Chapter Lead - AI Data Solution Engineering

Title: Chapter Lead - AI Data Solution Engineering As the Chapter Lead – AI & Data Solution Engineering (AI) , your role is to lead, mentor and develop a high-performing team of solution engineers, helping One NZ progress towards its ambition of becoming the most AI‑enabled telco in the world. As a key member of the AI & Data Engineering team, you’ll work closely with business stakeholders to understand their needs and guide the delivery of highly performant, scalable AI and data solutions that support business strategy. Ko tō mahi – what you’ll do Lead, mentor and coach a high-performing AI Solution Engineering chapter, supporting engineers to build, maintain and continuously improve robust products and solutions. Build a culture of curiosity, experimentation and continuous learning, enabling engineers to challenge assumptions, adapt quickly and grow their capability. Set clear objectives, manage performance, identify talent, support succession planning and attract strong technical talent into the chapter. Own and evolve the AI Solution Engineering framework, including solution design, coding standards, DevOps and AgentOps practices, prompt and agent patterns, lifecycle management, observability, evaluation, governance and production readiness. Work closely with Platform, Ops, IT, Cyber Security, Architecture, Risk and business stakeholders to ensure AI solutions are safe, secure, explainable, scalable, cost‑aware and aligned to One NZ’s responsible AI principles. Ensure the right engineering capability is available to support business priorities through effective workforce planning, skill‑mix management and chapter resource allocation. Shape the technical strategy for AI and Data Foundations, ensuring architecture, tooling, methods and standards are fit‑for‑purpose, scalable and aligned to emerging industry trends. Establish reference architectures and guardrails that support consistent delivery across teams. Provide senior technical guidance on feasibility, trade‑offs, investment choices, risk, architecture direction and delivery approach. Support strong technical governance, risk management and stakeholder confidence across AI solution delivery. Na tōu rourou - what you’ll bring Strong people leadership skills, with the ability to lead, coach, motivate and develop technical professionals through feedback, mentoring, development planning and learning opportunities. Confidence leading teams through ambiguity, evolving priorities, fast‑changing technologies and operating model change. Deep technical credibility across modern data, AI, genAI, cloud and software engineering practices, with the ability to challenge designs and guide technical direction. Strong understanding of responsible AI, governance, cyber security, privacy, compliance and operational risk. Experience with AI solution patterns, including LLM integration, retrieval augmented generation, agentic workflows, prompt engineering, evaluation frameworks, orchestration, APIs, automation and human‑in‑the‑loop design. Strong knowledge of software engineering principles and modern programming environments, including Python, APIs, cloud‑native design, CI/CD, testing, observability and secure engineering practices. Understanding of the data foundations needed for effective AI solutions, including data quality, metadata, semantic layers, knowledge retrieval, access control and integration with enterprise data platforms. Experience working with cloud and AI platforms, ideally including AWS, enterprise AI platforms, vector stores, orchestration tools, monitoring tooling and integration with existing data platforms. Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to explain complex technical topics clearly to senior leaders, business stakeholders and engineering teams. A strong commercial and outcome focus, with the ability to connect AI engineering decisions to measurable business value, customer experience, productivity improvement, cost management and operational outcomes. One New Zealand is leading the way by ensuring you can have a truly balanced life. Most roles allow flexibility to work from home and flex your hours to enjoy work & whānau commitments. A fully subsidised Southern Cross health insurance cover for you and your family. Lifestyle leave, giving you the option to purchase an extra week or two of annual leave. Discounts on One New Zealand products, services and much more! We are proudly Rainbow Tick certified and champion diversity of thought, perspective and background. Joining our whānau is more than starting a new job - it’s the beginning of a journey that will challenge and inspire you to play a role in something bigger. #J-18808-Ljbffr