Search results

SORT BY
Filters
News & Media
Publications
Skip to main content
our work hero

Our work

Ā mātou mahi

Working at the Guardians

Our work is dynamic, innovative and intellectually stimulating. We earn trust and confidence through our world-class team, best practice approach and longterm performance.

Portfolio Completion

Portfolio Completion
Te Whakaotinga o te Huinga

Portfolio Investments
Ngā Haumitanga o te Huinga

We look to leverage the NZ Super Fund's sovereign status and strong implied credit rating, together with the fact that it is a long-term fund with a known liquidity profile, to gain access to different kinds of funding opportunities. The Portfolio Investments team, responsible for executing these opportunities, runs a number of active mandates: active collateral, direct arbitrage, opportunistic volatility and dividend derivative futures.

Portfolio Completion
Te Whakaotinga o te Huinga

Established in 2009, the Portfolio Completion (Treasury) team has expanded rapidly to become a key driver of value at the Guardians. The team works to achieve efficiencies in the management of our passive exposures. In recent years the team’s activities have expanded beyond traditional treasury management, looking to add value using a range of investment strategies.

See our current vacancies

Technology

Technology
Te Hangarau

Data Technology
Te Hangarau Raraunga

Empowering the Guardians to make the best decisions based on reliable information, the Data Technology team is responsible for our investment-related data and technology services. We deliver the tools and data required to ensure that our investment-related data can be trusted, understood and traced, while creating and maintaining high quality decision support tools.

Technology Services

Our investment activity depends on robust, high quality IT platform.  Our Technology Services Team oversees all the systems, infrastructure and data in place at the Guardians.  All systems are now working in a cloud environment and we have a “Cloud first” policy.  This ensures that we have the infrastructure in place to provide the scale, security and business continuity solution to deliver the capabilities required for our investment activity.

Business Solutions Group

The Business Solutions Group (BSG) is responsible for partnering with the business to understand and prioritise the business problems that can be solved by technology. We collaborate closely with the business to define and deliver the initiatives that support our business and strategic goals. We also manage a network of external professional relationships to supplement our delivery practices. We are experts in project and programme management, business analysis, change management and relationship management.

Information Security Team

The Information Security team is responsible for the design, implementation and maintenance of an information security program that protects the confidentiality, integrity and availability of Guardians' technology and information assets. Our Information Security team is committed to engaging both the internal business stakeholders and, the wider security community to establish an appropriate information security governance structure that encourages and enables collaboration and support for new initiatives.

See our current vacancies

Investments

Investments
Ngā Haumitanga

Direct Investments
Ngā Haumitanga Torokaka

The Direct Investments team leads the origination, review and execution of our direct investment opportunities, as well as the management and governance of these investments post-completion. We are also responsible for managing our New Zealand active equities portfolio.

Asset Allocation
Te Tiringa o ngā Rawa

The Asset Allocation team at the Guardians is the unifying force behind our investment decision-making; providing robust investment risk measurement and management. The team supports the NZ Super Fund’s Reference Portfolio, as well as the risk capital allocation (risk budgeting) across the active investment strategies that make up its Actual Portfolio.  The team includes the Economics, Data Analytics and Portfolio Design functions.

External Investments and Partnerships
Ngā Haumitanga o Waho me ngā Pātuitanga

A significant portion of the NZ Super Fund, and all of the Elevate Fund, is invested by external fund managers on our behalf. The EIP team works with investment and asset managers around the world, representing a wide variety of investments, listed and unlisted. Selecting these managers and monitoring their performance is a key part of the team’s work. The EIP team is also responsible for coordinating our relationships with global peers.

Sustainable Investment
Te Haepapa o te Haumitanga

The Guardians has a long-standing commitment to Responsible Investment. We believe that environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations, including climate change, are fundamental to long term risk and return. Our governing legislation also requires us to avoid prejudice to New Zealand’s reputation in the world community. Therefore, ESG considerations are integrated into all aspects of the Guardians' investment activities, from investment selection and due diligence to ownership activities such as monitoring our external investment managers, exercising our voting rights and engaging with companies to improve their ESG policies and practices. The Responsible Investment team is also charged with supporting and upskilling the investments team to ensure they are equipped with the knowledge and expertise necessary to make meaningful decisions around ESG issues.

Strategic Tilting
Ngā Rautaki Honga

The Strategic Tilting team is primarily responsible for managing and executing the New Zealand Superannuation Fund’s active, internally-managed strategic tilting strategy. This strategy reflects the Fund’s endowments and investment belief, and alters the Fund’s exposure to broad markets and currencies (such as global equities, rates, commodities and credit). It is a long-horizon, value-based strategy with a very disciplined and systematic investment approach.

