Senior Policy Advisor - Wellington - 6 months

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is a highly specialised government department whose mission is to disrupt and deter serious complex fraud through prevention, investigation, and prosecution. We take pride in the work we do to keep New Zealand safe from financial crime.

We employ a clever team of lawyers, accountants, investigators, electronic forensic and counter fraud experts to do just that and, importantly, we have a small support team that enables them to focus on their work. Numbering eighty, we are a cohesive team with a strong sense of justice and a vibrant culture.

The SFO seeks a government sector policy professional to join our Wellington CBD team as a Senior Policy Advisor.  This is a secondment or fixed term contract opportunity for six months.  

As part of the SFO’s highly collaborative Counter Fraud Centre team, and reporting to our Manager Counter Fraud and Strategy, you will provide analysis and advice on counter fraud and anti-corruption policy matters at a national level. You will develop and deliver projects and work programmes which includes implementation of initiatives deriving from the National Counter Fraud and Corruption Strategy and SFO’s Statement of Intent, and report against OECD and United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) reviews. You will engage with stakeholders and represent the SFO on external working groups, within the Justice sector and more widely, to ensure that counter fraud and anti-corruption policy matters are advanced. You may also lead or contribute to the drafting of reports, including Ministerial Briefings.

To be successful in this role you will have a comprehensive understanding of, and will have worked within, the New Zealand public sector in a policy related role.  You can evidence and articulate your knowledge of policy processes and their delivery. Importantly, you have effective project or programme management skills and approach your work in a structured and considered manner that is optimised outcome focussed. Highly collaborative, you have an ability to quickly understand facts and complexities.  An effective influencer and communicator, and comfortable in the company of government officials and strategic leaders, you are inquisitive and proactively utilise your considerable analytical and consulting skills to provide insights and add value to conversations to assist robust decision making. 

At the SFO we value a ‘growth mindset’ and explore this attribute during our recruitment process and in our development discussions.  We believe possessing a growth mindset is a key contributor to success in the SFO environment.  We are a close and motivated team with a strong workplace culture. We recognise that diversity and inclusion is important to our work. We value the unique abilities and perspectives of our employees which allows us to continue to create a supportive environment that meets the needs of our people, our business, and the communities where we work.  When our work allows, we have opportunity to work remotely a couple of days each week, and we have flexible start and finish times. We offer an additional week of annual leave that covers the three usual workdays between Christmas and New Year plus two days to use at our discretion. Each year we are allocated 20 days of sick leave, with no initial stand-down period, which can be accumulated to a maximum balance of 260 days.

If you would like further information about this role and the SFO, you are welcome to call Emma Reid – Recruiter with the SFO on 021 199 0985.

If you wish to apply for this role, please email a PDF version of your CV and cover letter (attachments titled ‘First Name Last Name – CV or Cover Letter’) to recruitment@sfo.govt.nz  and ‘Senior Policy Advisor’ in the subject line. 

Applications close 10am Monday 2 October 2023.

In this role you may be privy to information of national significance. It is important that you are eligible to obtain and maintain the required level of NZ Government security clearance for this position. The SFO, other government agencies, and probity agencies will complete comprehensive background checks.

In accordance with the Privacy Act 2020, the Serious Fraud Office is collecting, and you as a recruitment candidate are providing, personal information for the purpose of assessing your candidacy for employment with the SFO now and in the future.

In providing your personal information to the SFO, you authorise the SFO to disseminate information about you to persons and third parties involved in the SFO’s recruitment process.  These persons and third parties may include SFO employees, SFO contractors, and agencies and individuals providing assessments, probity, background, and identity check services. 

The SFO undertakes to collect and store your personal information securely, as defined in the Privacy Act 2020.  You retain the right to request review, amendment, return or destruction of your personal information, with exception of any information deemed evaluative or where that information may breach the privacy of others.  Should employment with the SFO eventuate, your personal information will be retained in the SFO employment records.