Team Manager Regulatory Funding & Pricing | Wellington City

Job Description

Team Manager, Regulatory Funding & Pricing

Previously advertised as Team Manager Cost Recovery Oversight

Role type: Permanent, Full Time

Location: Wellington City

Salary band & range: General Salary Range C: $119,376 to $145,000 depending on skills and experience

About the Role - Kōrero mō te Tūranga

Step into a role where your expertise sits at the intersection of finance, regulation, and system design, shaping how complex public systems are sustainably funded.

As Team Manager, Regulatory Funding & Pricing, you'll influence the design, lead implementation, and optimisation of cost recovery models across some of New Zealand Food Safety's most significant regulatory reforms. This is a strategic and technically demanding leadership role, where you will translate legislative intent into commercially sound, operationally scalable charging mechanisms.

You will operate at the centre of a high‑profile reform programme, influencing how regulatory services are priced, funded, and delivered, ensuring models are robust, equitable, transparent, and financially sustainable over time.

This role combines:

• Advanced financial and economic thinking (pricing, modelling, cost allocation)
• Regulatory system design (legislation → operational frameworks)
• Enterprise delivery across policy, digital, finance, and operations

Key areas of impact include:

• Designing and implementing cost recovery frameworks linked to existing, new and evolving legislation, translating policy intent into practical funding strategies, revenue models, and billing mechanisms
• Influencing the development of multi-channel charging models, including certification, levy, and fee-based systems operating across different regulatory environments and industry segments
• Advising on alternative pricing methodologies (e.g. volume-based, activity-based, throughput, hybrid models), balancing equity, efficiency, and cost reflectivity
• Overseeing financial modelling, forecasting, and scenario analysis, ensuring cost recovery models are evidence-based, defensible, and resilient to demand variability
• Providing input on fees and levies, and review pricing narratives, impact analysis, and engagement with central agencies (e.g. Treasury, Cabinet processes)
• Driving system integration across finance, digital, and operational platforms, ensuring charging frameworks are embedded into end-to-end business processes
• Maintaining oversight of memorandum accounts, revenue performance, and financial risk, ensuring alignment with government cost recovery principles

What makes this role unique

• Direct influence on how national regulatory systems are funded and sustained
• A rare opportunity to work across finance, economics, regulation, and system delivery
• High visibility across senior leadership, and industry stakeholders

If you thrive where finance meets regulation, strategy meets delivery, and no two weeks are the same, this role offers exceptional scope, variety, and impact.

About You - Mōu

You are a commercially astute and technically strong leader who thrives in complex, multi‑disciplinary environments. You bring experience designing or implementing pricing, cost recovery, or funding models, and are confident operating where financial strategy meets regulatory obligation.

You're an influential and collaborative communicator who exercises sound judgement and navigates ambiguity with confidence. You build trust quickly, translate complex concepts into clear insights, and tailor your approach across technical and non‑technical audiences. Comfortable working across functions, you challenge thinking constructively and bring others with you through change.

You may come from a public sector regulatory environment, a consulting or advisory background, or a large corporate with experience in pricing, cost allocation, or commercial finance, bringing a strong ability to connect financial insight with practical system outcomes.

You are equally comfortable:

• Interpreting legislation and policy intent
• Communicating insights to senior decision-makers and non-technical audiences

You'll also bring:

• Strong experience in management accounting, pricing, regulatory economics, or financial modelling
• Proven ability to operationalise cost recovery or pricing frameworks in complex organisations
• Deep understanding of cost allocation, revenue modelling, and financial sustainability principles
• Experience translating regulatory or policy requirements into workable business systems
• Demonstrated people leadership, growing capability in specialist or technical teams
• Strong stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to influence across:
• Policy and regulatory functions
• Finance and corporate services
• Operational delivery teams
• Industry and external partners

About the Team - Mō tō mātou Rōpū

New Zealand Food Safety works to ensure food produced and sold in Aotearoa is safe and suitable and globally recognised as such. Our work spans the full food system, combining science, risk-based regulation, and meaningful partnerships with Māori, consumers, local councils, and industry.

Your team sits within Regulatory Support & Performance and works closely with MPI Corporate Services to ensure cost recovery systems are robust, workable, and future-ready.

About MPI - Mō te Manatū Ahu Matua

The Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) partners with New Zealand's food and fibre sector to be the world's most trusted provider of high-value food and fibre products.

Benefits of working at MPI - Ngā hua o te mahi i te Manatū Ahu Matua

• Annual Wellness payment
• Bi-annual paid eye test and contribution to the costs of corrective lenses/frames
• Professional membership reimbursement

Security checks - Ngā Taki Whakahaumaru

Low level Security Clearance

• most preferably a New Zealand citizen, who has resided continuously in New Zealand for at least the last five (5) years, OR
• is a citizen of, and/or has resided continuously in one or more of the following countries for the last five (5) years: either Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom (UK) or the United States of America (USA); and has a background history that is verifiable and can be assessed as appropriate by the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) towards a recommendation of suitability for a security clearance at this level.
• click here to find out more about the national security vetting process and access the eligibility self-check tool.

If you do not meet these minimum criteria, we will not be able to accept your application.

Are you ready to make a difference? - Kua rite koe mō tēnei mahi whaitake?
We are committed to being a good partner under Te Tiriti o Waitangi which includes working closely with iwi, hapū, whānau and hāpori.

We aspire to reflect the diverse communities we serve, so we welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds, and identities. As an organisation, we are committed to making Manatū Ahu Matua Ministry for Primary Industries a great place to work for all.

In your cover letter we'd like to know about you, your values; your interest and motivations for this role; the abilities, strengths, personal attributes, and diverse perspectives you will bring to the role and this organisation, which may have also been gained outside of the workforce.

To view the position description and/or apply online, please click “APPLY FOR THIS JOB” or visit the MPI Careers Site. To apply, you must hold the right to work in New Zealand or be eligible to obtain it – click here to find out more about work visa eligibility and options.

Applications close at 11:59pm on Sunday 14th June 2026.

If you have any questions about the role, please email Abby.Walker@mpi.govt.nz 

This role has previously been advertised as Team Manager - Cost Recovery Oversight and the Position description is named this. 

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