Senior AI Engineer Software Engineer (Developer)

Software Engineers have experience overseeing software development projects, writing optimised code, and provide technical leadership to a team of software engineers. They are responsible for the quality and functionality of the software produced by their team. Services Australia is seeking to procure AI Engineers (experts) 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, you will specialise in either on-premise cloud-native or public cloud platform 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 building 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 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 is vital in ensuring that Services Australia effectively leverages technology to enhance service delivery and meet the needs of the community Develop, describe present and influence outcomes and/or findings across various forums. Excellent problem-solving, communication, and leadership skills in a collaborative environment. Key duties and responsibilities Resolve very complex, sensitive and/or escalated technical issues. Proven ability to articulate complex technical concepts clearly, facilitate stakeholder discussions and drive consensus on alignment with project and organisational goals. 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. Linux administration, networking and storage, including DNS, TLS, proxies, load balancing, ingress, firewall concepts, certificates, scripting and connectivity between on-premise and cloud environments. 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. Python and scripting for automation, AI/ML integration, APIs, platform tooling and operational support. AI/ML engineering and MLOps, including model lifecycle management, training, inference, evaluation, registration, deployment, monitoring, model optimisation and automated model build-and-release processes. 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. GPU engineering, including NVIDIA GPUs, CUDA fundamentals, GPU scheduling and resource allocation, GPU utilisation and troubleshooting. APIs and enterprise integration, including REST APIs, authentication, OAuth/OIDC, API gateways, service-to-service integration, streaming platforms, data lakes and feature stores. cloud platforms and cloud AI services, including practical experience in at least one of AWS, or Azure, and preferably two, with exposure to SageMakero r Azure AI/ML. object storage and data management, including S3-compatible storage for OpenShift AI pipelines, models and datasets. observability and operational monitoring, including Prometheus/Grafana, logs, metrics, tracing and model/application monitoring. security, governance and compliance, including RBAC, secrets, certificates, network policies, vulnerability scanning, DevSecOps, data sovereignty, security classifications, privacy obligations and Australian Government regulatory requirements. applying FinOps practices, including cost transparency, usage optimisation and financial governance for cloud and AI workloads. applying architecture principles and enterprise technologies to translate complex technical requirements into scalable, sustainable and supportable solutions. Duties and responsibilities may include: Identify the appropriate end-to-end solution portfolio, considering all relevant ICT solutions and service offerings such as best practices. Identify solution gaps and develop gap closure options such as the inclusion of components from Independent Software Vendors or customer-specific development. Solution the end-to-end functional landscape and solution design to support desired business processes and business/ICT requirements of the customer, ensuring alignment. Design robust and reusable products and features to support the deployment of greenfield and brownfield platforms in either on-premise or public cloud. Design, build and maintain secure, scalable and highly available cloud infrastructure supporting Artificial Intelligence (AI), Machine Learning (ML) and Generative AI services. Lead the implementation, configuration and optimisation of enterprise AI solutions, ensuring performance, resilience and operational excellence. Provide technical guidance, documentation, and training to APS teams on best practices. Document, present and discuss the end-to-end solution options, recommendations and implications, facilitate and support the decision process. Identify cross-process and cross-solution integration points and lead the coordination across various software and service components of the end-to-end solution. Lead end-to-end solution analysis, design, integration, co-existence and migration. Ensure AI platforms/solutions comply with organisational security, governance and regulatory requirements through the application of DevSecOps and secure-by-design principles. Ensure work aligns with business processes and overall delivery outcomes. Act as single point of contact to orchestrate the various parties involved in large and complex projects/programs from a primarily architecture/technical perspective. Drive innovation, continuous improvement and manage and lead change. Proactively share knowledge and expertise as the subject matter expert. Oversee and prepare a range of solution documentation and reports. Collaborate with a broad range of internal and external stakeholders to achieve project outcomes. Knowledge/Qualifications Strong communication and negotiation skills. Professional presentation skills 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. Emerging technology monitoring: Level 5 (SFIA) Monitors the external environment to gather intelligence on emerging technologies. Assesses and documents the impacts, threats and opportunities to the organisation. Creates reports and technology roadmaps and shares knowledge and insights with others. 