AI Engineer

AI Engineers are primarily responsible for the implementation of AI models and algorithms. Working under the guidance of more experienced professionals they contribute to the design, testing, and deployment of AI solutions. NOTE: This is a new role to APS Career Pathfinder and we are still consulting on the skills requirement. Services Australia is seeking to procure AI Engineer / Developer (APS6 equivalent) with demonstratable experience with AI on-premise platforms to play a pivotal role in delivering complex application development projects on platforms across the Technology and Digital Program (TDP) Group that align with the agency’s strategic objectives. The position requires a seasoned professional with extensive experience and expertise in AI Engineering capabilities, including AI workload migrations, deployment and operations. As an AI Engineer / Developer (APS6 equivalent), you will specialise in on-premises cloud-native tooling, with the capability to design, implement, and optimise environments from new (greenfield) implementations as well as enhance existing setups (brownfield).  This role is focused on applying secure-by-design architectures, incorporating reusable patterns and Infrastructure as Code (IaC) to deliver scalable, compliant solutions in line with APS frameworks and regulations. You will collaborate with Data Scientists, Architecture, Cyber Security, and Core data teams in the group to establish foundational platform capability and frameworks, enforce governance, and apply best practices across networking and resource management in your primary platform The AI Engineer / Developer (APS6 equivalent) is expected to operate with a significant degree of independence with a high level of autonomy, while also maintaining close working relationships with key stakeholders and strict adherence to agency processes and procedures. In performing the role, the candidate will be required to identify and drive innovation, manage and lead change, and has an active role in contributing to and implementing the agency’s strategic direction with decision-making and advice to others highly dependent on their own judgement. The AI Engineer / Developer (APS6 equivalent) is vital in ensuring that Services Australia effectively leverages technology to enhance service delivery and meet the needs of the government, the Agency and the community. The AI Engineer / Developer (APS6 equivalent) develops, describes and influences technology outcomes and supports program and project deliverables. Excellent problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills in a collaborative environment. Key duties and responsibilities Duties may include some or all of the following: create software and technical designs for the realisation of complex development solutions develop high-quality code and long-term maintenance of a product's code base provide technical advice on software development and maintenance provide go-live support and maintenance for complex developments perform a range of analysis, design, software development, prototyping, unit testing and maintenance activities  undertake analysis of technical requirements to support project evaluation with proposed solutions ensure compliance with endorsed software development methodologies identify, investigate, and resolve complex ICT issues assess, communicate, monitor, and control risk develop team plans and goals prepare draft reports and corporate documentation manage and prioritise own and others' workloads to meet business objectives in specified timeframes develop and deliver on projects within the assigned area of responsibility perform cost analysis activities as required act with integrity by promoting workplace practices aligned with the APS Values and the APS Code of Conduct. exercise appropriate delegation in accordance with legislations and guidelines Technical skills 5+ years of hands-on experience as an AI Engineer, including solution design, implementation and operation of greenfield and brownfield AI/ML environments across on-premises, public cloud and hybrid platforms. Experience in Kubernetes, OpenShift and OpenShift AI, including namespaces, RBAC, operators, CRDs, deployments, services, ingress/routes, secrets, config maps, workbenches, custom images, AI Pipelines/Kubeflow, model registry, model catalogue, model serving, distributed workloads and monitoring. Experience in containers and platform engineering, including Docker/Podman, container image creation, registries, image scanning, vulnerability management, container security and secure software supply chain practices. Experience in Linux administration, networking and storage, including DNS, TLS, proxies, load balancing, ingress, firewall concepts, certificates, scripting and connectivity between on-premises and cloud environments. Experience in DevOps, CI/CD and Infrastructure as Code, including Git, GitLab/GitHub/Azure DevOps, Tekton, GitOps/Argo CD, Terraform and/or Ansible, and automated build, test and