Medical imaging & radiation therapy
Four professions, one regulator — and plenty to understand before you make the move.
Where you fit
New Zealand trains a fraction of the imaging and radiation workforce it needs, so internationally qualified clinicians are not a stopgap here — they are how services run. That shows up in how registration is handled and how quickly a good application moves.
All four professions register with the same board, which makes this the most predictable family to move into — and they spend their working lives inside the same patient pathway, which is where this page goes next.
- SonographersGeneral, obstetric and cardiac scanning, with reporting scopes open to experienced clinicians.
- RadiographersPlain film, CT and theatre work across the public system and private practice.
- Radiation therapistsPlanning and delivering treatment in the national network of cancer centres.
- Nuclear medicine technologistsSPECT/CT and PET/CT at the centre of the scope, and one CT boundary worth reading.
Where your work sits in someone’s diagnosis
Imaging is almost never the destination. It is the step where another specialty’s uncertainty turns into a decision — which is why an imaging department is the busiest crossroads in most hospitals, and why the professions in it work to somebody else’s clock as well as their own.
Most of the family is invisible in that sentence. One examination can involve a radiographer or sonographer, a radiologist, a medical physicist, a nurse, the person who booked it and the clinician who acts on it. The patient meets perhaps two of them.
The question
A GP, surgeon, oncologist or emergency consultant has a question they cannot answer by looking.
Referring teams · booking and administrationThe examination
Positioning, protocol, dose and image quality — and often the first person to see that something is wrong.
Radiographers · sonographers · nuclear medicine technologists · nursingThe report
Images become an opinion, with the responsibility that carries. Increasingly written remotely, and out of hours.
Radiologists · reporting sonographers · nuclear medicine physiciansThe decision
The multidisciplinary meeting, the clinic, the theatre list. Your work is now somebody’s treatment plan.
Referring teams · MDT · surgery · oncologyThe treatment
In radiation therapy the imaging is the treatment — planning, verification and delivery, over weeks rather than minutes.
Radiation therapists · medical physicists · radiation oncologistsNobody orders a scan for the scan.
Your modality shapes your week more than your job title does. A New Zealand radiographer’s core scope covers plain film, CT, mammography and theatre work — one registration, but very different working days. MRI is the exception: it is a separate scope of practice, added to your registration rather than included in it, though it sits under the same board. The same layering applies to general, obstetric and cardiac scanning within sonography.
So when a vacancy says “radiographer”, the useful questions are which rooms, which case mix, and what the after-hours commitment looks like — not whether you are eligible. Ask us and we will find out before you apply.
Source: Medical Radiation Technologists Board — add a scope of practice. Checked 17 September 2026.
What could your career look like here?
Six routes cover most of what an internationally trained clinician does here. Some you will recognise immediately; one or two work differently enough from other countries to be worth reading before you apply.
None of them has to be a career for life — people move between them, and the scope you hold is what decides how easily.
General diagnostic imaging
The widest door, and where most people start. In a public department that means plain film, fluoroscopy, ultrasound and cross-sectional work in the same week, with the emergency department and the theatre lists pulling on the same rooms; in community and private imaging it means booked outpatient lists, a lot of musculoskeletal work, and a steadier pace. The acute, unselected case mix is the part that is hardest to find anywhere else — and the part that takes the most adjusting to if you have worked in a single-modality role.
Often in the department: radiography · sonography · radiology · nursing · medical physics · assistants and administrationCT & MRI
Deeper work in one place rather than breadth across many, and the modalities employers ask about most often. Cross-sectional experience gained overseas usually transfers well, and smaller sites may expect you to cover both rather than specialise. Worth knowing that MRI is a separate scope of practice under the MRTB — added to your registration, not included in it — so check whether you hold it before applying for MRI roles.
Breast screening & mammography
Organised population screening is a defined, high-volume workflow with its own quality requirements — a different day from diagnostic work, and one that suits people who like rhythm and precision. It carries its own training expectations, so check what will be recognised before you plan around it.
Nuclear medicine & PET
SPECT/CT, PET/CT and therapeutic work, concentrated in fewer centres — so this route often comes with a decision about where you live. There is also one CT boundary in the registered scope worth reading before you apply.
Interventional & theatre
Image-guided procedures, angiography and hybrid theatre work, where imaging is part of the intervention rather than a step before it. Closer to the patient and to the surgical team, with on-call attached in most services.
Radiation therapy
Its own profession and its own route, not a corner of diagnostic imaging. Treatment is delivered from a national network of cancer centres rather than from every hospital, so the job comes with a location decision attached — and the work is planned, longitudinal and spent with the same patients over weeks.
Radiation therapy · medical physics · radiation oncology · nursingRural & regional
This one cuts across all six. Broader practice, more autonomy and often a closer-knit team — you are more likely to be the person on site than one of several. The trade-off can be distance, on-call requirements and fewer specialist services nearby, which are things worth knowing before choosing where to live.
Public hospital services
Acute and unselected case mix, the widest range of equipment, collective-agreement pay, an on-call commitment, and the whole multidisciplinary system around you.
Private, community & accident-funded
Booked lists, referred outpatients, different funding and often better equipment for a narrower range of work. Public or private is not the same job with a different employer — it changes your case mix, your hours, your autonomy and what a week feels like.
What applies across all four
The things that are the same whichever of these professions you hold.
Who regulates this work?
The Medical Radiation Technologists Board (MRTB) is the regulator for these professions, under the Health Practitioners Competence Assurance Act — one application process, with a defined scope of practice for each. Some modalities, MRI among them, are a separate scope of practice, added on top of your core registration rather than included in it.
Registration is the first gate, and it runs on its own timeline. How registration works in New Zealand · Check your pathway
What does the pay look like?
Public-system pay is set by collective agreement, so your base salary comes from a national scale and not from a negotiation with the hospital. Your step on that scale, your hours and your on-call commitment are what vary. Private and ACC-funded work sits outside that and varies.
Indicative bands sit on each profession’s own guide above. Pay in New Zealand · The agreements, verified
Which visa would I need?
Most clinicians move on a work visa tied to an accredited employer. Medical imaging technologists, MRI technologists, sonographers, radiation therapists and nuclear medicine technologists all sit in Tier 1 of the Green List — Straight to Residence — which changes the route considerably. Checked against Immigration New Zealand’s Green List (Appendix 13, in force from 9 March 2026); the list changes, so confirm it against your own occupation before you plan around it.
The visa can usually run alongside registration. Visas and residence
What about the rest of the move?
Schools, housing, healthcare, banking, shipping and the first few weeks each have their own guide.
Current opportunities
The roles we are recruiting for now.
Not sure which of these fits you?
The checker asks what you hold and where you trained, then shows the route it points to — before you spend money on anything. If you would rather talk it through, we are here.