Senior Software Engineer (Domestic ATM)

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 Team:
The Technology business unit is responsible for the effective delivery, management and services of all technology disciplines within the air navigation services environment – engineering design, software design and development, technology architecture and infrastructure, asset management, installation and maintenance, technical training, workload planning, maintenance program development, project management, and logistics support.

Part of the wider Air Traffic Services Development team, the Domestic ATM Software Team of ten people operate a flexible and pragmatic development process, supporting a scheduled Air Traffic Management (ATM) software release every eight (8) weeks.

About the System:
Airways is one of the few Air Navigation Service Providers (ANSPs) world-wide which supports the full engineering of its ATM systems in-house.

Air Traffic Controllers (ATCs) use the “domestic” ATM system to control aviation traffic across the land mass and immediate surrounding airspace of New Zealand. A second ATM system controls oceanic aviation. Our ATM systems are complex safety-critical distributed real-time systems, requiring 24 hrs x 365 days availability. The advanced requirement for resilience is met by numerous architectural features and by the thorough work of the software engineers supported by a robust software development process.

The domestic ATM consists of multiple application processes running on Linux virtual machines (VMs) in surveillance centres and ATC towers across the country. It also operates in multiple reconfigurable simulators, for ATC training and operations procedure development.

A new generation of the domestic ATM system went live in 2023, developed in cooperation with a large manufacturer, using a shared code base and processes. Throughout the lifetime of the domestic ATM systems, technological and operational change is unrelenting, requiring continual improvement and development of the system.

About the Role:
After a successful career at Airways, one of our software engineers has retired. This provides an opening for a Senior Software Engineer to join us on a full-time permanent basis at our Christchurch campus in Burnside.

The successful candidate will develop Air Traffic Management processing and display software in C++. You will see your software deployed regularly to the live Air Traffic Control system, for the immediate benefit of aviation traffic, air traffic controllers, and the technicians who monitor and control the system; and used in other countries.

About You:
For success you will be proactive, self-motivated, be a team player, a fast learner and an experienced problem solver.

Additionally, you will hold:

• An honours or master’s degree in Computer Science or Software Engineering, or a numerical degree with demonstratable equivalent experience
• Experience working in a software development team with a structured development environment
• Expertise in C++
• A provable record of efficiently and productively producing high quality designs, code, and documentation
• A positive, thorough, trust-worthy, and cooperative personality with a good sense of humour.
  

Beneficial:

• Expertise in Qt
• Expertise in Java
• Experience in real-time, safety critical systems.

About Our Offering:
Airways offers a competitive package inclusive of a solid base salary and a generous superannuation scheme with employer contributions of up to 11% of earnings (T&Cs). We also offer five (5) weeks annual leave, vast learning opportunities, career progression opportunities, and a hybrid working model provides flexibility and support.

You will work on a system that is technically complex and very interesting. Additionally, you will work in close partnership with a dedicated team of controllers and pilots responsible for operational requirements and acceptance testing, and with system engineers, network engineers, and other specialist engineers supporting the multiple technologies employed.

Airways is a great place to work, with an international reputation for innovation and success.

To Apply:
If you are ready to stretch yourself and assist Airways in building the aviation environment of the future, 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, 3 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.