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Specialist – Ako Planning
- Drive clarity, coordination and quality across Ako through strategic planning and meaningful, culturally grounded change.
- Full-time permanent position (37.5 hours per week).
- Salary range: $81,497 to $122,245 per annum plus benefits.
Mō mātou | About us
As a proudly kaupapa Māori
tertiary educator, ‘tauira success’ is our mission and ‘whānau
transformation through education’ is our vision, guiding our commitment to
delivering quality education programmes underpinned by Māori culture and values.
Our kaimahi (employees)
enjoy a whānau-friendly workplace and a great range of benefits to support the
wellbeing of them and their whānau:
- Free Southern Cross health insurance and life insurance.
- Four extra leave days each year to celebrate Matariki and Christmas, plus special leave available for those involved in cultural or sporting events.
- Flexible work hours for non-rostered positions and work-from-home options for positions that can be performed away from the office.
- An awesome wellness programme that offers free events and services to support your physical and mental wellbeing.
- Free car parking at our main campuses.
Mō tēnei mahi | About this job
As our Specialist – Ako Planning, you’ll support strategic
planning, quality reporting, and change coordination across Ako. You’ll help teams transition confidently from
current to future ways of working by ensuring changes are well‑planned, clearly
communicated and effectively embedded.
Your work will span strategic advisory support, mapping initiatives,
tracking dependencies, producing governance‑level reporting, and ensuring
policies and processes are consistent and future‑focused.
What’s in it for you? A central role in shaping Ako’s planning and improvement activities. Opportunities to influence consistency, quality and learner‑centred change across multiple settings. And the ability to integrate kaupapa‑grounded approaches into planning, engagement and decision‑making.
You thrive in roles that require structure, clarity and foresight. You
understand how workstreams interact, where risks sit, and how to ensure changes
land well. You’re confident engaging at senior levels and producing high‑quality
insights, reporting and process improvements.
To this position, you’ll bring:
- 5+ years’ experience in quality improvement, data analysis, planning or related work.
- Strong organisational and analytical skills, with the ability to identify risks, dependencies and workflow needs.
- Experience developing processes, procedures or process maps, ideally across complex or multi‑site environments.
- Confidence working with Excel and data tools (Power BI experience highly valued).
- A collaborative communication style and strong stakeholder management capability.
- Experience supporting change, ideally within tertiary education, teaching and learning or kaupapa Māori contexts.
- A relevant tertiary
qualification, with business process improvement certification (e.g. Lean Six
Sigma) desirable.
As a kaupapa Māori organisation, your willingness to participate in cultural activities and develop an understanding of Āhuatanga Māori (values, culture and tikanga) will be key.
Kua whati te tai, tono mai! | Apply today!
If we’ve outlined a role that matches
your capabilities and aspirations, and a workplace that appeals, apply today as
applications will close as soon as we have a suitable shortlist.