Data Product Owner

Data Product Owner Opportunity

Help NZTA's data product journey and shape the shift to a data product-centric agency.

Deliver trusted, reusable data products and demonstrate their value across NZTA.

Bring people on the journey and establish product ownership, adoption and continuous improvement.

The opportunity

As Data Product Owner, you'll help begin NZ Transport Agency | Waka Kotahi (NZTA)'s data product journey and support our transition from project-led data delivery to a data product-centric agency. This is an opportunity to establish the foundations, not simply manage an existing portfolio.

Working within the Chief Technology Office's Data and AI function, you'll partner with business groups and specialist teams to identify data product opportunities, define clear ownership and roadmaps, and deliver trusted, reusable data products.

You'll own the vision, value and lifecycle of assigned data products while helping embed ways of working that support NZTA's regulatory, operational, customer and organisational outcomes.

You will:

• Identify and prioritise initial data product opportunities with business groups, defining clear user needs, ownership, outcomes and roadmaps.
• Establish and own product backlogs, balancing immediate project needs with reusable enterprise value and making practical trade-offs across risk, cost and dependencies.
• Work with delivery teams to take data products from discovery through to release, demonstrating value and establishing repeatable delivery practices.
• Partner with governance, architecture and platform teams to build quality, security, privacy and stewardship into data products from the outset.
• Build understanding of data products across NZTA, helping stakeholders adopt product-centric ways of working and discover, trust and reuse products.
• Measure early value and adoption, use feedback to improve assigned products, and apply lessons to strengthen lifecycle management as the approach grows.

About you

You'll bring a product mindset, a practical approach to change and the confidence to build something new. You'll be comfortable working where processes and ownership are still evolving, creating clarity and turning ambition into achievable first steps.

You'll combine hands-on product delivery with the ability to bring stakeholders on the journey, influence without direct people-management authority and help shift thinking from one-off project outputs to trusted data products with ongoing ownership and value.

You will bring:

• Experience establishing or evolving products, services or data capabilities in a complex organisation, ideally introducing product-centric ways of working.
• The ability to uncover business and user needs, identify practical starting points and balance immediate requirements with long-term enterprise reuse.
• A track record of turning ideas into roadmaps, prioritised backlogs and working products, managing dependencies and demonstrating early value.
• A practical understanding of data governance, quality, privacy, security and stewardship, and how to manage risks throughout the product lifecycle.
• Strong relationship-building and influencing skills, with the ability to create shared understanding, navigate uncertainty and build commitment to new ways of working.
• Experience bringing users on a change journey, addressing adoption barriers and using engagement, communications, guidance and training to embed new products.
• A pragmatic, outcome-focused approach: start small, measure value and usage, learn from feedback and build sustainable practices that can scale.

What you will get in return

At NZTA, you'll have the opportunity to help shape our data product journey from the outset, delivering data products and establishing foundations that support better decisions, services and transport outcomes.

In addition, you'll benefit from:

• A competitive salary and benefits package
• Flexible working arrangements
• Opportunities to work with modern cloud, analytics and AI technologies
• A collaborative, inclusive and purpose-driven environment
• Professional development and career growth opportunities
• Five weeks annual leave
• Income Protection and Critical Illness Insurance for permanent employees