Data Scientist

Type:Permanent
Hours:Full time
Location:Wellington
Business Group:Engagement Data and Innovation
Branch:Taituarā / Regulatory and Identity Services
Salary:$109697 - $136512

Wellington-based Permanent Deliver practical AI solutions and predictive insights

Were looking for a delivery-driven hands-on Data Scientist whos passionate about applying AI and advanced analytics to solve real business problems. Youll collaborate with our data engineers analysts / dashboard developers and fellow data scientists to turn ideas into insights designing building and deploying data science solutions that make a measurable impact across passports citizenship and identity services within the Taituarā / Regulatory and Identity Services branch at the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA).

From 1 December 2025 the Business Intelligence & Insights (BI&I) team becomes a part of the Engagement Data and Innovation Group as Business Insights reflecting a stronger focus on modern data platforms digital innovation and using data and analytics to better understand our business inform decisions and drive continuous improvement across our services.

Mō te tīma About our Teams

The Engagement Data and Innovation group leads the development of new products services and operational policies to enhance the delivery of services in line with Branch priorities. The groupprovides a range of services to the Regulatory and Identity Services branch including operational policy market service product strategy and innovation design and content and data analytics.

The Business Insights team is one of the branchs main data analytics teamsmade up of data engineers data analysts / dashboard developers and data scientists who work together across the full data lifecycle from data sourcing and modelling to advanced analytics and insight delivery. We focus on the delivery of data marts business intelligence (BI) products statistical modelling and data analysis that creates valuable insights to influence operational and policy decision-making.

He angitūtangaAbout the Role

Reporting to the Manager Business Insights this is an exciting opportunity for an experienced Data Scientist to lead and deliver large-scale advanced analytics projects. Youll play a key role in applying best practices developing data products that support decision-making and promoting a data-driven culture that enhances the essential services we deliver for Aotearoa.

This role is ideal for a Data Scientist seeking meaningful work and new challenges within a modern data environment contributing to initiatives that make a real impact for New Zealanders.

• Design build and deploy predictive machine learning and advanced AI models to solve operational and strategic challenges including time-series forecasting models (daily/weekly/monthly) model monitoring and drift detection.
• Develop and deliver end-to-end AI use cases from scoping and prototyping to production and implement model lifecycle practices: versioning performance monitoring re-training.
• Work with data engineers to prepare and use high-quality data from our new Microsoft Fabric platform.
• Partner with business teams to understand problems and translate them into practical data science solutions.
• Communicate insights clearly and effectively to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Contribute to the development of responsible AI MLOps and model governance within the branch.
• Experiment with emerging tools techniques and generative AI capabilities to unlock new value from data.

Mōu About you

Were looking for someone who is passionate about data science communicates effectively builds strong relationships and brings a customer-focused mindset. Youll thrive in a collaborative fast-paced environment where curiosity adaptability and teamwork are key to delivering impact:

• 24 years experience applying data science or AI to solve business or service delivery problems.
• Strong programming skills in Python or R with practical experience in model development and evaluation.
• Familiarity with modern cloud data platforms such as Microsoft Fabric Snowflake or Databricks.
• Proven ability to deliver results from data wrangling and feature engineering through to model lifecycle management: versioning model retraining performance tracking data drift monitoring.
• Great communication skills and a collaborative mindset you work well with others to make complex data useful and actionable.
• Curiosity initiative and a delivery-focused mindset you enjoy turning ideas into working solutions.

Nice to have

• Experience with MLOps prompt engineering or integrating AI models into production workflows.
• Experience with time-series forecasting libraries (e.g. Prophet ARIMA ETS) scheduling/optimisation libraries or workforce planning analytics.
• Experience working with operational (event/transactional) data processing times and linking operational metrics with forecasting.
• Familiarity with Power BI data storytelling or advanced data visualisation.
• Understanding of ethical AI data governance and privacy principles in the public sector.

Well be reviewing applications as they come in and may progress with interviews before the closing date. If this role sounds like you we encourage you to apply early.

Applications close:5pmFriday 12 December 2025
For more information please contact:Hien Nguyen (@)
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