Senior Safety, Change, Security and Resilience Specialist

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 cargo reach their destination safely.

Our Values reflect who we are and how we work together as a team, how we interact, how we make decisions and how we execute our strategy.​ At Airways, we put safety first, we respect each other, we aim for excellence and we celebrate success. Safety is our number one priority and is integral to everything 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 Team:
The Safety & Assurance Group is responsible for the governance and assurance of operational and organisational safety, security, risk, crisis management and business continuity planning across Airways.

The Safety Analysis, Change & Resilience Team is responsible for security education, investigations, and reporting systems. It is also responsible for undertaking security advisory and support activity such as safety case assessment, Governance of the Change Review Board, and delivery of the Security Management Group functions for the Executive Leadership Team and the various business units. The team have a leadership role implementing best practice standards, measurement and monitoring of Security and Safety performance whilst ensuring compliance with relevant NZ legislation, rules and guidelines. 

About the Role:
We have a permanent full-time opportunity for a Senior Safety Change, Security and Resilience Specialist to join us in Auckland (airport) or Christchurch (Burnside).

Reporting to the Safety Analysis, Change and Resilience Manager, you’ll work across the business at all levels delivering technical leadership for security, safety change and business resilience.

Other key tasks include:

• SME triage of all security occurrences
• Leading critical security investigations
• Oversight of business led security assessments and investigations by uplifting capability through education, coaching and mentoring
• Assurance of the ‘System of Security’.
  

Core deliverables include (but aren’t limited to):

• Safety Change Review Board and Security Management Group coordination and facilitation
• Security guidance to business managers utilising appropriate benchmark standards
• Continuous improvement of the Airways Security Programme design and security education
• Review of security artefacts and plans
• Leading security risk assessments
• Integration and assurance of the NZ Government Protective Security Requirements
• Deployment and assurance of the NZ Defence Force Security Practices and Procedures
• Data analytics and monitoring of trends in security and safety performance.
  

About You:
With the role incorporating interactions across a broad scope of activity extending from the front-line to the boardroom, you’ll hold a high level of interpersonal and communication skills.

Additionally, you’ll hold:

• A Tertiary degree in Security, Resilience, Risk Management, System Safety Engineering, Safety Management, Systems Auditing, Data Science or equivalent qualifications and experience
• Previous proven experience (5+ years) in a security leadership role (with key safety and security deliverables to stakeholders), preferably in the area of aviation, critical infrastructure, high reliability operational systems and assets
• Experience in risk management and operational business systems auditing / assurance
• Specialist knowledge and experience in aviation, for example regulatory, customs, airport, NZDF, airline or another ANSP
• Have demonstrated ability to connect and collaborate with operational teams, senior leaders, and executives (internally and externally) gaining their confidence and trust to identify opportunities, solve problems, reduce risk and improve business resilience.

Highly beneficial:

• Experience gained in a similar organisation that is of similar size (800+ employees) and complexity (SOE with multiple locations and/or subsidiaries)
• Human Factors qualifications, training and/or experience
• Leading security in complex operational environments
• Experience in safety change management.

To Apply:
Due to the security requirements of the role, you must be a NZ Citizen and ideally already hold a NZ National Security Clearance.

If you are attentive to detail, appreciate the safety and security requirements of the aviation industry, are looking for an opportunity to expand your skills and learn in a dynamic high integrity safety focussed business, please submit your application (CV and Cover Letter) via the Airways careers website or Seek.

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 Monday, 16 February 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.