Chief Legal Advisor

Our Vision: Preventing Harm. Saving Lives. Securing our Future We play a key role in the guardianship of New Zealand waterways. We're bringing together our aroha, work and skills to achieve our outcomes of sustainable supply chains and sectors, safe people and operations, secure ports and ships, and clean seas and waterways. Our values are about who we are as individuals and the behaviours we expect from each other at Maritime NZ. Care | Kia Tika - We care for each other and do the right thing Courage | Kia Māia - We are brave, capable and confident Our Regulatory Approach We are a risk-based regulator focused on preventing harm from maritime activity to people, property and the marine environment. Over the last two years we have been on a journey to embed this approach in the way we work including how we provide legal advice that supports our focus on addressing the risk of harm. The Regulatory Frameworks and Technical Support Group plays a central role in shaping and delivering Maritime NZ’s strategic goals. It influences the maritime regulatory system both internationally and domestically, and leads the end‑to‑end development of the framework — from planning and policy through to implementation. Within this group, Legal Services delivers expert legal advice that supports the Director and Authority and decision makers across Maritime NZ to achieve our outcomes. Legal advice is delivered through two specialist units and covers areas such as public and international law, litigation, incident response, and commercial and property law. The Public International and Commercial unit focuses on legislation, statutory powers, and commercial matters, while the Litigation and Operations unit leads on investigations, enforcement, and litigation relating to maritime and marine pollution, as well as advising on regulatory operations and health and safety oversight. Te tūnga | The role As Chief Legal Advisor, you will lead and steward Maritime NZ’s Legal Services function, ensuring high-quality, practical legal advice that enables effective delivery of our regulatory approach. Reporting at a senior level, you will provide strategic legal counsel to the Director and Authority, while working collaboratively across the organisation to strengthen decision‑making, build capability, and embed a shared understanding of what good legal advice looks like in the context of our regulatory approach. You will play a key role within the Regulatory Frameworks and Technical Support leadership group, contributing to organisational strategy and partnering with senior leaders to achieve system‑wide outcomes. In particular you and your team work closely with Regulatory Operations senior leaders to support their operational decision making responsibilities. You will lead a high‑performing team, fostering a positive, inclusive and collaborative culture while overseeing people, workflow, budget and performance. This includes driving continuous improvement, building capability, and ensuring robust planning, reporting and delivery of the legal work programme. The role also requires strong external engagement—maintaining trusted relationships with Crown Law, external counsel and sector stakeholders—and supporting Maritime NZ’s response functions when required. As a senior leader, you’ll champion health, safety, wellbeing and security, while ensuring the Legal Services function remains responsive, effective and aligned to organisational priorities. You are an experienced and strategic legal leader with a strong track record of delivering high-quality, outcomes focused advice in complex, regulatory environments. You bring the ability to influence at a senior level, build trusted relationships, and work collaboratively across diverse stakeholder groups, including Chief Executives, Boards and senior leaders. With a pragmatic mindset and strong critical thinking, you are skilled at navigating complexity, leading projects to successful delivery, and fostering high-performing teams through mentoring and development. You communicate with clarity and impact—both written and verbal—and bring a culturally aware, inclusive approach. Proven experience and knowledge of leading legal functions to provide independent, high quality, outcomes focussed legal advice. Excellent leadership, negotiation and influencing without authority skills Successful experience working in regulatory environments with Chief Executives, Boards and senior executives Demonstrated ability and experience leading and managing complex projects to successful completion Proven success with mentoring and developing team members and peers Proven ability building consensus with multiple parties Experience working effectively within Public Sector systems and processes Ability to network effectively in a consultative and collaborative manner, influencing and building credibility across a range of stakeholders (internal and external) Highly developed written and oral communication skills Strong writing and reporting skills Pragmatism, fresh thinking, and good critical thinking skills Demonstrated capability to learn and apply strategies to manage stressful or traumatic situations Ability to work in a culturally safe and respectful manner, always being mindful of the cultural diversity of the industry and having regard to Te Ao Māori and Treaty of Waitangi principles Maritime NZ recognises and respects te Tiriti o Waitangi and we are committed to working with Māori to build strong, meaningful and enduring relationships to achieve mutually beneficial outcomes. We aim to be a workplace where everyone feels valued, supported with a sense of belonging. We encourage our people to actively contribute to our workplace culture where we all thrive and authentically live our values. Upon joining us you'll receive a full range of benefits including Income Protection and Life Insurance so check out our full range on our careers page to find out more about why we love working here. Applications for this role close 5pm, Sunday 19th July 2026. Please note that you must have the legal right to live and work in New Zealand to be considered for this role. We are unable to accept applications via email. Please click the apply button to submit your application. This is a permanent, full-time role (37.5 hour per week). The appointing salary range is $194,797- $238,085, depending on skills and experience. If you have any questions please e-mail [email protected] #J-18808-Ljbffr