Data Analytics

The Data Analytics (DA) team works directly with and supports investment data users across the organisation, ensuring that solutions are business led, meet the needs of users and are aligned with enterprise technology and agreed standards. The function helps bring together data consumers, data technology and services teams and IT. The DA team develop analytical solutions that support investment excellence, create efficiencies, and mitigate risk.

See our current vacancies

Human Resources

Human Resources
Te Puna Tāngata

Human Resources
Te Puna Tāngata

People sit at the heart of everything we do at the Guardians. The Human Resources team designs strategies and practices to attract, retain, develop, and motivate our diverse and talented workforce. Underpinning all of this, the HR team places a strong emphasis on enabling a constructive values-driven culture, and a flexible, inclusive environment in which all team members can thrive. Human Resources has three teams:

  • HR Operations
  • Talent
  • Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

 

See our current vacancies

Strategy and Shared Services

Strategy and Shared Services
Ngā Whakahaere ā-Pūtea, ā-Haumitanga hoki

Finance
Te Pūtea

The Finance team is responsible for all aspects of accounting, budgeting and financial reporting at the Guardians, working closely with a broad range of other areas and levels of the organisation. The team also co-ordinates funding, de-funding and valuation of the NZ Super Fund’s unlisted investments and plays a central role in the design and maintenance of our control environment. The facilities management and reception roles also fall within the Finance team.

Tax
Te Tāke

The Tax team is committed to best practice, openness and transparency. The Guardians' two mandates are subject to tax on their respective worldwide income. The New Zealand Superannuation Fund is one of the largest taxpayers in New Zealand. Investing both mandates in a tax efficient manner is an important consideration for our Tax team which is also responsible for the management of our tax obligations.

Investment Operations
Ngā Whakahaere ā-Haumitanga

The Investment Operations team provides trade lifecycle support for all of our internal investment activity as well as the controls and oversight required for the effective administration of the Fund's externally managed mandates. The team is also responsible for the management of our key service provider relationships, including our global custodian.

Strategic Development
Te Rautaki

The Strategy team sets our strategic agenda, working across teams to envisage where we want to be in the medium and longer-term to achieve our mission and vision, and how we plan to get there (our shorter-term priorities). The team also leads innovation and knowledge management projects, and delivers special projects as required, including project managing global benchmarking initiatives and external reviews of the Guardians.

See our current vacancies

Corporate Affairs

Corporate Affairs
Te Rautaki ā-Rangatōpū

Legal
Te Ture

A key partner to the rest of the organisation, the Legal team provides legal direction in the context of a deep understanding of the Guardians and Fund, its risk appetite, and its objectives. The team’s work is broad, cross-border and complex, advising on all legal matters impacting our operations; keeping ahead of the global regulatory landscape and how that impacts the mandates we manage and preparing, reviewing and negotiating all contracts and legal documents on our behalf.

Communications
Te Pāhekoheko

We understand the importance of a strong reputation and healthy stakeholder relationships to achieving our investment and organisational objectives. Our Communications team has a key role in ensuring we maintain the trust and confidence of our stakeholders through a commitment to transparent, timely and accurate communication. We also have a strong focus on internal communication.

See our current vacancies

Risk

Risk
Te Tūraru

Risk
Te Tūraru

Risk is an integral part of how we operate at the Guardians. We take investment risk in order to achieve our mission, while also managing other complex non-investment risks. Our Risk team measures and monitors the portfolio, enterprise and compliance risk areas of the organisation to improve decision making through independent review.

Data Services
Ngā Ratonga Raraunga

The Data Services team’s primary purpose is to ensure that Guardians team members have confidence and trust in its investment data and investment reporting. The function supports the business to achieve its strategic data objectives by helping shape the data standards, principles, and data production process support required, to in turn enable efficient and effective investment decision making and risk management. This function also plays a crucial role in managing the Guardians’ relationships with its data partners and providers, as well as internal data consumers ensuring that they are supported in obtaining the data they require, with the right quality controls and performance measures.

See our current vacancies

Internal Audit

Internal Audit
Te Tātari ā-Roto

Internal Audit
Te Tātari ā-Roto

The Internal Audit function is an independent objective assurance and advisory activity. Our team works closely with the Board and Leadership Team to help the Guardians achieve its objectives by evaluating and improving the effectiveness of our governance, risk management and internal control processes across all areas of the business.

See our current vacancies

What our people say

Sarah Court

Head of Business Solutions Group

Joe Halapua

Manager, NZ Equities

Megan Hastings

Manager, Enterprise Risk

You might like to check out