Engineering Lead

Worker Type:

Permanent

Here at BNZ, it's about more than just banking. We work together in an agile, energising environment to create innovative solutions through our promise "If you can imagine a better future, let's find a way."

We support wellbeing, flexible working and have a generous leave offering. There is the opportunity for growth, learning and career development. No two days are the same.

The Transactions & Investments domain sits at the core of BNZ. We look after platforms that support everyday banking, customer accounts, investments and the movement of money safely, reliably and at scale. Our focus is on keeping core banking stable and resilient today, while modernising the technology that supports BNZ’s future digital banking ambitions.  

We are looking for an Engineering Lead to join the Transact Term Deposits team (aka Transformers), supporting our Term Deposits capability on Temenos Transact as we continue the transition from programme delivery into a sustainable build and run model. The team works across Transact Term Deposits, business service APIs that connect Transact to the BNZ environment, production support, operational readiness, performance testing, monitoring, release support and ongoing capability uplift.  

This is a key people and technical leadership role across people, engineering standards, operational production support, capability uplift and continuous improvement. You will lead Engineers and Testers, help shape strong engineering practices, support capability growth, guide technical problem-solving, and work closely with Platform Owners, Platform Managers, Architects, Product and vendor partners to keep one of BNZ’s most important core banking platforms safe, reliable and evolving with purpose.  

This is a Wellington or Auckland based hybrid role with three days in the office and two days where you can work flexibly. Anchor days in the office are to be confirmed. 

Mō te Tūranga | About the Role 

We sat down with the People Leader (who you would report to) and they told us the following about the role:

What are 5 day-to-day tasks the person in this role will complete? 

• Lead, coach and support engineers and testers, helping them deliver safely while continuing to grow their capability. 

• Drive engineering excellence across the team, including secure coding, automation, consistent standards, quality practices and reduction of technical debt. 

• Work with the Platform Owner, Platform Manager, Architects, Product and delivery teams to align engineering priorities with business outcomes and operational needs. 

• Support Transact and Term Deposits operational readiness, including incident readiness, production support, observability, monitoring, release support and continuous improvement. 

• Help the team make good technical decisions across Transact functionality, configuration, vendor-delivered components, APIs, batch, regression testing, release packaging and deployment pipelines. 

What is the most exciting thing about this opportunity? 

This is an opportunity to lead engineering for a core banking capability at a pivotal point in BNZ’s technology journey. The team is helping BNZ move from major transformation delivery into long-term ownership of Transact and Term Deposits, with a focus on stability, resilience, operational confidence and sustainable internal capability. 

You’ll have the chance to shape how BNZ builds, runs and improves a critical core banking platform, while developing engineers and testers who are working on complex, high-value technology. You’ll also play a key role in continuing to build Transact knowledge within BNZ and reducing reliance on external expertise over time. 

What technical skills are required for this role? 

• Strong software engineering background, including solution design, development processes, deployment and engineering standards. 

• Experience leading technology teams and applying engineering practices in complex delivery and operational environments. 

• Understanding of secure coding, automation, technical debt reduction, testing, monitoring and incident readiness. 

• Experience working with core banking, platform or high-criticality systems, ideally in banking or another regulated industry. 

• Experience with Temenos Transact/T24, Java, Spring Boot, REST APIs, CI/CD, AWS, Kubernetes, Kafka, Splunk, Dynatrace, JIRA, ServiceNow or comparable platform and engineering tooling would be highly valuable. 

What do we want you to know before you apply? 

This is not just a people leadership role, and not just a technical role, it sits across both. You’ll need to be comfortable leading people, bringing engineering discipline, working through ambiguity, and helping a team move from programme intensity into a more sustainable operating rhythm. The Engineering Lead position description explicitly combines technical alignment, engineering standards, support and enablement, people leadership, resource and capability planning, stakeholder collaboration, performance monitoring, security advocacy and incident readiness.

You don’t need to know everything on day one, but you do need to bring strong engineering judgement, curiosity, resilience and the ability to build trust quickly across a complex stakeholder group. 

What attributes will this person display in order to be successful in this role? 

• Calm, clear and practical leadership, especially when priorities are competing or issues are complex. 

• Strong engineering judgement, with the ability to balance delivery, quality, resilience, security and operational risk. 

• A coaching mindset and genuine interest in developing engineers and testers. 

• Ability to work well across Product, Architecture, Engineering, Platform, Service Management, Risk and vendor teams. 

• Comfort working with technical ambiguity and helping others make good decisions. This role regularly needs to contribute to decisions around technical debt, over-engineering concerns, ways of working, solution architecture engagement, third-party Temenos engagement and team capability uplift. 

• Strong communication skills, including the ability to explain technical matters in plain language and influence without relying on authority. This role is seen as a trusted advisor who mentors senior engineers, lifts internal capability and is confident engaging with vendors. 

PLEASE NOTE: Advertising for this position closes Tuesday 18 August at 11pm. 

Nau Mai ki te Pēke o Aotearoa | Come to the Bank of New Zealand 

This is an exciting opportunity to join us!  We're bold thinkers who are taking brave steps to create a company that people want to work for, and customers want to bank with. If you're ready to join a fun organisation where we are proud of our culture and how we are helping New Zealander's to 'Find their way', then show your interest by submitting your application - we can't wait to read it. 

Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini" - Success is not the work of an individual, but the work of many.”

Closing Date: 18 August 2026

Applications will be reviewed regularly across the advertising period, but we do reserve the right to close applications early.