We have two compelling Change Manager contract opportunities available across major government programmes in Wellington. Both roles are hands-on, delivery-focused positions suited to experienced practitioners who thrive in complex, high-stakes environments.
Role 1 — Senior Change Manager | Complex Social Services Programme
A senior, hands-on role leading change management for a high-priority infrastructure and operational programme in the social services sector. You'll operate with a high degree of autonomy in a genuinely complex, sensitive environment — requiring both strategic thinking and practical delivery.
What you'll be doing:
- Leading engagement and communications planning for a major operational establishment programme
- Navigating the workforce component — identifying and supporting staff through significant change
- Aligning change messaging across multiple concurrent workstreams
- Engaging with a broad range of stakeholders in a politically sensitive, fast-moving environment
- Collaborating closely with the Programme Manager and an established change team
- Proven Senior Change Manager experience, ideally in the public sector or a similarly complex environment
- Strong stakeholder engagement and communications skills, particularly across operational and physical change programmes
- Experience navigating workforce and cultural change in sensitive or high-stakes settings
- Genuine commitment to working in a sensitive social services context — this environment can be polarising and requires authentic engagement with the kaupapa
- Ability to start at short notice
Single-point accountability for national customer readiness, combined with end-to-end change delivery for a highly visible and reputationally significant regional rollout. You'll bring strategic thinking, a strong customer lens, and the ability to navigate complex public sector and multi-agency environments.
What you'll be doing:
- Establishing and owning a national customer readiness framework, artefacts, and success measures
- Leading customer testing, simulation, and validation to ensure solutions are fit for purpose
- Developing and delivering a region-specific customer change plan for Greater Wellington
- Localising communications and engagement through to go-live
- Monitoring adoption and experience outcomes across regions and feeding insights back into national delivery
- Proven change management experience in large, complex programmes — delivery-focused, not purely advisory
- Strong influencing skills across multi-agency, cross-organisational environments
- A pragmatic, outcomes-focused mindset with the ability to balance strategic intent and on-the-ground delivery
- Confident engaging across diverse groups, including public-facing and operational stakeholders
- Public sector or local government experience desirable; multi-agency or consortium experience an advantage
You must have a current right to work in New Zealand to be considered for these roles
