Head of Leadership, Talent and Growth
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Tēnei tūranga – About the role
Purpose and outcome
As a member of the P&C Leadership Team, you are responsible for delivering the organisational development aspects of MBIE’s People Strategy, ensuring our workforce is equipped, engaged, and future-ready.
You lead the Leadership, Talent and Growth (LT&G) function, overseeing a suite of organisational capability programmes including:
- Leadership and talent development (e.g., coaching, performance, succession planning).
- Capability (e.g. enterprise learning, learning & development solutions and products, LMS management).
- Talent and career (e.g., career pathways, internal mobility, workforce value proposition).
You work collaboratively across MBIE and with the public sector to embed a coherent and responsive approach to leadership development and workforce planning that is aligned with MBIE’s priorities and future direction.
Context and Responsibilities
You lead a high-performing team in shaping and embedding a cohesive ‘system of leadership capability’, placing a strong emphasis on growing internal talent through learning in the flow of work. You provide strategic oversight and direction to ensure capability and talent development are fit-for-purpose, scalable, and closely linked to business needs.
You work with internal advisory teams, business leaders, and external partners to deliver high-impact, practical solutions for capability uplift. This includes applying emerging technologies, designing hybrid learning models, and establishing communities of practice across the organisation.
You ensure robust workforce planning is in place, with a strong emphasis on long-term capability needs and leadership pipeline development. You champion a continuous learning culture, ensuring leadership and career growth opportunities are clear, supported, and accessible.
Ngā herenga – Requirements of the role
Key Requirements and Experience
- Designing and embedding enterprise capability and leadership frameworks at scale
- Leading workforce planning and strategic talent management in complex organisations
- Delivering performance-based learning and development programmes that demonstrate clear return on investment
- Driving measurable behavioural change aligned with organisational goals
- Working with senior executives and influencing across business units and external partners
- Leading high-performing teams and managing cross-functional programmes of work
- Operating as part of a senior leadership team with shared governance and accountability
Takohanga tuhinga o mua – Key accountabilities and deliverables
Key Skills and Attributes
Strategic Leadership
- Anticipates future capability needs and positions MBIE to respond effectively
- Translates strategic goals into scalable, deliverable people initiatives
- Balances enterprise consistency with localised flexibility across diverse business groups
Operational Delivery
- Leads high-performing teams to deliver with impact, pace and accountability
- Manages risk effectively and ensures return on investment from talent initiatives
- Establishes clear success metrics to track progress and course correct when needed
Collaboration and Influence
- Builds trusted relationships with senior leaders, people managers and key external stakeholders
- Influences across the organisation to embed leadership as a core driver of performance
- Effectively leverages external vendors, consultants, and government partners
Leadership Character
- Honest and Courageous – Offers trusted, future-focused advice
- Curious – Brings innovative thinking and learning agility
- Self-aware and Agile – Adapts leadership style and improves continuously
- Resilient – Maintains perspective, composure, and optimism through change
Relationships (Internal)
Senior leadership teams – You are the trusted sounding board and advisor to senior leadership teams in your area of expertise. You build trust and credibility through understanding their business needs and presenting informed proposals that are people-centered, demonstrate strategic alignment, return on investment and connection across MBIE and/or the wider system.
People leaders – You understand the importance of working with and through all people leaders in MBIE to effect behavioural change and reinforce our leader-led approach, ensuring people are at the heart of everything we do. You use engagement techniques to influence and support people leaders to work effectively in this space.
Employee representative groups and networks – You maintain regular connection with diverse employee groups and networks to ensure the employee voice is reflected in your work and people feel valued and heard.
Relationships (External)
Te Kawa Mataaho | Public Service Commission - You foster a good working relationship with the Public Service Commission and can demonstrate how system priorities align with or dovetail into the current people and culture strategy and/or work programme. You take opportunities to comment on, lead or pilot public service initiatives that align with strategic direction. This helps optimise MBIE’s profile and provides an opportunity through feedback to shape cross public service people initiatives.
Peers in other public service and sector agencies - You network with your peers across the public service to share ideas and tap into resources available from other departments. Maintaining those relationships enables you to share and leverage useful resources with ease.
Contractors, consultants, or vendors – You carefully vet, engage and direct external expertise to ensure it is available at the right time to augment our inhouse capability when needed. You keep relationships strong to support regular and core multi-year programmes of work for consistency in approach.
Wellbeing, health & 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 Head of Leadership, Talent and Growth position reports into Chief People Officer within the People and Culture branch. The branch sits within the Corporate & Digital Shared Services group.
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 Aotearoa New Zealand for All.
To Grow Aotearoa 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
