Principal Advisor Governance and Accountability at Ministry For Ethnic Communities, Wellington - Wairarapa

Mō tēnei tūranga mahi | About this role

Principal Advisor Governance and Accountability

Location:                 Wellington

Type:                        Permanent, Full-time

Hours:                      40

Salary:                      $129,271 - $160,871

Drive Smarter Decisions. Strengthen Governance. Make an Impact.

As a Principal Advisor, you will lead the Ministry's governance and accountability functions, strengthen the quality and discipline of organisational decision-making and ensuring the Ministry delivers credible, high-quality accountability to Ministers and Parliament.

About the role

Working closely with the Director Corporate Services, you will support and enable SLT and ELT to ensure best practice governance activity, and the effective operation of leadership and governance committee processes.

The role is central to the Ministry's accountability lifecycle, including leading the development of the Annual Report and coordinating Select Committee engagements.

The Principal Advisor will

• Lead the Ministry's governance framework, ensuring clear, consistent, and fit-for-purpose structures and processes across ELT, SLT, and committees.
• Ensure governance processes provide clear visibility of organisational risks, compliance obligations, and mitigation strategies.
• Oversee and quality assure ministerial servicing outputs, including briefings, Cabinet papers, OIA responses, Parliamentary Questions, and other accountability products.
• Support the Director and ELT to shape and coordinate strategic and business planning processes.
• Maintain the Ministry's risk management processes, including supporting the identification, recording, monitoring, and reporting of organisational risks.

What you bring

• 10 years plus work experience and a history of achievement in providing high quality advisory services.
• Understanding of the public sector accountability framework.
• Understanding of the political process and the role and place of public service agencies and a commitment to the overall goals and objectives of the New Zealand public services, including partnership with Māori in the context of the Treaty of Waitangi.
• Strong relationship management skills with the ability to establish and maintain a wide range of effective relationships.
• Tertiary qualification in relevant discipline such as public policy or business studies and equivalent experience.

About us

The Ministry for Ethnic Communities is the Government's chief advisor on ethnic communities, ethnic diversity, and the inclusion of ethnic communities in wider society. We have four key functions;

• We provide advice to the system;
• We develop the evidence base;
• We broker conflict and convene stakeholders to resolve issues; and
• We foster a sense of belonging.

Application process

Applications close: 5pm Monday 13 July 2026

To apply for this position, please submit your covering letter which outlines why you are interested in the role, along with your CV highlighting your skills, knowledge and experience relevant to the role.

We will be reviewing applications as they come in, so please get your application in as soon as possible.

We encourage inclusion and diversity at the Ministry for Ethnic Communities and are committed to equal opportunity in all our employment policies and procedures.  We want to ensure accessibility needs are well supported, so the recruitment process is fair and equitable for all. Therefore, please let us know if there is any support, we can provide to ensure the recruitment process is fully accessible to you. You can contact us at HumanResources@ethniccommunities.govt.nz if you would like to discuss any accessibility needs you may have.