General Manager, Air Domain

About the role I Mō te tūnga

The Ministry of Defence is seeking an experienced General Manager to join our Capability Leadership Team. This is your opportunity to bring your commercial experience to lead some of New Zealand's most complex and high-impact aerospace projects, delivering critical capability to the New Zealand Defence Force.

Internally we call this role Director, Air Domain. This is a permanent, office based role located in the Wellington CBD, reporting to Sarah Minson, Deputy Secretary Capability Delivery. Capability in our setting is defined as 'the personnel, equipment, platforms, and/or other materiel that affect the capacity of New Zealand to undertake military operations."

What you'll do:

• Provide strategic and people leadership to a range of integrated aerospace project teams.
• Oversee projects from early definition (Definition Phase) through to Delivery (already funded and underway) - ensuring they're on time, on budget, and mission-ready to requirements
• Be the Ministry's voice in engagements with Ministers, governance boards, NZDF, and industry partners.
• Chair cross-domain project boards and steward our Capability Management System.

What you'll bring:

You're not just a seasoned General Manager, you're a strategic thinker, a confident communicator, and a leader who thrives in complexity. You'll bring:

• Proven extensive programme management experience in the public or private sector
• Confidence managing complex projects with very large budgets and delivering on time
• In depth commercial acumen
• The ability to find constructive pathways through varied, conflicting and diverse viewpoints
• A collaborative and inclusive leadership style able to successfully lead cohesive teams
• Ability to think strategically and proactively take an all-of-Ministry and sector-wide view
• Experience using your significant commercial background to not only provide advice to your project teams but to demonstrate an understanding of industry drivers leading to effective engagement with industry partners
• Flexibility - as much of our equipment is acquired overseas, you must be able to undertake regular travel away from the office and work irregular hours.
• High credibility as an effective communicator at all levels including with industry partners, senior stakeholders, boards and Ministers, ranging from informal discussions, through public speaking engagements to media enquiries. You'll be able to listen and also have the hard conversations.
• An ability and desire to build effective networks across defence stakeholders and industry partners
• Self-awareness, resilience and high integrity,

We ask all our people to undertake a commitment to doing their part to deliver on the Crown's commitments to Māori under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. We do this by actively striving to build te ao Māori capability into our day- to-day work.

We are careful to maintain pay relativities amongst our people and our roles. For this reason we expect the salary offered for this role will be around $250k.

Ko wai mātou I Who we are

We are the Government's lead civilian advisor on defence. We also purchase major equipment which becomes a capability when it is used by service men and women of the New Zealand Defence Force.

Ko mātou ngā kaitohutohu matua ki te kāwanatanga mo ngā kaupapa waonga. Nā mātou hoki, ngā taputapu nunui i hoko, hei āheitanga i roto i ngā ringa o ngā tāne me ngā wahine o Te Ope Kātua o Aotearoa.

Before you apply

Working within our 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

For most roles you'll have a 10 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 security clearance:

We know that some people, especially women, can be unsure about working in the defence sector. If you're curious reach out for a confidential chat about what it's like working at the Ministry of Defence at

Please direct any queries regarding this role to we will however, not consider applications emailed to this address.

Applications close: Wednesday 29 October 2025 at 5pm (Please don't leave your application until the last minute as we reserve the right to close this job early)