2. Methods and tools: Level 5 (SFIA) Provides advice, guidance and expertise to promote adoption of methods and tools and adherence to policies and standards. Evaluates and selects appropriate methods and tools in line with agreed policies and standards. Contributes to organisational policies, standards, and guidelines for methods and tools. Implements methods and tools at programme, project and team levels including selection and tailoring in line with agreed standards. Manages reviews of the benefits and value of methods and tools. Identifies and recommends improvements. 3. Programming/software development: Level 5 (SFIA) Takes technical responsibility across all stages and iterations of software development. Plans and drives software construction activities. Adopts and adapts appropriate software development methods, tools and techniques. Measures and monitors applications of project/team standards for software construction, including software security. Contributes to the development of organisational policies, standards, and guidelines for software development. 4. Release and deployment: Level 5 (SFIA) Leads the assessment, analysis, planning and design of release packages, including assessment of risk. Liaises with business and technology teams on release scheduling and communication of progress. Conducts post-release reviews. Ensures that release processes and procedures are applied and that releases can be rolled back as needed. Identifies, evaluates and manages the adoption of appropriate release and deployment techniques, processes and automation tools. 5. Software configuration: Level 5 (SFIA) Takes technical responsibility across all stages and iterations of configuration development and deployment. Plans and drives software configuration activities. Adopts and adapts appropriate software configuration methods, tools and techniques. Measures and monitors the application of standards for configuration design and deployment including software security. Contributes to the development of organisational policies, standards, and guidelines for software configuration design and deployment. 6. Software design: Level 4 (SFIA) Designs complex software applications, components and modules. Uses appropriate modelling techniques following agreed software design standards, guidelines, patterns and methodology. Creates and communicates multiple design views to balance stakeholders' concerns and to satisfy functional and non-functional requirements. Identifies, evaluates and recommends alternative design options and trade-offs. Models, simulates or prototypes the behaviour of proposed software to enable approval by stakeholders, and effective construction of the software. Verifies software design by constructing and applying appropriate methods. Reviews, verifies and improves own designs against specifications. Leads reviews of others designs. 7. Specialist advice: Level 4 (SFIA) Provides detailed and specific advice regarding the application of their specialism to the organisation's planning and operations. Actively maintains knowledge in one or more identifiable specialisms. Recognises and identifies the boundaries of their own specialist knowledge. Where appropriate, collaborates with other specialists to ensure advice given is appropriate to the organisation's needs. 8. Systems design: Level 5 (SFIA) Designs large or complex systems and undertakes impact analysis on major design options and trade-offs. Ensures that the system design balances functional and non-functional requirements. Reviews systems designs and ensures that appropriate methods, tools and techniques are applied effectively. Makes recommendations and assesses and manages associated risks. Adopts and adapts system design methods, tools and techniques. Contributes to development of system design policies, standards and selection of architecture components. 9. Systems integration and build: Level 5 (SFIA) Plans and drives activities to develop organisational systems integration and build capabilities including automation and continuous integration. Identifies, evaluates and manages the adoption of tools, techniques and processes to create a robust integration framework. Provides authoritative advice and guidance on any aspect of systems integration. Leads integration work in line with the agreed system and service design. Assesses risks and takes preventative action. Measures and monitors applications of standards. Contributes to the development of organisational policies, standards, and guidelines for systems integration. 10. Testing: Level 4 (SFIA) Selects appropriate testing approach, including manual and automated testing. Develops and executes test plans and test cases. Implements scalable and reliable automated tests and frameworks. Collaborates across parties involved in product, systems or service design and development to enable comprehensive test coverage. Identifies improvements in requirements, design or specification processes to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of testing. Analyses and reports on test activities, results, issues and risks, including the work of others. Desirable criteria 1. Configuration management: Level 2 (SFIA) Applies tools, techniques and processes to administer, track, log, report on and correct configuration items, components and changes. Assists with audits to check the accuracy of the information and undertakes any necessary corrective action under direction. 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