General Manager Building and Tenancy

Tēnei tūranga – About the role

The Building and Tenancy (B&T) Branch is responsible for two key regulatory functions: Housing & Tenancy and Building & Construction.

The role of the Branch is to safeguard public trust and confidence in housing, tenancy and construction markets by supporting the regulatory systems through a range of services. These include providing case management and mediation for disputes under tenancy, unit titles, and weathertight homes legislation; investigating breaches and ensuring compliance with the Residential Tenancies Act, Unit Titles Act, and the Building Act; managing the receipt and refund of rental bonds; offering assessment, guidance, and financial assistance to New Zealanders dealing with weathertight home issues; and making determinations on interpretations of the Building Code. The Branch also supports New Zealanders affected by natural disasters, providing them with support they need in the recovery.

The General Manager Building & Tenancy is a senior management and leadership position in the Te Whakatairanga Service Delivery (TWSD) Group within MBIE. 

The role is responsible for:

• Building and strengthening the capability, cohesion and performance of the Building & Tenancy Branch to deliver high-quality regulatory and service delivery outcomes for New Zealanders.
• Ensuring quality, consistency and continuous improvement across advice, operational practice and decision-making.
• Providing strategic leadership and oversight ensuring all services operate effectively and responsively.
• Leading the delivery of trusted, customer-centred services across the building and tenancy regulatory systems.
• Driving innovation, change and continuous improvement to ensure a robust, credible and effective building regulatory system that protects public confidence and meets the needs of people, businesses and communities.

The General Manager will work collaboratively with other members of the leadership team to ensure it delivers fair markets that thrive for all New Zealanders.

MBIE has a goal of achieving best practice in all of its regulatory systems and the General Manager will play a key role as part of the group senior management team in successfully achieving that goal. 

Ngā herenga – Requirements of the role

Personal specifications

• Proven senior leadership experience in a medium to large public sector or complex service delivery organisation, with a track record of leading strategic functions, building organisational capability and contributing to a “one organisation” approach.
• Demonstrated ability to lead significant change, including improvements to service delivery performance, risk management, operational processes, organisational culture and behavioural change.
• Strong strategic and systems thinking, with the ability to connect organisational priorities, regulatory responsibilities, service delivery impacts and business unit implications.
• Extensive experience in business strategy, planning, forecasting and execution, including the design and application of frameworks in a complex operating environment.
• Sound financial, corporate and business management experience at senior executive level, including effective stewardship of resources, budgets and delegations.
• Considerable knowledge of regulatory practice, associated statutes and the machinery of government, with an understanding of state sector processes and public service expectations.
• Proven experience leading or overseeing significant mediation, dispute resolution, compliance, investigations or regulatory service delivery functions in a large organisation.
• Strong relationship management and influencing skills, including the ability to build trust and credibility with senior leaders, lead across organisational boundaries, influence decision-makers without direct authority, and engage effectively with Ministers, Ministers’ offices, central agencies, government partners and external stakeholders.
• Excellent communication skills, including the ability to translate complex issues for different audiences and support clear, well-judged decision-making.
• Demonstrated commitment to continuous improvement, customer-centred service delivery and the development of systems and frameworks that improve outcomes for people, communities, consumers and businesses.
• Proven people leadership skills, including the ability to engage, motivate and develop staff, establish strong working relationships and create a high-performing, collaborative branch culture.
• Proven track record in leading or supporting incident management responses, including operating effectively in high-pressure, cross-government or all-of-government environments.
• Tertiary qualification, or extensive and comparable experience, in regulatory management, public administration, business management or another relevant strategic management discipline.
• Must have the legal right to live and work in New Zealand.
• Must consent to and satisfactorily complete a credit check, as the role holds financial delegations.
• Must be able to gain and maintain a national security clearance to Top Secret level.
• Credit check required: yes
• Required to drive: yes.

