outcomes for all New Zealanders by delivering equitable, accessible, and innovative care.

About the role

Are you an experienced technical leader who enjoys solving complex technology challenges and helping teams deliver high-quality digital solutions?

As a Technical Lead within our national Digital Applications & Products team, you'll provide technical leadership, governance, and oversight across Health NZ's critical enterprise and clinical applications. You'll ensure our technology solutions are secure, reliable, scalable, resilient, and aligned with architectural standards, best practice, regulatory requirements, and business needs.

Working closely with developers, architects, delivery teams, product teams, stakeholders, software vendors, and service providers, you'll play a key role in shaping technical solutions, supporting operational excellence, and enabling the successful delivery of projects, enhancements, and service improvements across Health NZ.

You will be responsible for:

• Providing technical leadership and governance for critical enterprise and clinical applications throughout their lifecycle.
• Leading the resolution of complex technical issues, major incidents, problem management activities, and service recovery efforts.
• Working closely with software vendors and service providers, including roadmap planning, service reviews, escalations, and ongoing service improvement initiatives.
• Ensuring compliance with security, privacy, risk management, and information governance requirements.
• Supporting business continuity, disaster recovery planning, resilience testing, and operational readiness for critical systems.
• Contributing to architecture reviews, technical standards, and long-term technology planning.
• Overseeing system integrations, interoperability, and data exchange across platforms while supporting change management and change request activities.
• Providing expert technical advice, mentoring team members, working on ServiceNow tickets, and championing continuous improvement.

By providing strong technical leadership, you'll help ensure Health NZ's digital applications and services are reliable, resilient, secure, and fit for the future. Your expertise will contribute to more consistent national digital services, improved system performance, reduced technical debt, and better outcomes for clinicians, operational teams, and patients.

This is an opportunity to make a real impact by helping shape the technical direction of nationally significant digital services and contributing to better healthcare outcomes for people across Aotearoa.

You may be required to travel from time to time and work outside normal business hours to support critical incidents, project go-lives, planned maintenance activities, and other key implementations. The role may also participate in an on-call roster as required.

About the team

Our Digital Applications & Products function, part of Digital Services, sits at the heart of keeping Health NZ's applications and products connected, reliable, and running effectively.

We focus on making applications and products more reliable, scalable, and aligned to the needs of our people and patients. Our teams work closely with technical specialists, developers, architects, product teams, delivery teams, and stakeholders to provide stable digital services and enable continuous improvement.

By working collaboratively across Digital Services, we help ensure our digital applications and products support the delivery of better healthcare outcomes across Aotearoa.

About you

You're an experienced technical leader who enjoys working through complex technical challenges and turning business needs into practical, scalable technology solutions. You're comfortable providing technical direction, influencing stakeholders, working with vendors, and supporting development teams to deliver high-quality outcomes.

You'll also bring:

• 7-10 years' experience in software development, with at least 3-5 years' experience in a Technical Lead or Senior Developer role.
• Proven experience leading and mentoring development teams.
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing complex software solutions.
• Experience working within Agile development environments.
• Strong understanding of software architecture patterns and modern development practices.
• Experience with DevOps practices and tools, including CI/CD pipelines, containerisation, and cloud deployment.
• Experience working with database technologies such as SQL Server, PostgreSQL, or NoSQL databases.
• Strong problem-solving, analytical, communication, and interpersonal skills.
• A proactive, solution-focused approach and a commitment to continuous learning and improvement.
• A relevant tertiary qualification in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology, or a related field.
• Experience working within the health sector or a large, complex enterprise environment.
• Knowledge of the New Zealand health system and health information privacy requirements.
• Experience working with strategic software vendors and technology partners.
• Strong knowledge of the applications and products used within a complex digital environment.
• Experience working with clinical, operational, or other enterprise stakeholders.
• Supporting mission-critical enterprise or healthcare applications
• Managing vendor-delivered solutions and third-party service providers
• Application integration, interoperability, and service management practices
• Business continuity, disaster recovery, and operational support of critical services.

You will also demonstrate an understanding of Te Tiriti o Waitangi and how to apply its principles in a meaningful way within your role, contributing to equitable outcomes for all New Zealanders.

A commitment to continuous learning, innovation, collaboration, and the highest standards of integrity and professional conduct will be essential for success in this role.

Working for Health New Zealand

Health New Zealand | Te Whatu Ora is dedicated to ensuring excellent healthcare for the people of New Zealand. We embrace a workforce that is diverse and inclusive so that we are better positioned to understand and serve our communities.

We welcome applications from our diverse Māori, Pacific, disabled, and rainbow communities.

For any questions about the role, please contact Ash Mohan at *********@tewhatuora.govt.nz.