New Zealand intelligence agency is recruiting for a new boss

By on 27/11/2015 | Updated on 25/09/2020
Greek taxpayers will be required to submit a 56-page digital tax form, from this year, to combat Greek tax evasion. Image: iStock

One of New Zealand’s national security agencies is looking for a new chief with “experience managing cultural change.”

The Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB ) – the government body providing information assurance and cyber security, as well as foreign intelligence, is advertising for the role of director, which is limited to New Zealand citizens.

The GCSB has an annual budget of around Aus $89m (US$64) and around 300 employees in a wide range of disciplines including foreign language experts, communications and cryptography specialists, engineers, technicians and corporate staff.

The GCSB’s head office is located on Pipitea Street in Wellington. GCSB also has two communications collection and interception stations: a high frequency radio interception and direction-finding station at Tangimoana, near Palmerston North, and a satellite communications interception station at Waihopai near Blenheim.

Together with the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS) and the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) Security and Intelligence Group, it forms the core New Zealand Intelligence Community (NZIC).

Apart from strong organisational leadership skills, the ideal candidate has a “proven ability to make informed decisions, assessing risks and acting swiftly and decisively as risks change”; the “ability to manage external stakeholders (including international stakeholders) as well as those within the New Zealand Intelligence Community”; the “ability to manage talent, including sensitive performance management”; and “experience managing cultural change and strategic planning” – according to the job description.

The organisation’s new director will be charged with “protecting, advancing and maximising New Zealand’s broader intelligence interests by developing and sustaining relationships with government departments, counterpart agencies in overseas jurisdictions and with the private sector in relation to cyber security; maintaining productive and effective technical links with counterpart offshore agencies ensuring the bureau provides an uninterrupted conduit for classified material; and ensuring collaborative and sector orientated relationships with the Officials Domestic and External Security Committee , and those government agencies with roles in New Zealand’s security and intelligence community.”

Prime minister John Key announced earlier this month that SIS and GCSB are now under review, following the Paris attacks.

He said that the amount of “dark communications” which New Zealand spy agencies are unable to intercept is increasing, following reports that French intelligence did not pick up any communications which foreshadowed the massive, co-ordinated terror attacks in Paris, according to the New Zealand Herald.

 

Applications for the position for GCSB are open until 4 December.

Click here to find out more

About Winnie Agbonlahor

Winnie is news editor of Global Government Forum. She previously reported for Civil Service World - the trade magazine for senior UK government officials. Originally from Germany, Winnie first came to the UK in 2006 to study a BA in Journalism & Russian at the University of Sheffield. She is bilingual in English and German, and, after spending an academic year abroad in Russia and reporting for the Moscow Times, Winnie also speaks Russian fluently.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *