Senior Legal Counsel (Parental Cover)

About Airways:
Our people manage New Zealand's 30 million square kms of airspace, providing air traffic control, surveillance, communication, flight inspection, mapping, and airspace design services. We work with government, regulatory authorities, airlines, airports, and the general aviation community to ensure pilots, passengers and goods reach their destination - safely. At Airways, our values underpin all that we do. We value Safety, One Airways, Excellence and Success in all that we do.

Our organisation is made up of operational business groups that are supported by governance and corporate services functions. To learn more about our people and organisational structure, check out www.airways.co.nz/about.

About the Teams:
The Legal and Audit Group provides enterprise-wide governance, legal stewardship, and independent assurance to uphold Airways’ organisational integrity, transparency, and accountability.

The Group ensures legal compliance, strengthens corporate governance, and delivers independent audit oversight consistent with the Three Lines model. It supports the Board, CEO and Executive Leadership Team with expert legal advice and audit services that safeguard Airways’ interests, reduce organisational risk, and enable informed, high-quality decision-making.

As a state-owned enterprise (SOE), Airways operates within a public sector framework, as well as the highly regulated aviation sector. The Group is key to delivering Airways’ strategy of safe skies today and tomorrow within this complex setting. The team operates on a centralised pooled resource basis, which means the work is varied and challenging. It’s a supportive and collaborative team and we pride ourselves on being a great place to learn and grow.

About the Role:
10-month fixed term parental cover opportunity for a Senior Legal Counsel to join our Auckland based team in The Quad (Leonard Isitt Drive, Auckland Airport).

In this role you’ll engage with stakeholders across the business providing legal advice, contract support and training on a broad range of matters to drive the company’s strategy and manage its legal risk. Additionally, you’ll support both the air navigation business activities, and the international focused business activities which include a wide variety of contracting.

Key tasks and responsibilities:

• Collaboratively engaging with colleagues towards actively contributing to the Group strategy and objectives.
• Supporting our risk management programme (including understanding and supporting our insurance regime requirements).
• Proactively working towards understanding and monitoring the legal implications of our activities, identifying and limiting our exposure.
• Supporting the management of our Intellectual Property (IP) portfolio.
• Actively managing our obligations as a public sector organisation in public sector statutory framework.
• Advocating for Airways’ interest on law reform and regulatory matters.
• Partnering with stakeholders across the business to drive company strategy and manage risk, primarily through providing fit for purpose and pragmatic contract support, advice and training.
• Championing our legal systems and processes which include automation and our future state of a modern and agile legal function.
  

For a full list of tasks and responsibilities, please refer to the position description attached to the advert on our careers site.

About You:
To be successful in the role, you will have:

• Bachelor of Law (LLB) degree and admission to the High Court of New Zealand
• At least 10 years post-qualification experience, including:
  - Providing pragmatic, commercial advice to meet business needs and manage business risks
  - Stakeholder relationship management and business partnering (gained in-house)
  - Legal analysis and advisory work, particularly in statutory and/or regulatory frameworks

• Contracting knowledge, ideally including licensing, SaaS and other ITP
• Experience in working in a complex environment, preferably in an SOE or commercial environment
• Ability to work in a dynamic business environment, collaborate with people internally and externally, show resilience and agility, take ownership and focus on delivering successful business outcomes.
  

To Apply:
If you are eager to expand your experience at a State-Owned Enterprise with an international reputation for innovation and success, submit your application (CV and cover letter) via the Airways careers site or Seek.

Please note that you must be legally eligible to work in New Zealand to be considered.

This role will require the successful candidate to undergo pre-employment background checks including references, drug and alcohol screening, criminal conviction, and related checks.

Application closing date is Friday, 24 April 2026.

At Airways, our people are at the heart of what we do to keep NZ skies safe. We are committed to creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive workplace where people feel they belong and can bring their whole self to work. We currently hold the Rainbow Tick and NQTick (neurodiversity) and are working towards Gender Tick. We make our recruitment decisions based on the best candidate for the job and therefore encourage applications from diverse candidates.

Position description Apply now

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