deployment pipelines. Experience in Python and scripting for automation, AI/ML integration, APIs, platform tooling and operational support. Experience in AI/ML engineering and MLOps, including model lifecycle management, training, inference, evaluation, registration, deployment, monitoring, model optimisation and automated model build-and-release processes. Experience in LLM and Generative AI tooling, including vLLM/TGI or equivalent, Hugging Face, LLM APIs, embeddings, Retrieval-Augmented Generation, vector databases, prompt/evaluation tooling, AI agents and foundation models. Experience in GPU engineering, including NVIDIA GPUs, CUDA fundamentals, GPU scheduling and resource allocation, GPU utilisation and troubleshooting. Experience in APIs and enterprise integration, including REST APIs, authentication, OAuth/OIDC, API gateways, service-to-service integration, streaming platforms, data lakes and feature stores. Experience in object storage and data management, including S3-compatible storage for OpenShift AI pipelines, models and datasets. Experience in observability and operational monitoring, including Prometheus/Grafana, logs, metrics, tracing and model/application monitoring. Experience in security, governance and compliance, including RBAC, secrets, certificates, network policies, vulnerability scanning, DevSecOps, data sovereignty, security classifications, privacy obligations and Australian Government regulatory requirements. Proven ability to articulate complex technical concepts clearly, facilitate stakeholder discussions and drive consensus on alignment with project and organisational goals. Criteria The buyer has specified that each candidate must provide a one page pitch to address all criteria specified. This is equal to 5000 characters. Essential criteria 1. AI and Machine Learning Engineering — SFIA MLNG Level 4: Works independently on defined AI/ML engineering activities, selecting appropriate techniques and applying established organisational standards and practices. 2. AI Platform and Systems Integration — SFIA SINT Level 4: Integrates systems and services using established patterns and technologies and resolves integration problems within a defined technical environment. 3. Data Engineering — SFIA DENG Level 4: Designs and develops data processing components and pipelines and applies established data engineering practices to defined business requirements. 4. Information Security — SFIA SCTY Level 3: Applies established security practices and organisational controls to development and operational activities. 5. Programming/software development SFIA PROG Level 5: Develops software from specifications and contributes to technical design, implementation, testing and maintenance of software components. 6. Deployment of software – SFIA DEPL Level 4: Plans and executes deployments of complex software releases, manages continuous deployment using automation tools, optimises deployment process for efficiency and performance. Software lifecycle engineering – SFIA SLEN Level 4: Elicits requirements for systems and software lifecycle working practices and automation, designs options for the working environment of methods, procedures, techniques and people and selects systems and software lifecycle working practices for software components and microservices. Deploys automation to achieved well-engineered, secure outcomes. Desirable criteria 1. Specialist advice SFIA TECH Level 4: Provides detailed and specific advice to support the organisation's planning and operations, typically related to the immediate area of responsibility, recognises boundaries of specialist knowledge and appropriately collaborates with other specialists to ensure advice given is professionally sound. 2. Systems design SFIA DESN Level 4: Designs system components using appropriate modelling techniques following agreed architectures, design standards, patterns and methodology, evaluates alternative design options and trade-offs, models / prototypes behaviour of proposed system components to enable approvals by stakeholders and verifies and improves own design against specifications. 3. Data Analytics SFIA DAAN Level 4: Conducts end-to-end data analysis, defining data requirements and ensuring data integrity, applies advanced analytical and statistical techniques to extract meaningful insights and develop predictive models, communicates complex findings to stakeholders and contributes to data analytics processes and standards. Opportunity summary Sellers can submit Up to 3 candidates Number of sellers invited More than 10 Number of candidates submitted Fewer than 10 Send us feedback About Accessibility Privacy Terms of use Disclaimer and copyright An initiative of the Digital Transformation Agency The Australian Government acknowledges the Traditional Owners of Country throughout Australia and acknowledges their continuing connection to land, waters and community. We pay our respects to the people, the cultures and the Elders past and present. © Commonwealth of Australia