Team Leader, People Services

CAA are looking for a Team Leader, People Services to lead our HR services function that provides first and second level support to our people. This is a hands‑on leadership role where you’ll balance coaching and oversight with rolling up your sleeves to help get the work done.

This role is ideal for someone who is genuinely energised by developing people, building confidence and capability, and helping others thrive. You’ll bring visible enthusiasm to your leadership, creating an environment where people feel supported, stretched and motivated to do their best work.

The successful candidate will lead an AskHR service, ensuring our people can easily access timely, accurate and practical HR advice, tools and information. With a strong continuous improvement mindset, you’ll shape how HR services are delivered, leveraging systems, data and process design to improve the experience for both users and the team.

This is a newly established position that combines people leadership, HR generalist expertise, service delivery, and project work in a complex public sector environment.

Key Responsibilities:

• Actively invest in the growth of your people, using coaching, feedback and mentoring to help them build confidence and expand their skills
• Oversee and contribute to the AskHR function, ensuring consistent, high‑quality advice and support across a broad range of HR matters
• Take a hands‑on approach, stepping in to manage queries, workload peaks, and team cover as required
• Drive continuous improvement of HR services, processes, knowledge resources and self‑service tools
• Lead and contribute to HR projects, including process redesign, system improvements and service enhancements
• Use insights, data and feedback to monitor service effectiveness and inform improvements
• Partner closely with other teams to ensure joined‑up, customer‑focused solutions.

The salary band for this role is $115,536-$141,751. Starting salaries are based on the knowledge, skills and experience the successful candidate brings to the role, as well as internal relativities.

For more information on the role please view the position description.

What You’ll Bring

This role will suit a pragmatic, people‑focused HR leader who enjoys both leading and doing.

You’ll bring:

• Strong experience as an HR generalist, ideally across the full employee lifecycle
• Experience working in or alongside an AskHR model
• Familiarity of the NZ public sector environment
• Demonstrated passion for coaching, mentoring and developing people, including supporting early‑career HR practitioners
• A continuous improvement mindset, with experience improving processes, services or systems
• Experience contributing to or leading HR‑related projects
• A systems‑thinking approach, designing solutions that work for the organisation while keeping people at the centre.

You’ll be comfortable navigating competing priorities, building trust with stakeholders, and balancing service delivery with longer‑term improvement initiatives.

About us

The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) is New Zealand’s aviation safety and security regulator. We play a critical role in protecting the travelling public, supporting the aviation sector, and strengthening New Zealand’s international reputation.

Our vision is simple and powerful: A safe and secure aviation system – so people are safe, and feel safe when they fly.

Our values: Professionalism, Respect, Integrity, Transparency, and Collaboration guide everything we do. We’re committed to diversity, inclusion, and creating a workplace where everyone feels safe, valued, and empowered to contribute.

Why Join Us?

• 5 weeks annual leave, with an additional 2 days after five years of continuous service
• Matching KiwiSaver contributions up to 4%
• Vision assistance
• Flu Vaccinations
• Employee Assistance Programme.

Ready to Apply?

If you’re a values‑driven HR leader who enjoys developing people, improving how things work, and rolling up your sleeves to support the team, we’d love to hear from you.

Apply directly by completing the online application form and submitting your CV and cover letter. (Your cover letter will be a key part of our assessment process, so please highlight how your experience relates to the skills required for this role).

We want to ensure accessibility needs are well supported, so the recruitment process is fair and equitable for all. Please let us know if there is any support we can provide to ensure the recruitment process is fully accessible to you.

If you have any questions about the role or application process, please contact Tāne O’Rorke in the Recruitment team recruitment@caa.govt.nz

Applications close: Sunday 31st of May 2026

Please be aware that we will be shortlisting as applications come in. We encourage early applications, as the advertisement may close sooner than stated.