AI Solutions Engineer

The Smith Family; Sydney; On-site; AUD 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible work options

Salary packaging

Annual leave purchase

Retail discounts

Inclusive culture

Employee assistance program

Fitness facilities with Fitness Wallet

Job summary

The Smith Family is seeking an AI Solutions Engineer to turn AI ideas into real, production-ready tools that support families across Australia.

You'll join the Data & AI team to design and build AI agents, connect models to enterprise data, and deliver practical solutions using Python, SQL and Microsoft Foundry/Snowflake Cortex. Early career engineers are encouraged to apply. This hands-on role emphasizes production quality, security and maintainability as AI capability matures.

Qualifications

• 2-3 years of relevant experience in software, data or AI.
• Hands-on experience with LLMs and Generative AI.
• Experience integrating solutions through APIs and data integrations.

Responsibilities

• Design and build AI agents, agentic workflows and RAG solutions.
• Create trusted data and knowledge foundations for AI solutions.
• Connect AI to enterprise data and applications via APIs, tools, SQL and MCP.
• Build with Microsoft Foundry and Snowflake Cortex technologies.
• Develop primarily with Python and SQL across structured and unstructured data.
• Take solutions from prototype to production with quality, security and monitoring.
• Evaluate AI solutions for accuracy, retrieval quality and performance.
• Build reusable components and patterns for future AI delivery.
• Share learnings and help grow AI engineering capability.

Skills

Python

SQL

Data modelling

Enterprise data

Prompt engineering

LLMs/Generative AI

AI model selection

APIs

Tools

Microsoft Foundry

Snowflake Cortex

Azure AI Search

Cortex Agents

Cortex Search

Cortex Analyst

Job description

The Smith Family is a national children's education charity that works with children and young people to overcome educational inequality caused by poverty - so they can thrive now and into their futures.

• Build AI that makes a difference
• Grow your AI engineering skills as you take ideas from prototype to production

About the role

We're looking for an AI Solutions Engineer who wants to do more than experiment with AI. You'll help us build it for real.

Our internal AI assistant, Sunny, is already in use supporting our front-line team members in their work supporting families and communities across Australia. We're looking for an early career engineer to help develop and build other AI tools for everyday work.

You’ll join our Data & AI team and work alongside experienced colleagues to turn business needs into practical solutions. You’ll select existing AI models and connect them to our data, knowledge and systems to build AI agents and applications. You’ll also use techniques such as RAG to help these tools draw on the right information.

This is a hands-on role where you’ll help take ideas from prototype to production and contribute to the engineering practices we use as our AI capability grows.

You’ll work across a growing portfolio of AI initiatives to:

• Design and build AI agents, agentic workflows and RAG solutions that solve real organisational problems
• Create trusted data, semantic and knowledge foundations that allow AI solutions to work effectively with organisational information
• Connect AI to enterprise data and applications through APIs, tools, SQL and MCP
• Build with technologies such as Microsoft Foundry and Snowflake Cortex, including Cortex Agents, Cortex Search and Cortex Analyst
• Develop primarily with Python and SQL, working across structured and unstructured data
• Take solutions beyond proof-of-concept by building for quality, security, reliability, monitoring and supportability
• Evaluate AI solutions for accuracy, retrieval quality, groundedness and performance
• Build reusable components and patterns that make the next AI solution easier to deliver than the last
• Share what you learn and help grow AI engineering capability across the Data & AI team

About you

We're looking for a curious, practical engineer who enjoys building things, testing ideas and seeing projects through to delivery.

This role is suited to someone with around 2-3 years of relevant experience in software, data or AI who's keen to learn new tools as the work evolves.

We welcome applications from early career AI engineers, including graduates with 2-3+ years of experience who have gained hands-on experience through work, internships or substantial projects.

You’ll ideally bring:

• Technical depth across Python, SQL, data modelling and working with enterprise data
• An understanding of different AI models and how to choose one for a particular task, along with knowledge of prompt engineering
• Experience building applications with LLMs and Generative AI using Microsoft Foundry, Azure AI Search or related Azure AI services
• Experience with Snowflake, ideally including Cortex Agents, Cortex Search and Cortex Analyst
• Hands-on experience with RAG, semantic search, embeddings and AI agents
• Experience integrating solutions through APIs, data integrations, MCP or agent orchestration frameworks
• Experience taking software, data or AI solutions from prototype into production
• A self-starter mindset with the ability to take ambiguous problems, explore different approaches and own solutions through to delivery

You’ll be joining us as we move beyond individual AI experiments towards repeatable, sustainable organisational capability. You’ll have the opportunity to shape how we build AI, work with rapidly evolving technology and establish engineering patterns that can support the next level of intelligent solutions at The Smith Family.

And you’ll do it in an organisation where the end goal isn't technology, it's about using data and AI to create capacity, improve how we work and help us make a greater difference for the children and families we support.

Employees are at the centre of The Smith Family’s values and operations. By joining our team, you can expect to:

• Find balance; with flexible work options and opportunities to purchase additional annual leave
• Maximise your take home pay; with salary packaging, and save with discounts at retailers across the country
• Feel you belong; with a supportive, diverse and inclusive team with regular opportunities to connect with colleagues and community
• Feel you belong; with inclusive leave options, including paid parental, cultural and gender affirmation leave
• Thrive; with support for you and your family's mental and physical health including a complete care and safety platform, unlimited Employee Assistance and access to a huge range of fitness facilities with Fitness Passport

Due to the nature of this role, the successful candidate must be prepared to undertake a National Police Check and a Working with Children's Check. We are an equal opportunity employer and are committed to principles of cultural diversity. Applications from people of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander descent are encouraged.