Takohanga tuhinga o mua – Key accountabilities and deliverables

Critical areas of success

The General Manager, Building & Tenancy will be accountable for delivering results across the following critical areas of success:

• Providing strong stewardship of tenancy regulatory functions under the Residential Tenancies Act and Unit Titles Act, including tenancy bond processing, administration of the Bond Trust Account, compliance monitoring and regulatory decision-making.
• Leading investigations and compliance activity under relevant tenancy and building legislation, ensuring MBIE uses its powers lawfully, proportionately and consistently.
• Contributing to a robust, credible and responsive building regulatory system that supports public confidence, protects consumers and meets the needs of people, businesses and communities.
• Developing and maintaining an effective operations–policy interface with MBIE Policy Groups and the Ministry of Housing and Urban Development, ensuring operational insights inform policy development, legislative settings and system performance.
• Delivering nationally consistent, timely and trusted residential dispute resolution services, including strengthening practice quality and supporting the development of a centre of excellence.
• Ensuring effective delivery of weathertight homes services, including assessment, guidance, case management and resolution support for affected homeowners and communities.
• Leading the Temporary Accommodation Service incident and natural disaster response functions and maintaining readiness to support all-of-government responses when required. Providing advice to the Deputy Secretary Te Whakatairanga Service Delivery and working with other General Managers to build, monitor and maintain capability across the Group.
• Building constructive relationships with iwi, community groups, sectors, government partners and external stakeholders to ensure Building & Tenancy services are fit-for-purpose and responsive to the needs of people in New Zealand and their whānau.
• Fostering a customer-focused, high-performing and collaborative culture across the branch, with a strong focus on continuous improvement, operational excellence, efficiency and public service outcomes.

Collective leadership

• Takes collective responsibility for the cohesion and performance of MBIE as a whole and provides peer support to other senior managers.
• Works collaboratively with the Te Whakatairanga Service Delivery Leadership Team to define the outcomes and outputs expected from the Group to deliver on MBIE’s strategic direction.
• Participates collaboratively as a member of the Te Whakatairanga Service Delivery Leadership Team to ensure the development of sustainable organisational capability and achieve expected efficiency benefits and ongoing improvements in cost effectiveness.
• Contributes beyond core functional area to enhance the overall effectiveness and impact of the Te Whakatairanga Service Delivery Group.
• Ensures consistency and alignment between different teams in MBIE and promote solution seeking where there are legitimate differences.
• Represents Senior Leadership Team views to their teams and other MBIE employees.

Personal leadership

• Models exemplary management and leadership behaviours, and State sector ethics and values.
• Creates a sense of vision, engages and motivates people to participate, and makes things happen.
• Fosters an open, collaborative environment that encourages quality, innovation, ongoing learning and knowledge sharing.

General management

• Develops strategies, work programmes and performance targets, with supporting measurement, monitoring and reporting mechanisms.
• Aligns work programmes with MBIE’s strategic direction and other Groups’ work programmes.
• Monitors and adjusts work programmes through the agreed processes to enable adaptation to changing circumstances.
• Regularly monitors and reports on progress towards achievement of plans and strategies.
• Manages expenditure and resources in line with approved guidelines, budget, deadlines and reporting requirements, with a focus on driving cost effectiveness in the Ministry.
• Builds continuous review and improvement throughout all elements of branch operations.
• Effectively and consistently identifies and manages risk.

Relationship management

• Participates as an active team member and contributes knowledge and expertise needed to achieve desired outcomes.
• Develops effective working relationships with other managers and staff in order to transfer knowledge and learning to the wider organisation.
• Builds strategic alliances with key government and non-government representatives to ensure MBIE’s views are influential in their decision-making.
• Builds and maintains effective relationships and partnerships with national and international organisations to identify and share best practice information and to promote the Ministry.
• Tests the effectiveness of stakeholder relationships using a range of appropriate measures and processes (including stakeholder feedback).

Team leadership

• Establishes clear accountabilities, expectations and performance standards with direct reports and ensures regular performance management and development occurs.
• Monitors individual, team, and branch performance to ensure that performance targets are met.
• Anticipates future capability needs in People & Culture, identifies gaps in capability and addresses these gaps through targeted recruitment and development or other actions.

