Senior Advisor Online Channels

Tēnei tūranga – About the role

The Customer Service Delivery Branch is MBIE’s front door, ensuring people and businesses can easily access the support and information they need. By integrating customer service channels, digital engagement, products and marketing channels, and frontline advisory services, the branch delivers efficient, customer-focused services that improve compliance and optimise regulatory systems.

As part of Te Whakatairanga Service Delivery, the branch enhances service delivery, leverages customer insights, and drives innovation to ensure a best practice approach to MBIE’s customer communications. Through smarter service design and engagement, it strengthens public trust and enables better regulatory outcomes.

The Online Channels team is responsible for driving positive change in how our customers experience our digital channels across our portfolios and works with colleagues across Te Whakatairanga Service Delivery group and wider MBIE to ensure a future focused, integrated approach based on best practice.
The Senior Advisor Online Channels is an experienced digital generalist with broad experience and understanding of website content design, website accessibility, user experience (UX), information architecture, website analytics, and content management systems.

This position will be given specific responsibilities according to portfolio and business needs. These responsibilities could include being a website product owner for a particular business partner/system requiring strong relationship skills or providing specific functional expertise such as the development and maintenance of forms and tools. The position has an overarching responsibility for ensuring that our websites, content and digital tools within their portfolio allocation are appropriately maintained and updated. 

Ngā herenga – Requirements of the role

Personal specifications

• Demonstrated knowledge of NZ Government web standards for accessibility and usability, accessibility charter requirements and implementation strategies, as well as a grasp of web best practice and digital trends.
• Demonstrated experience editing and maintaining websites in Content Management Systems (ideally Silverstripe and Plone).
• Demonstrated experience in using website analytics (Google Analytics).
• Demonstrated knowledge of cyber security, legal, and privacy requirements.
• Demonstrated experience and knowledge of UX (common research methods, analytics metrics, common design tools and applications) and content design best practices that meets the needs of users and influences their behaviour.
• Proven knowledge and experience applying website best practices, including writing for the web, plain language, accessibility, and Search Engine Optimisation (SEO). 
• Experienced in coaching others across a team in technical competencies.
• Proven experience in working collaboratively and diplomatically as part of a wider team where functions must work together to achieve group/branch and team priorities.
• Proven experience in leading initiatives, collaborating with colleagues from planning to delivery and reporting.
• Proven experience in providing clear, pragmatic digital advice to diverse audiences, including senior business leaders. Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively to achieve objectives, while effectively adapting to ambiguity, changing priorities, and service delivery needs.
• Experience working with vendors and suppliers, to ensure delivery of contract agreements. 
• A commitment to continuously improve your knowledge in adopting models underpinned by a kaupapa Māori paradigm. 
• Practical and demonstrable experience in this area is required. 
• Relevant qualification or certification desired.
• Must have the legal right to work in New Zealand.

Takohanga tuhinga o mua – Key accountabilities and deliverables

Online Channels Deliverables

General

• Supports the implementation of MBIE’s various website standards, principles and processes (accessibility, content design, user experience, analytics etc.) to provide a consistent experience across our channels. 
• Represents the team and provides trusted, timely, accurate digital guidance, advice and practical support to others in Online Channels and MBIE. 
• Actively seeks to grow an understanding of their portfolio’s subject matter and customers (of the regulatory system/business system) over time to minimise single point failure in the Online Channels team.
• Works with subject matter experts to create content that meets customer needs. Ensures it aligns with the content strategy, style guides, and meets NZ plain language requirements and web standards for accessibility and usability.
• Puts the customer at the centre of all decision-making to support customers to self-serve and reduce the need to seek help using other more expensive channels (such as the service centre). 
• Contributes to the planning and delivery of projects and initiatives and applies best practice methodologies and principles to support the achievement of organisational objectives. Provides technical expertise to projects and initiatives that impact our channels.
• Provides content, user experience, accessibility, analytics and measurement expertise and advice. Works in partnership with experts as needed.
• Works in partnership with delivery partners to ensure our websites comply with cyber security, legal, and privacy requirements at all times.
• Integrates customer data from many sources (including the MBIE Customer Service Centre) to identify strategic opportunities. Utilises appropriate analytics and data insights to inform website improvements.
• Maintains the quality assurance of websites. Looks for bugs, glitches, errors, broken links, and points of friction to create a faster, cleaner, better site that works the way it was intended.
• Maintains processes for triaging web requests, including sensitive and embargoed content, while ensuring compliance with agreed standards. Leads the prioritisation of web issues and requests, aligning them with business needs and addressing urgent or complex items across multiple websites.
• Identifies opportunities where initiatives or work requests would benefit from specialist UX advice, research or content design. Provides support in scoping, sizing and prioritising work initiatives.
• Works with Business Systems/Business Partner teams to enhance the user experience of online applications and customer-facing systems. Supports the development and implementation of new systems by testing usability and user acceptance to ensure they meet customer needs before launch.
• Supports systems teams in other branches with ongoing plain English content and UI/UX support for their online application systems to ensure they deliver a seamless customer experience.
• Delivers specialist requirements depending on portfolio allocation such as building and maintaining content for tools and forms.  
• Works with Channel Development team and website vendors to optimise hours for priority web enhancements, while collectively providing ongoing support and maintenance across digital channels.
• Supports Enterprise website reporting to Government (NZ Government web standards, accessibility charter, disability minister, annual review questions, OIAs, PQs, briefings to incoming ministers etc).

