Head of Engineering Excellence

About the role

As Head of Engineering Excellence, you will help shape and uplift engineering practices across ANZ Technology in New Zealand, building greater consistency, capability and technical excellence across the engineering community. You will work collaboratively across NZ and Group Technology, championing modern engineering practices and helping teams adopt enterprise standards suited to the local environment. You will also extend the use of AI and agentic engineering across engineering teams. The role is permanent, standard 37.5-hour week, and can be based in Wellington or Auckland.

Key responsibilities

• Shape and embed engineering standards, practices and patterns across NZ Technology
• Lead the uplift of engineering capability and technical excellence across multiple domains
• Champion modern engineering approaches, including AI and agentic engineering, SecDevOps, automation and reliability engineering
• Partner with senior technology and engineering leaders to influence engineering direction and improve value delivery
• Connect teams across domains, encouraging shared practices and greater consistency
• Use data and metrics to understand engineering maturity, demonstrate value and identify improvements
• Support innovation and adoption of new tools while staying aligned with enterprise standards and risk requirements

Required profile

• Deep engineering background and strong understanding of modern engineering practices, platforms and delivery models
• Experience uplifting engineering capability across multiple teams or domains
• Passion for how AI can modernise software development, ideally with practical experience
• Experience defining or embedding engineering standards, frameworks or best practices at scale
• Collaborative and influential, able to engage senior technology leaders and guide teams in a complex organisation
• Able to balance enterprise direction with local business and regulatory requirements
• Strong communication skills, turning complex technical ideas into clear direction
• Relevant tertiary qualification; professional certifications in cloud, engineering, security or agile delivery are advantageous

Required skills

• DevOps, cloud, automation and resilience practices
• AI and agentic engineering
• SecDevOps

Applications are made through the ANZ careers site using reference number 127719; the application closes on Wednesday 18 November at 11:59 pm (NZ).