Tūhono mai
Be a part of our team
Mō tēnei tūranga Position Description
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Title: Head of Data and Insights
Business Group: Finance
Reports to: Chief Financial Officer
Location/s: Auckland or Wellington
Financial Delegations: TBC
Budget: TBC
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Direct Reports: TBC
Indirect Reports: TBC
Mō mātou - Our Organisation
Building better, brighter homes, communities and lives.
What is exciting about working for Kāinga Ora is getting the chance to use our skills and knowledge to create the
homes and neighbourhoods that will make a real and positive impact on New Zealanders’ lives and build a better
future for Aotearoa New Zealand.
We are passionate about transforming New Zealand for the better. This includes being a trusted partner for Māori
and iwi, protecting and enabling their rights, interests and aspirations under the guidance of Te Tiriti o Waitangi.
Our past has laid the groundwork and now as a team, we are focused on creating a legacy for the good of future
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generations of New Zealanders.
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You can/will be part of a team that plays a vital role in where Aotearoa New Zealand is heading.
We provide tenancy services to over 187,000 public housing customers and we maintain and develop around
65,000 houses. We help many other New Zealanders into their own homes through our home ownership
products and other services.
We are building many thousands of homes each year and transforming entire communities all across the
country. And we have an exciting plan for the future that will enable us to do more to help New Zealanders
than ever before.
Ō Tātou Uara - Our Values
Our values were developed by us, for us. They unite us as an organisation and guide how we work
every day. Our values are:
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Manaakitanga – People at the Heart
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Mahi Tahi – Better Together
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Whanake – Be Bold
Our Finance Group
The
Finance Group supports Kāinga Ora to understand its strategic context and drivers and influences the
organisation’s key settings. The Group also provides the planning, management and reporting functions around
the organisation’s financial practices, strategic planning activity, policy and procurement and supplier
management processes to support operational delivery and financial decision making. It plays a lead role in
delivering improvements in financial sustainability across the organisation.
Ngā mahi - What you’ll do
OFFICIAL
The Head of Data and Insights is a pivotal role responsible for shaping and executing Kāinga Ora’s enterprise-
wide data and analytics strategy during a period of major transformation and rationalisation. You will lead the
agency’s data vision—driving data governance, advanced analytics, and insights-led culture to enable
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evidence-based decision-making and support Kāinga Ora’s modernisation agenda.
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You will lead a multidisciplinary team of data professionals, providing strategic oversight to data governance,
business intelligence, data science, and reporting functions. As Kāinga Ora undergoes significant change, you
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will guide the rationalisation of legacy data platforms, introduce scalable and future-ready data architectures,
and champion the adoption of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning in the
context of data & advanced analytics.
Success in this role requires a blend of visionary leadership, deep technical understanding, and a pragmatic
approach to change management. You will set clear strategic priorities, ensuring alignment between data
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initiatives and organisational goals. You will foster cross-agency collaboration, influence senior stakeholders,
and cultivate an environment that encourages innovation, continuous improvement, and ethical data use.
Ngā haepapa - What you’ll be responsible for
• Development, socialisation, and implementation of overarching enterprise and functionally focused
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data and insights strategies that are aligned to organisational strategy.
• Develop, coach and support a high performing team. You will support the hiring and retention of the
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right talent and help them grow to their optimal capabilities, furthering the interests of Kāinga Ora.
• Drive innovation in data platforms, analytics, and emerging technologies (e.g. AI, machine learning) to
modernise agency capabilities.
• Overall management and performance of the Data & Insights team including demand prioritisation,
driving Analytics Governance and supporting the Data Governance Council and strategy, tracking the
achievement of set performance measures and the benefits delivered from Analytics.
• Management and ongoing development of the enterprise-wide ecosystem of Data Management &
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Analytics practitioners to drive increased collaboration, maturity and performance.
• Partnering with our Technology team to establish and prioritise the capabilities and integrated
datasets required to deliver end-user enterprise analytical products to different business units.
• Development and enforcement of measure definitions, standards and tools to guide the consistent
execution of data analytics related activities across Kāinga Ora.
• Foster cross-agency collaboration and with your team build data literacy at all levels of Kāinga Ora.
Ngā rōpū whaihua - Who you’ll work with
Key Internal Relationships
• Executive Leadership team
• Senior Leaders and project teams
• Strategy and Finance Group
• Functional Data and Reporting teams in each Business Unit
• Value Stream Managers and Solution Delivery Leads in the Digital IT (Technology) team
• Architects, Platform Leads, Data Management and Data Engineers in the Digital IT team
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Key External Relationships
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• Counterparts at Crown Ministries and Government Agencies
• Local Government
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• Delivery Partners
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Ngā pūmanawatanga ōu - What you’ll need
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To be successful in this role the
Head of Data and Insights will have:
• Extensive experience leading large-scale data and analytics functions within complex environments
(preferably public sector or a regulated environment).
