Three Specialist Risk Roles for NZ Super Fund

Location: Auckland, New Zealand

The company

The Guardians of New Zealand Superannuation (the Guardians) manages the NZ Super Fund - a NZ$85.1 billion (as at June 2025) portfolio intended to help future governments pay for superannuation. With a clear mission to invest today for the benefit of future generations, the Guardians is internationally recognised for its high performance and strong sense of purpose.

Blending public service values with the complexity of global investment, its teams work across investments, risk, data, technology, and sustainability - navigating a portfolio that is global in scope, structurally complex, and regulated across multiple jurisdictions.

This complexity creates distinctive challenges in talent acquisition, particularly in the Risk function.

The brief

In 2024 - 2025, the Risk team sought to appoint three specialist positions:

1. Senior Portfolio Risk Analyst
2. Senior Advisor, Enterprise Risk
3. Enterprise Risk & Assurance Advisor

The challenges

They’d already tried sourcing talent directly but had encountered obstacles - the right mix of skills was rare, and the job titles didn’t quite reflect the seniority or complexity of the roles. For example:

• The Senior Portfolio Risk Analyst required extensive expertise in active credit risk across structured and private credit, non-performing loans, CLOs, and regulatory capital. This position demanded 10+ years of experience and strong technical depth.
• The Senior Advisor, Enterprise Risk required both investment literacy and broad enterprise risk expertise, with the ability to navigate areas of ambiguity, reflecting the Fund’s engagement with new or novel investment approaches.
• The Enterprise Risk & Assurance Advisor role extended well beyond the typical scope of comparable positions, combining enterprise risk knowledge with rigorous assurance capability.

These requirements placed the roles in a niche market segment where highly experienced candidates are limited.

Our approach

Convergence has specialised in recruiting Risk professionals for over a decade. Lead consultant Jenny Parker brings more than 20 years of dedicated experience in this field, supported by strong professional networks and a track record of sourcing scarce talent. Jenny co-convenes a Risk Professionals Forum, regularly engages with industry events, and maintains close relationships with practitioners in both New Zealand and international markets.

Leveraging this network, together with Convergence’s in-house research capability, we employed a methodical, targeted search strategy:

1. Market mapping across New Zealand and key offshore jurisdictions.
2. Competency analysis aligned with the Fund’s requirements, focusing on both technical expertise and adaptability to complex, novel investment contexts.
3. Engagement and assessment of passive candidates, many of whom were not actively seeking opportunities but matched the Fund’s high standards.

A key part of our approach was storytelling. We knew how to speak the language of senior risk professionals and could clearly articulate the scale, complexity, and purpose behind the NZ Super Fund. By framing the Guardians’ mission and the strategic importance of these roles in a way that resonated, we were able to spark interest from top-tier candidates who might otherwise have overlooked the opportunity.

The outcome

Despite the complexity of the brief, the search delivered strong shortlists for all three roles, and Convergence successfully placed high calibre candidates in each. This outcome reflects the strength of a truly specialist approach - combining deep understanding of risk in investment management, access to networks beyond the active job market, and a research-led methodology tailored to niche roles.

Just as crucial was our ability to bring The Guardians’ story to life - translating their mission and opportunities into a compelling narrative that attracted top talent.