The new head of Work and Income has been recruited from overseas.
Janet Grossman is originally from the United States, but has been working in Britain for the past 10 years in the public and private sectors.
Most recently, she was a senior manager in an IT company and before then she was chief operating officer for the Pensions Service.
Ms Grossman takes over as head of Work and Income and deputy chief executive of the Ministry of Social Development from Patricia Reade, who left in August last year.