• Proven track record in strategic leadership, change management, and delivering transformation
programmes.
• Experience in leading and motivating teams and managing people and business processes throughout
periods of change within an organisation to embed and achieve successful adoption of
transformation.
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• Deep expertise in data governance, business intelligence, analytics, and emerging technologies.
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• Ability to collaborate well and leverage relationships with various business user groups to support
stakeholders in assessing their insight needs
• Ability to develop and execute enterprise and functional data and analytics strategies
• Outstanding verbal and written communication skills that will support you in advising key
stakeholders
• Commercial acumen with demonstrated ability to drive value from data.
• High level of adaptability, resilience, and vision to navigate ambiguity and inspire through change.
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• You are committed to the value of collaboration & teamwork through sharing of information and
experience
• You foster a “learning” environment, celebrate success and create a sense of pride and belonging in
the team
• Understanding of our obligations under the Treaty of Waitangi.
• Portfolio and demand prioritisation
• Visualisation development and insight presentation
• Excellent working knowledge of Data Management, Artificial Intelligence, Advanced Analytics, Cloud
Platforms & Data Visualisation concepts and leading practices.
• Analytics governance including report/model management and validation, data compliance and
regulations, standards and tools
• Working knowledge of Information Security, Privacy and Information Management requirements and
policies in the context of Government
Leadership Attributes
Leadership is the mind-set, skills and behaviours used to inspire and provide direction for people to achieve the
outcomes for Kāinga Ora. Kāinga Ora has determined the following attributes for this role as outlined below.
Values relationships
People focused
OFFICIAL
Builds and nurtures trusting relationships with direct
Actively works to understand people to ensure the best
reports, their teams and leader.
work experience possible for them.
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Builds and nurtures relationships with colleagues,
Recognises everyone is different and is curious about what
stakeholders, iwi, partners, suppliers and our
makes people tick.
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communities.
Is aware of their own paradigms and influences, and the
Tailors how they communicate for their audience.
impact this has on the behaviours and attitudes they bring
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Looks first to their own areas for improvement before
to work and relationships.
turning to others.
Comfortable being themselves and admitting to being less
than perfect.
Identifies personal development areas through reflection
and feedback, and shares these with their team and
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Puts their people’s needs ahead of their own.
Understands the importance of language and carefully
considers the words they use and their impact.
Recognises that we are all human and are constantly
iterating and innovating.
Develops people and the organisation
Delivery Focused
Continuously seeks to understand their people in order to
Develops clear expectations of delivery objectives and
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motivate and enable their development.
expectations.
Provides tailored feedback, coaching and development
Organised, consistent and disciplined approach to work.
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that motivates at the right time.
Enable and empower
Leads our Culture
Chooses to trust others first.
Frames challenges as development opportunities and
Develops clear outcome frameworks that enable their
encourages this in others.
teams to make decisions and develop new ways of
Fosters an environment where input and feedback are
working.
welcomed, well-intended and develop others.
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Identifies assumptions and is comfortable with
Gathers input with different experiences and viewpoints
uncertainty.
as part of decision making.
Is comfortable not having all the answers.
Role models our values and highlights positive examples
Takes responsibility for their actions and the work
from within their wider teams.
programme of their wider teams.
Leads with humility, emphasising the obligations and
Recognises and emphasises their people’s input over their
responsibilities that come with the role.
own.
Ambitious and Innovative
Embraces Diversity and Inclusion
Transparent about ambition for organisation.
Holds themselves and their teams responsible to identify,
Actively embraces and is curious about doing things
address and minimise bias wherever they encounter it.
differently and encourages others to do so.
Acknowledges and values different opinions and
Enables bottom-up change, embedding behaviours,
perspectives to get better outcomes.
practices and processes that create both permission and a
Supports the inclusion of different ideas, viewpoints and
sense of responsibility for their teams to embrace and
questions from their teams and others.
drive change
Takes responsibility for developing own and their teams’
cultural capability
Applies Māori Leadership principles
Leads Strategically
Applies principles of Rangatiratanga, Whakaiti, and Ako
Understand the outcomes we are seeking to achieve, our
Demonstrates active consideration of Te Ao Māori,
“why”.
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Tikanga Māori, Te Tiriti o Waitangi, and Māori values and
Thoughtful, considered, consistent, long term and fact
perspectives when:
based when establishing direction and work plans.
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• Leading and developing their team.
Develops a clear strategic framework for their wider teams
• Developing their strategies and work plans.
to work within that aligns with the overall strategy of
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• Influencing organisational culture and performance.
Kāinga Ora.
• Supporting a culturally safe environment.
Focuses their teams on achieving those outcomes.
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Engaging with Kāinga Ora employees, customers,
Communicates how the strategy connects to the functions
communities, stakeholders and treaty partners plan fits
they perform.
into the strategy, and how it connects to vision and values. Aligns work plans across their wider teams with Kāinga
Ora outcomes and purpose.
Recruits based on immediate and future needs for their
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