Description

Senior Radio Spectrum Planning Analyst – New Zealand

Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) | Wellington, New Zealand

Looking for a technically interesting job in radio spectrum engineering?   As an Australian citizen, you can live and work in New Zealand without a visa, and land in Wellington: a small, vibrant capital with a good vibe, a lower cost of living, and a shorter commute than anywhere you've worked before. The work is complex requiring technical analysis that shapes national policy and earns you a seat at the table at the United Nations and access to government. Few roles offer that combination of intellectual weight and quality of life. This one does.

Radio spectrum is the finite set of frequencies that mobile networks, satellites, Wi-Fi, radar, emergency services and broadcasters all depend on. In New Zealand, its use is regulated entirely by this team, under the Radiocommunications Act 1989.

You'll build the technical models and interference analysis, from first principles, that decide who gets access to spectrum and how. That analysis becomes the regulatory rules and informs the advice ministers act on. This isn't a licensing or admin role. It's the engineering foundation underneath national spectrum policy, and it demands genuine intellectual depth: multi-technology, first-principles thinking, not simply following established rules. A recent piece of work from this team freed up satellite spectrum that lifted broadband capacity for rural New Zealand. That's the scale of outcome this role can produce.

There’s also an opportunity to represent New Zealand internationally, at ITU and APT meetings and in bilateral negotiations, with a major UN-level spectrum negotiation landing at the end of 2027.

In a large telco or regulator, this kind of work gets split into narrow, siloed roles. Here, you get a hand in all of it: propagation modelling, coexistence analysis, policy development, ministerial briefings and international representation. It's a genuine chance to broaden a career rather than specialise into one corner of it.

You'll work alongside a small, high-calibre, multidisciplinary team spanning policy, engineering and operations, with real scope to shape how that team's capability develops. You'll also have a direct line into government, working alongside defence, aeronautical, maritime and emergency services stakeholders on problems that matter nationally.

Years of experience matter less than how you think. The one non-negotiable: the ability to model how radio systems behave and interact from first principles, worked out rather than looked up. If that's you, we'd also like to see:

• Strong technical grounding in radio engineering, propagation and interference/coexistence modelling
• Familiarity with radio technologies, standards and spectrum management frameworks
• Strong written and verbal communication, comfortable briefing senior stakeholders
• A collaborative approach to solving technical problems alongside others

Backgrounds in academic research, spectrum or RF engineering, technical consulting, or regulatory roles are all relevant. Experience with MATLAB, HTZ, Visualyse and ARC-GIS is a plus, not a requirement.

Wellington is compact enough to walk from your desk to the harbour, a café, or native bush, all within about twenty minutes. Wellington is renowned for its coffee and craft beer culture, theatre, gallery and live music scenes, and events like WOW and the New Zealand International Film Festival. Weta Workshop calls it home too.

Add beaches, coastal walks and forest reserves just outside the office, and a cost of living well below Sydney or Melbourne, and it's a city that's easy to actually enjoy living in.

• Based in Wellington
• KiwiSaver employer contribution
• Wellbeing allowance
• Relocation support to help make the move to Wellington
• 23 days annual leave, rising to 25 with service, plus study assistance and an Employee Assistance Programme
• Open to Australian citizens under the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement, no visa or sponsorship required

Australian citizens and permanent residents can live and work in New Zealand indefinitely under the Trans-Tasman Travel Arrangement. No visa. No sponsorship. No immigration process to navigate. New Zealand citizens and residents are also eligible. MBIE is not an accredited employer under New Zealand's skilled migrant visa scheme, so candidates must already hold the right to work in New Zealand.

Click the Apply Now button to submit your CV and cover letter. Questions welcome at Monica.Chow2@mbie.govt.nz, quoting ref MBIE/19485.