AI Developer – SPCC Online

St Philip’s Christian Education Foundation Ltd; Newcastle City Council; On-site; AUD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Job summary

St Philip’s Christian Education Central Office in Waratah, Newcastle, seeks an AI Developer to design and build bespoke AI tools and student-facing chat experiences for the SPCC Online School.

The role owns the full development lifecycle, leveraging Azure AI, Copilot Studio and Cogniti, with a strong emphasis on safeguarding and privacy in an educational context.

Qualifications

• Practical experience delivering AI-based solutions using Azure AI services.
• Experience designing, prompting and evaluating agents and retrieval-based solutions.
• APIs integration and secure data modelling expertise.
• Understanding safeguarding and privacy in educational tech.
• Right to work in Australia with WWCC eligibility.

Responsibilities

• Own the full development lifecycle from discovery to production release.
• Design, build and evaluate AI tools and student-facing tutors.
• Ensure safeguarding, privacy and responsible AI practices are implemented.
• Collaborate with teachers and leadership to translate pedagogy into software.
• Provide documentation, testing, and ongoing support for tools.

Skills

Azure AI platforms

Copilot Studio

Agent design & evaluation

APIs & data modelling

Secure by design

Education

Computer Science or Software Engineering degree

Tools

Cogniti

Azure DevOps

GitHub

Bitbucket

Power Platform

Job description

Location: St Philip's Christian Education Central Office- Waratah, Newcastle

Job Category: Information Technology

St Philip’s Christian College is a rapidly growing network of learning communitiescontinuing its journeyto deliver holistic Christian education that develops the whole child - emotionally, intellectually, socially, physically, and spiritually.

Our team thrives on fostering strong working relationships that continue to encourage innovative and effective change, benefiting both students and staff while staying true to the College’s core values:

• Serve one another
• Strive for excellence
• Do what is right
• Build community

For over four decades, we have been trusted leaders in education, pioneering new approaches and educational opportunities across the Newcastle, Hunter, and Central Coast regions. We invite you to join us as we continue to explore and create better ways to educate, grounded in Christian values for the whole of life.

Job Description

Rationale:

The AI Developer – SPCC Online is a software developer responsible for designing, building and improving bespoke artificial intelligence tools, agents and student-facing chat experiences for the SPCE Online School. The most significant of these are Socratic tutors: tools that develop a student's understanding by questioning, prompting and scaffolding rather than supplying answers. Solutions are built on whichever platform best fits the need, including Microsoft Azure AI, Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Studio, Cogniti, or other fit for purpose platforms, in preference to general purpose consumer tools. The AI Developer – SPCC Online l needs to be committed to the Christian ethos of the organisation as described in our Mission, Vision and Core Values statements.

Reporting to the Applications Manager, the incumbent is a member of the Applications Team and contributes to the efficient and effective operation of the Central Office ICT Services Team to deliver a quality customer focused, value creation service. The position owns the full development lifecycle for the tools it builds, from discovery and design through development, testing and release to monitoring and ongoing support, and is expected to use AI-assisted development tools to accelerate delivery.

Because these tools are used directly by students, safeguarding is a core requirement of the role rather than an afterthought. Every student-facing tool must be built with robust content controls, escalation pathways, logging and human oversight, and must meet the organisation's child safe and privacy obligations. The incumbent works closely with Online School teaching and leadership staff to translate pedagogical intent into working software and to evaluate whether what is built genuinely improves learning.

This will be an initial fixed 2 year contract with the possibility of futher extension.

The AI Developer – SPCC Online will assist the Central Office in the following ways:

Personal Christian Life:

• Promotes the vision and ethos of the organisation and its schools
• Maintains an active involvement in a local Christian evangelical fellowship
• Attends and participates in staff devotions and prayer meetings
• Participates in professional development relating to the philosophy and practice of Christian Education

Key Responsibility Areas:

