Principal Quality Engineer

Southern Cross is guided by purpose, powered by people and technology. We exist to help our members live well for longer.

We serve almost one million members across Aotearoa New Zealand – which means the work we do carries real scale, real responsibility, and a genuine opportunity to improve health outcomes for our nation.

As we grow to be about assurance as well as insurance – a more proactive partner in our members’ health – the technology behind that shift matters more than ever. Our Digital Platforms teams are organised into Value Streams, with squads delivering the systems our members and partners rely on every day.

This role leads quality engineering across one of those Value Streams, helping squads ship fast, safe and maintainable software, and growing quality capability across the teams.

About the role

You’ll work closely with the Value Stream Principal Engineer to set the quality strategy for the squads in your Value Stream. The focus is on building quality in from the start rather than checking for it at the end – getting the test pyramid right, surfacing risk at refinement rather than at release, and making test data, environments and quality gates easy for squads to use.

A big part of the role is people. You’ll coach engineers at every level, lead the Quality Engineering Community of Practice, and be someone squads come to for input on significant technical decisions.

You’ll need to be as comfortable in the detail of a pipeline or a code review as you are explaining quality risks and trade-offs to stakeholders.

What you’ll do

Set and evolve the Value Stream quality strategy with the Engineering Practice, architecture peers and the wider engineering community

Partner with the Head of Technology, Principal Engineer and Technology Leads so quality, reliability and delivery outcomes are considered together

Coach Software Engineers and Quality Engineers through code review, pairing, structured feedback and Capability Framework conversations

Lead the Quality Engineering Community of Practice as the main venue for sharing patterns and evolving standards

Work with Platform and Architecture so golden paths cover test data, environments and pipeline quality gates

Facilitate cross-squad technical decisions where quality or testing standards are in question, using data to find a way forward

Review significant quality engineering investments and the criteria behind them

Investigate significant production incidents alongside squads, and feed learnings back into standards and capability

Translate product priorities into quality decisions, and engineering realities back into stakeholder language

What you’ll bring

We’re looking for someone who has lifted engineering practice across multiple teams and can influence without relying on formal authority.

A proven track record uplifting engineering practices across multiple squads

Strong coding skills across multiple languages

Deep grounding in CI/CD, cloud-native architectures and secure coding, with a data-driven approach using DORA metrics

Expertise in test pyramid optimisation and automation across all layers, particularly in distributed systems

Experience with observability, SLI/SLO design and improving MTTR

Strong knowledge of risk-based testing, quality gate design, test data management, performance testing, and accessibility and compliance automation

Experience running Communities of Practice and coaching senior engineers

* A collaborative approach to working across Architecture, Platform, Security and Product

Why join us

We're investing – in people, in technology, and in the mission. At a time when the market is hesitant, we're continuing to invest in strengthening our foundations and building our capabilities.

You’ll work closely with the Value Stream Principal Engineer, Head of Technology and Technology Leads, with real ownership over how quality engineering is practised across the Value Stream.

We're building something worth joining. Our teams are growing, our employer brand is gaining real traction in market, and the way we show up for our members and each other is being noticed. This momentum has also been reflected externally – in 2026, Southern Cross placed 8th in the Kantar Corporate Reputation Index and 5th in New Zealand for Trust.

Who we are

Ngākau nui. Āhurutanga. Tikanga.

Join a proud, diverse team that's always there, always real, always true. If you thrive in a caring, honest and open culture, we think you'll love working with us.

We know our team's culture and wellbeing drive us forward. That's why we prioritise not only professional development but opportunities to thrive personally. We offer exceptional work/life balance, and our people are encouraged – and rewarded – for living well.

Southern Cross employee benefits include

Five days of wellbeing leave per year

Health insurance for you and your immediate whānau

Life insurance cover and discounts on pet and travel insurance

Extra parental leave benefits and financial wellbeing support

Participation in our workplace wellbeing programme

The option to purchase flexi leave for study, volunteering, or supporting your whānau

* An annual volunteer day to contribute to a cause with your team

This role is Auckland based. While we appreciate interest from candidates in other locations, we're not able to consider remote options at this stage. If this sounds like the kind of work you want to help shape, we'd love to hear from you. Have questions? Check out our FAQs for help with the application and recruitment process.