Senior Adviser Strategy and Planning at Ministry for Primary Industries, Wellington City

Mō tēnei tūranga mahi | About this role

Senior Adviser Strategy & Planning

Role type: Permanent, Full-time

Location: Wellington

Salary band & range: General Salary Range D $102,953 to $137,778 depending on skills and experience

About the Role - Kōrero mō te Tūranga

We are looking for a Senior Adviser to join our Strategy and Planning team. You'll work with senior leaders to identify emerging challenges and opportunities and connect long-term strategy with clear priorities and delivery.

This is a diverse role spanning enterprise strategy and planning, high-priority organisational products, and advice for senior decision-makers. You may lead a piece of work on one assignment and support a colleague on another. In either role, you will be expected to understand the requirements, establish a practical approach, keep people informed and maintain momentum through to completion.

Your key priorities will be to:

• Help develop, implement and refresh MPI's organisational strategy, priorities, and related planning products
• Manage assigned work end to end, including establishing an approach, coordinating input, and communicating progress and risks
• Bring together complex, incomplete, or competing information to produce clear, well-evidenced analysis and advice for senior leaders and, where required, Ministers and Parliament
• Support MPI's Briefings to incoming Ministers and other high-priority products
• Support enterprise programmes and strategic initiatives, including defined elements of MPI's Carbon Neutral Government Programme work
• Build trusted relationships across MPI, constructively challenge thinking, and improve the team's products and ways of working

About You - Mōu

You will be a strategic and critical thinker who combines curiosity with a practical delivery focus. Comfortable with ambiguity, you will use your initiative to find a way forward and keep work progressing. You will take an organisation-wide view, identify emerging issues and connections, test assumptions, and turn complex information into clear, concise advice for senior decision-makers.

You will value shared leadership and teamwork, moving confidently between leading and supporting work as priorities change. You will contribute your expertise, seek and provide constructive peer review, and adapt your approach in response to feedback or changing priorities.

To be successful, you will bring:

• Relevant experience working on complex organisational issues in strategy, policy, planning, organisational performance, ministerial servicing, programme delivery, or a related advisory field
• Strong strategic, critical, and systems-thinking skills, with the ability to analyse complex issues and develop practical, well-reasoned advice
• Excellent written communication skills with the ability to provide clear, concise, and well-judged advice
• Strong planning, prioritisation, and coordination skills across work involving multiple groups and competing demands
• Sound judgement, political awareness and confidence navigating sensitive or ambiguous issues
• The ability to build trusted relationships, influence constructively and work across organisational boundaries

You do not need to meet all of the role requirements to apply and will welcome an application if you think you could make a great fit.

About the Team - Mō tō mātou Rōpū

You will join a collaborative team working on enterprise strategy, high-priority organisational products and MPI's Carbon Neutral Government Programme. The Strategy & Planning Team is part of the Strategy, Governance and Performance Directorate. The team works across MPI to connect long-term direction with organisational priorities and delivery.

About MPI - Mō te Manatū Ahu Matua

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) partners with New Zealand's food and fibre sector to be the world's most trusted provider of high-value food and fibre products.

Benefits of working at MPI - Ngā hua o te mahi i te Manatū Ahu

• Additional MPI leave days
• Annual Wellness payment
• Bi-annual paid eye test and contribution to the costs of corrective lenses/frames

Are you ready to make a difference? - Kua rite koe mō tēnei mahi whaitake?
We are committed to being a good partner under Te Tiriti o Waitangi which includes working closely with iwi, hapū, whānau and hāpori.

We aspire to reflect the diverse communities we serve, so we welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds and identities. As an organisation, we are committed to making Manatū Ahu Matua Ministry for Primary Industries a great place to work for all.

In your cover letter we'd like to know about you, your values; your interest and motivations for this role; the abilities, strengths, personal attributes, and diverse perspectives you will bring to the role and this organisation, which may have also been gained outside of the workforce.

To view the position description and/or apply online, please click “Apply” or visit the MPI Careers Site. To apply, you must hold the right to work in New Zealand or be eligible to obtain it – click here to find out more about work visa eligibility and options.

Applications close at midnight on Thursday 15 October

If you have any questions about the role, please email Melissa.Heaney2@mpi.govt.nz

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