Senior Advisor, Strategic Finance

You will be part of a forward-thinking team that is moving away from traditional project management approaches, focusing instead on enterprise-level prioritisation, long-term value creation, and robust governance. With flexible working arrangements and a supportive environment that values your expertise, this is an ideal step for someone looking to move from operational project work into true strategic influence.

Focus on providing clear insights, scenario analysis, and strategic recommendations that guide major decisions across many investments.

What You'll Do:

• Work closely with the Finance & Investment Committee, Executive Leadership Team, Branch Investment Boards, and senior leaders across the organisation to deliver high-quality strategic advice on enterprise investment decisions.

• Assess and interpret the collective impact of current investments to ensure they remain aligned with organisational priorities and wider government objectives.

• Constructively challenge proposals and reasoning from different branches, providing evidence-based critique and calling out unrealistic assumptions or misalignment where needed.

• Influence the development of the organisation’s 10-year investment plan by advising on strategic alignment, organisational capability, capacity limitations, and funding considerations.

• Strengthen governance processes by preparing well-structured papers, presenting options, offering recommendations, and delivering scenario-based insights to key decision-makers.

• Evaluate business cases submitted by branches—focusing on their quality, strategic relevance, risk profile, and value proposition—rather than authoring the cases yourself.

• Provide governance groups with robust advice on complex investment portfolios by balancing competing priorities and recommending which initiatives should be prioritised based on evidence and strategic benefit.

• Build productive working relationships and engage confidently with Tier 2 and Tier 3 executives across the organisation.

What You'll Bring:

To excel as a Senior Advisor Strategic Finance you will bring significant experience working at the intersection of strategy, finance, and organisational planning—ideally within large-scale public sector or corporate environments.

• Demonstrated success in influencing senior leaders within large organisations or government environments through clear communication and well-evidenced advice.

• Proven capability in reviewing and interpreting complex investment or project portfolios, assessing their combined effect on organisational strategy and resource deployment.

• Experience across portfolio advisory, strategic business partnering, investment planning, finance leadership, and broader strategy development.

• Strong analytical skills, enabling you to balance competing priorities and present evidence-based recommendations that support optimal decision-making.

• Experienced in preparing high-quality governance papers and board reporting that translate complex information into practical options for leaders at all levels.

• A history of providing guidance on long-range planning, including multi-year investment strategies and organisational capability development programmes.

• Confident engaging with Tier 2 and Tier 3 executives and collaborating with cross-functional teams to build alignment and shared ownership of organisational goals.

Please contact Luke Gilbert on luke.gilbert@robertwalters.co.nz or 021 084 85188 for a confidential discussion.