• Solution Design and Architecture
  • Work with Online School teaching and leadership staff to understand pedagogical intent, curriculum requirements and student need, and translate these into technical designs.
  • Select and architect fit for purpose platforms for each solution, drawing on Microsoft Azure AI, Copilot and Copilot Studio, Cogniti and other platforms where they better meet the need.
  • Design solutions that integrate with the Online School's existing systems, including TASS, Schoolbox and the Microsoft 365 environment.
• AI Tool and Agent Development
  • Build bespoke AI tools and agents that address specific teaching, learning and administrative needs of the Online School.
  • Develop, prompt engineer, evaluate and tune agents, including retrieval over approved curriculum and school content, so that responses are accurate and grounded in the right material.
  • Write clean, documented and maintainable code, applying source control, code review and automated testing.
  • Build the integrations and APIs that connect AI tools to school data and systems, applying sound data modelling and secure by design practice.
• Student-Facing Tutors and Chat Tools
  • Design and build Socratic tutors that develop student understanding through questioning, scaffolding and feedback rather than providing direct answers.
  • Build student-facing chat tools that are age appropriate, accessible, and aligned to the curriculum and to the Online School's teaching approach.
  • Establish evaluation methods for tutor quality, including test sets, red teaming and structured review of transcripts with teaching staff, and act on what they show.
  • Pilot tools with teachers and students, gather feedback, and iterate on the educational effectiveness of what is delivered.
• Safeguarding, Privacy and Responsible AI
  • Build strong safeguarding controls into every student-facing tool, including content filtering, detection and escalation of concerning disclosures to appropriate staff, session logging, and human oversight.
  • Ensure all tools meet the organisation's child safe obligations, including the NSW Child Safe Standards, the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth) and cyber security requirements.
  • Apply privacy by default and secure by design practice to student data, including data minimisation, retention limits and access controls.
  • Maintain documentation of AI risk controls, evaluations and change history so that decisions about student-facing tools are auditable.
• Development Lifecycle Ownership
  • Own the full development lifecycle for the tools you build, from discovery and prototyping through to production release, monitoring and ongoing support.
  • Use AI-assisted development tools to accelerate delivery, while retaining full responsibility for the quality, security and maintainability of everything shipped.
  • Manage environments, deployment pipelines and release processes, including monitoring live tools for performance, cost and model drift.
  • Provide ongoing support, enhancement and technical documentation for tools once they are live.
• Adoption, Support and Continuous Improvement
  • Train and support Online School staff and students in the effective and responsible use of the tools delivered.
  • Maintain awareness of developments in educational AI and recommend improvements to the Online School's AI capability.
  • Where time allows, support the broader Applications Team and the organisation's wider AI and automation requirements, and participate in other duties and projects under the direction of the Applications Manager or Director of Technology.

Key Relationships:

Director of Technology, Applications Manager, Applications Team, Online School leadership and teaching staff, Online School students and families, Infrastructure and Cyber Security team, Central Office ICT Staff, and third party platform providers and vendors.

Management Skills:

• Ability to effectively plan, organise and manage own time to achieve targets and meet deadlines.
• Demonstrate a strong commitment to change processes.
• Ability to manage competing priorities and deliver iteratively against an agreed roadmap.

Interpersonal Skills:

• Ability to show understanding and patience in communicating with teaching staff, students, the school community and third-party vendors.
• Friendly yet professional communication style.
• Actively participate in a team environment to:
  • Share workloads & knowledge
  • Solve problems collaboratively
  • Assist each other with management of projects
  • Collectively make decisions.
• Open to change and innovation.
• Show leadership qualities and ambitions, with a drive to help and develop others.

Desired Skills and Experience

Qualifications and Experience:

• Practical experience delivering AI-based solutions, ideally using Azure AI services, Azure OpenAI, Copilot Studio or comparable agent and chat platforms.
• Experience designing, prompting and evaluating agents and retrieval-based solutions, with a realistic understanding of their limitations and failure modes.
• Integration and API experience, with sound data modelling and secure by design practice.
• A working understanding of safeguarding and privacy obligations when building technology used by children and young people.
• Right to work in Australia, and the ability to obtain and maintain a Working With Children Check and National Police Check.

Other valuable skills and experience you may have:

• Experience building or supporting educational technology, and an understanding of how students learn.
• Familiarity with Cogniti or other education-specific AI platforms, and with the Microsoft 365 environment including Teams, SharePoint and Power Platform.
• Experience with DevOps and application lifecycle management using Bitbucket (preferred), Azure DevOps or GitHub.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools in a professional software delivery setting.
• Relevant certifications, for example AI-102, AI-900 or PL-400, or a degree in Computer Science or Software Engineering.

Conditions Of Employment
The position carries four weeks' annual leave. The timing of annual leave is to be negotiated with the Applications Manager or Director of Technology.

• January is the busiest time for the ICT Department, therefore all ICT staff must be available. Annual leave during this period is restricted and can only be negotiated individually with the Director of Technology.
• Remuneration and conditions in line with or above the Independent Schools NSW (Professional and Operational Staff) Cooperative Multi-Enterprise Agreement 2025
• Requirement to hold and maintain a valid Working With Children Check (WWCC)
• This is a fixed 2 year contract with the possibility of extension.
• This is a full-time position; however, part-time arrangements may be considered in discussion with the successful candidate.

We’ll encourage you along the way
We will partner with you to support your performance and ongoing development to ensure you are fully prepared for future challenges as this position and our organisation adapts and grows.