Wellbeing, health and safety

• Displays commitment through actively supporting all safety and wellbeing initiatives.
• Ensures own and others' safety at all times.
• Complies with relevant safety and wellbeing policies, procedures, safe systems of work and event reporting.
• Reports all incidents/accidents, including near misses in a timely fashion.
• Is involved in health and safety through participation and consultation.

Tō tūranga i roto i te Manatū – Your place in the Ministry

The General Manager Building & Tenancy reports into the Deputy Secretary Te Whakatairanga Service Delivery. The branch sits within the Te Whakatairanga Service Delivery group.

More information about MBIE's structure

Ngā Kawenga Ārahitanga – Leadership Expectations

At MBIE our leadership expectations provide consistent language for how we expect our leaders to lead at MBIE. They are supported by our values, and the Public Sector leadership capabilities as described in the Leadership Success Profile (LSP).

Leadership Expectations - Ngā Kawenga Ārahitanga (MBIE)

Lead by example - Whakatinana hei tauira
Enable our people - Whakaāhei ō tātou tangata
Deliver what matters - Whakatutuki ngā manako

Matatautanga – Competencies (Leadership Success Profile)

The Leadership Success Profile (LSP) is a leadership capability framework, developed by the New Zealand public sector for the New Zealand public sector. It creates a common language for leadership and establishes what great leadership looks like. You can look at the twelve underpinning capabilities and four leadership characters here: Leadership Success Profile | Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission(external link)

To mātou aronga – What we do for Aotearoa New Zealand

Hīkina Whakatutuki is the te reo Māori name for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment. Hīkina means to uplift. Whakatutuki means to move forward, to make successful. Our name speaks to our purpose, Grow New Zealand for All.

To Grow New Zealand for All, we put people at the heart of our mahi. Based on the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi / The Treaty of Waitangi, we are committed to upholding authentic partnerships with Māori.

As agile public service leaders, we use our breadth and experience to navigate the ever-changing world. We are service providers, policy makers, investors and regulators. We engage with diverse communities, businesses and regions. Our work touches on the daily lives of New Zealanders. We grow opportunities (Puāwai), guard and protect (Kaihāpai) and innovate and navigate towards a better future (Auaha).

Te Tiriti o Waitangi

As an agency of the public service, MBIE has a responsibility to contribute to the Crown meeting its obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi (Te Tiriti). Meeting our commitment to Te Tiriti will contribute towards us realising the overall aims of Te Ara Amiorangi – Our Path, Our Direction, and achieve the outcome of Growing New Zealand for All. The principles of Te Tiriti - including partnership, good faith, and active protection – are at the core of our work. MBIE is committed to delivering on our obligations as a Treaty partner with authenticity and integrity and to enable Māori interests. We are committed to ensuring that MBIE is well placed to meet our obligations under the Public Service Act 2020 (Te Ao Tūmatanui) to support the Crown in strengthening the Māori/Crown Relationship under the Treaty and to build MBIE’s capability, capacity and cultural intelligence to deliver this.

Mahi i roto i te Ratonga Tūmatanui – Working in the public service

Ka mahitahi mātou o te ratonga tūmatanui kia hei painga mō ngā tāngata o Aotearoa i āianei, ā, hei ngā rā ki tua hoki. He kawenga tino whaitake tā mātou hei tautoko i te Karauna i runga i āna hononga ki a ngāi Māori i raro i te Tiriti o Waitangi. Ka tautoko mātou i te kāwanatanga manapori. Ka whakakotahingia mātou e te wairua whakarato ki ō mātou hapori, ā, e arahina ana mātou e ngā mātāpono me ngā tikanga matua o te ratonga tūmatanui i roto i ā mātou mahi.

In the public service we work collectively to make a meaningful difference for New Zealanders now and in the future. We have an important role in supporting the Crown in its relationships with Māori under the Treaty of Waitangi. We support democratic government. We are unified by a spirit of service to our communities and guided by the core principles and values of the public service in our work.

What does it mean to work in Aotearoa New Zealand’s Public Service?(external link) — Te Kawa Mataaho The Public Service Commission