Website product owner (as needed)

• Holds a deep understanding of their assigned website(s) in their role as website product owner.
• Holds a reasonable level knowledge of the regulatory system/business system of the business partner and its customers.
• Develops a clear understanding of what the business partner's current and future needs in relation to their websites, digital tools and applications, and actively works across CSD and MBIE teams to effectively plan and deliver to meet their needs.
• Plays a lead role in developing business partner operational work programmes and initiatives for their website(s). 
• Supports the development of and consistent application of a content strategy and style guide as website product owner.
• Supports the development and leads the implementation of a content maintenance plan to ensure content is current, accurate and integrated.

Collective Leadership

• Participates collaboratively as a member of Online Channels to ensure the successful delivery of team, branch and group priorities.
• Works collaboratively with members of the CSD and Online Channel teams to support achievement of MBIE outcomes and strategic priorities.
• Works collectively to provide surge capacity across Online Channels to support business needs.

Personal Leadership

• Manages and balances a range of competing demands and project priorities while meeting tight deadlines and timeframes.
• Trusted advisor, sounding board for Online Channels leadership team and our people.
• Able to self-identify areas in personal approach and adapt and strengthen when required to deliver results and model exemplary behaviour to set the example for others.
• Establish and maintain effective, healthy working relationships with colleagues, delivery partners and business partners, providing proactive support and communication and taking a “no surprises” approach.
• Models behaviours aligned to MBIE’s values.
  Contributes to a sense of vision, participates as a team member, and makes things happen.
• Fosters an open, collaborative environment that encourages quality, innovation, ongoing learning and knowledge sharing.
• Keeps up to date with latest digital trends, techniques and technologies, and identifies how these can be leveraged in order to improve efficiency, quality and consistency. Shares this knowledge to lift capability across Online Channels.
• Self-motivation and persistence in challenging frameworks and pushing hard issues, but with good judgement in identifying when to pull back on issues or seek guidance.

Coaching and mentoring

• Coaches others on development of expertise and knowledge of institutional practice.
• Seeks and explores opportunities to develop own professional capability and grow own self-awareness for future.
• Excellent communication and coaching skills to embed a culture of excellence in the team.

Relationship management including Māori Crown relations

• Collaborates across CSD branch to support the development and maintenance of online and offline channels, ensuring a multi-channel, customer-centred, cross-regulatory system approach to public information programmes.
• Represents Online Channels, the CSD branch and whole-of-Ministry views and protects their reputation in any external interactions. 
• Participates as an active team member and contributes knowledge and expertise needed to achieve TWSD and wider MBIE outcomes. 
• Develops effective working relationships with colleagues in order to transfer knowledge and learning from the team to the wider organisation. 
• Build, enhance and maintain effective relationships and partnerships with business partners and external stakeholders, as necessary, in order to identify and share best practice information and to promote MBIE products and services. 
• Politically-savvy with a demonstrated ability to easily build trusted, influential professional relationships with key internal and external business partners, leadership team colleagues, other senior leaders, delivery partners and stakeholders.
• Demonstrates a commitment to learning and continuous improvement in partnering with Māori and cross-cultural capability.

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 Senior Advisor Online Channels position reports into the Manager Online Channels within the Online Channels team of the Customer Service Delivery branch. The branch sits within Te Whakatairanga Service Delivery group.

More information about MBIE’s structure

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 (work). 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).

Ngā matatau – Our competencies

Cultivates innovation We create new and better ways for the organisation to be successful by challenging the status quo generating new and creative ideas and translating them into workable solutions.

Nimble learning We are curious and actively learn through experimentation when tackling new problems by learning as we go when facing new situations and challenges.

Customer focus We build strong customer relationships and deliver customer-centric solutions by listening and gaining insights into the needs of the communities we serve and actively seeking and responding to feedback.

Decision quality We make quality and timely decisions that shape the future for our communities and keep the organisation moving forward by relying on an appropriate mix of analysis, wisdom, experience, and judgement to make valid and reliable decisions.

Action oriented We step up, taking on new opportunities and tough challenges with purpose, urgency and discipline by taking responsibility, ownership and action on challenges, and being accountable for the results.

Collaborates We connect, working together to build partnerships with our communities, working collaboratively to meet shared objectives by gaining trust and support of others; actively seeking the views, experiences, and opinions of others and by working co-operatively with others across MBIE, the public sector and external stakeholder groups.

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