Senior Project Manager | MSD - services for the future | Wellington

About the role | Mō te tūnga

Make a bigger and better difference for New Zealanders. Help shape the future of social services.

At MSD, we are embarking on a bold transformation to deliver improved outcomes for all New Zealanders. MSD – services for future, sets the direction for how we work differently, partner more effectively, and ensure our services are accessible, integrated and people-centred across employment, housing and income support.

We’re looking for a Senior Project Manager to join the MSD – services for the future, Transformation Programme Office – a team at the heart of this exciting, multi-year change journey.

As Senior Project Manager, you’ll play a pivotal role in coordinating delivery across critical projects and workstreams of a complex transformation programme. You’ll work with our Delivery Partners, other Project Managers, and Delivery Leads to align plans, manage dependencies, risks, and issues, and ensure delivery is cohesive, timely, and effective.

You’ll bring strategic thinking, practical project delivery experience, and a collaborative leadership style to guide both people and processes.

You’ll be comfortable navigating complexity in a mixed-methodology Programme, thrive in a fast-paced, adaptive environment, and be confident operating in, and bringing clarity to, ambiguity. From senior leaders to vendors, you’ll work with a wide range of stakeholders to manage risk, resolve conflicts, and maintain delivery confidence at all stages.

Key responsibilities

• Develop clear Project Plans, ensuring sequencing and dependencies are carefully considered.


• Resolve delivery conflicts and ensure alignment with overall programme goals.


• Provide expert project management leadership to support on-time, in-scope delivery.


• Engage strategically with stakeholders to support informed decision-making.


• Provide expert advice and support leaders in developing and managing delivery plans.


• Identify and mitigate risks and interdependencies across the programme.


• Develop and implement project methodologies and standards. 

What you'll bring

• Significant experience in senior project management, ideally within the public sector.


• Expertise across agile, waterfall and hybrid project methodologies.


• Experience with start-up and design phases of business projects including policy, business architecture, blueprinting and service design.


• Comfortable dealing with ambiguity and can work out delivery approaches that turn concepts into discrete pieces of work.


• You will be adept at collaborative scoping, planning and delivery Flexibility and resilience to adjust to multiple demands, shifting priorities, and rapid change with business needs


• A strong delivery focus to lead and manage multi-disciplinary and cross-functional teams to deliver high quality outcomes in a complex and fast-pace programme of work 


• Drives adoption of new ways of working within the programme and the business.


• Ability to develop an analytical approach for resolving problems.


• A business analyst background may be advantageous.


• MSP, PRINCE2, PMI and/or Agile qualification (or equivalent) and experience using Jira.

Why join us?

This is a unique opportunity to contribute to a generational change programme that will leave a lasting legacy for the communities we serve. You’ll be part of a dynamic and supportive team, working with purpose, challenge, and the opportunity to influence real change.

Position Description | He Whakaahuatanga Tūnga

Senior Project Manager, position description

Salary | Utu-ā-tau: 142,874.00 - 177,798.00