System Engineer, Technology & Data at Government Communications Security Bureau, Nelson - Marlborough

Mō tēnei tūranga mahi | About this role

Join our diverse and talented people and work at the heart of national security, providing essential intelligence to the NZ Government to protect New Zealand and its people.

Mō te tūranga mahi – about the role

Join our Technology & Data team and become part of the engine that keeps our Linux‑centric infrastructure humming.

Beyond the technology, your voice and experience will help define best‑practice systems and processes to ensure we shape a collaborative, high‑impact culture to deliver value to the business.

Your professional skills both technical and soft will be developed to ensure you can grow your capability.

We have system engineer roles available in 2 of our teams:

End User Compute:

In this role, you will work side‑by‑side with senior engineers across multiple disciplines to design, deploy, and maintain core services across Windows and Linux platforms. You will help monitor performance and platform health to ensure our systems remain highly available; While gaining hands‑on experience with provisioning, lifecycle‑management tools and operational support. As your experience develops you will help shape future systems and processes to ensure our business can operate effectively no matter what challenges we face.

Developer Experience:

You will work on DevSecOps capabilities for the NZIC that work quickly and securely. You will not only pioneer this space, but also lead the community in establishing best practices and maintaining a strong security posture and enable new ways of working.

Ko wai koe – about you

You are an early‑career, mid‑level or senior System Engineer who loves working with others to solve tough infrastructure problems while continuously refining your skills. You thrive in fast‑moving teams yet understand the importance of documentation and process. You see every challenge as a chance to grow into a future technical leader.

What sets you apart:

• Experience in Linux administration experience e.g. RHEL, Rocky
• Ability to troubleshoot complex, multi-faceted IT systems
• Experience administering and maintaining hypervisor platforms e.g. VMware vSphere, RedHat OpenShift, Proxmox

Specialist skills required:

End User Compute:

• Previous experience with VMware/Omnissa Horizon View and AppVols
• An ability to troubleshoot complex, multi-faceted IT systems

Developer Experience: 

• Experience with Containerisation and maintaining, operating and patching on-premise Kubernetes clusters.
• Experience with automation and configuration tools, e.g. Terraform, Ansible
• Experience in scripting using Python, Go and Bash
• Experience with Cloud services, e.g. Microsoft Azure, Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Experience with full-automation, Zero-Trust DevSecOps principles and practices

If you’re ready to solve high‑impact infrastructure challenges, master Linux at scale, and develop your technical and leadership potential, this is the opportunity you’ve been waiting for!

The expected appointing range for this position is:

• Level 1: $87,048 - $92,851 (G)
• Level 2: $103,009 - $109,876 (H)
• Level 3: $120,359 - $128,383 (I)

Before you apply

Working within our unique environment means we have to ensure you're eligible for employment.

You must:

• Have been a New Zealand Citizen for at least 10 years

OR

Hold a current NZ Residency Class Visa and ideally have been a citizen of the UK, USA, Canada or Australia for at least 10 years

• Be eligible to obtain a Top Secret Special (TSS) security clearance
• Ordinarily, this means you'll have a 15 year checkable background in countries NZSIS Vetting can make meaningful and reliable checks.

Still unsure? Use this online tool to self-check your eligibility for a TSS security clearance: http://www.protectivesecurity.govt.nz/eligibility-tool

We'll provide you with information and tips throughout the recruitment process, but in the meantime check out some of our Security FAQs here The security clearance process | Beyond Ordinary Careers

You can also learn more about our work and understand our areas of focus by reading New Zealand's Security Threat Environment | New Zealand Security Intelligence Service