[1] He was appointed head coach of New Zealand on 20 July 2012, taking over from John Wright in August for their tour of India, and later extensions to his contract would have taken him through to the end of the 2019 Cricket World Cup, but Hesson announced his resignation on 7 June 2018, ending his tenure as one of the most successful coaches in the history of the national side.

In the 2015 Queen's Birthday Honours Hesson and McCullum were appointed Officers of the New Zealand Order of Merit for services to cricket.

[10] In the 2017/2018 New Zealand summer the BlackCaps were inundated with plaudits as they achieved a New Zealand-record 13-match winning streak in completed games across all formats.

Hesson also served as the head coach of IPL franchise Kings XI Punjab before stepping down on 8 August 2019.

Recently Hesson has been appointed as the Head Coach[14] of a PSL (Pakistan Super League) franchise Islamabad United.