Chief Engineer

Commonwealth Bank; Sydney; On-site; AUD 250,000 - 360,000; Full time

Job summary

Commonwealth Bank in Sydney, Australia seeks a Chief Engineer to set technology foundations and engineering direction for millions of customers and colleagues. You will shape platform modernization, drive AI-enabled experiences, and ensure secure, scalable delivery across the group.

You’ll mentor senior engineers, define architectural roadmaps, and align technology strategy with business outcomes, balancing innovation with risk management in a complex enterprise environment.

Qualifications

• Deep knowledge of modern software architecture, cloud platforms, microservices and API-driven design.
• Experience modernising complex technology estates and communicating with senior stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Setting technical direction and building a strong culture of engineering excellence, innovation and pragmatic delivery.
• Shaping architectural roadmaps across customer service, including how digital, assisted and AI-enabled experiences work together.
• Leading modernisation across legacy and future-state platforms, reducing unnecessary complexity and technical debt while maintaining critical customer services.
• Establishing reusable service domains, APIs, events and engineering patterns that can be adopted across the Group.
• Developing common foundations for customer context, journey orchestration, voice, messaging, knowledge and Agentic AI experiences.
• Driving modern software engineering practices including CI/CD, automated testing, observability, secure design and production readiness.
• Engineering resilience, reliability, security and operational risk management into critical services from the outset.
• Mentoring senior engineers, influencing leaders across product, architecture, cyber and risk, and strengthening technical capability across teams.

Skills

Technology strategy

Architecture leadership

Cloud platforms

Microservices

CI/CD

Security & resilience

AI awareness

Mentoring

Tools

APIs

Cloud tooling

CI/CD tooling

Job description

• Lead technology strategy and engineering excellence at scale
• Shape the future of customer service and assisted experiences
• Build modern, resilient and AI-enabled technology for millions of customers and colleagues

Do Work That Matters

We’re building tomorrow’s bank today. This is an opportunity to influence how millions of customers and colleagues experience service across Customer Service Direct, from contact centres and customer assistance to collections and direct lending.

As Chief Engineer, you’ll define the technology foundations and engineering direction needed to create simpler, smarter and more connected experiences. You’ll work across customer-service platforms, voice, messaging, customer context, journey orchestration and AI-enabled capabilities, helping turn an ambitious technology strategy into safe, scalable and production-ready outcomes.

See yourself in our team

Retail Technology delivers technology and operations across every aspect of CommBank and Bankwest Retail, from customer product platforms to essential tools that support the business.

Within Customer Service Direct, we support some of the most important and complex interactions we have with our customers across contact centres, collections, direct lending and customer assistance.

We’re moving towards a unified, intelligent and increasingly Agentic service ecosystem that connects digital and human assistance seamlessly. Our ambition is to build a unified and increasingly intelligent service ecosystem using AI, that enables customers to self-serve using AI to anticipate, simply and orchestrate work.

You’ll do this by:

• Setting technical direction and building a strong culture of engineering excellence, innovation and pragmatic delivery.
• Shaping architectural roadmaps across customer service, including how digital, assisted and AI-enabled experiences work together.
• Leading modernisation across legacy and future-state platforms, reducing unnecessary complexity and technical debt while maintaining critical customer services.
• Establishing reusable service domains, application programming interfaces, events and engineering patterns that can be adopted across the Group.
• Developing common foundations for customer context, journey orchestration, voice, messaging, knowledge and Agentic AI experiences.
• Driving modern software engineering practices including CI/CD, automated testing, observability, secure design and production readiness.
• Engineering resilience, reliability, security and operational risk management into critical services from the outset.
• Mentoring senior engineers, influencing leaders across product, architecture, cyber and risk, and strengthening technical capability across teams.

We’re interested in hearing from people who:

You’re a deeply technical and hands‑on engineering leader who can connect customer and business outcomes with sound technology choices. You bring strong architectural judgement, confidence working across complex production environments and the ability to move between long‑term strategy and detailed technical problem-solving.

Ideally, you’ll bring:

• Experience leading technology strategy, architecture and engineering outcomes across large‑scale enterprise environments.
• A strong record of modernising complex technology estates, communicating technical decision to senior stakeholders, while maintaining highly critical production services.
• Deep knowledge of contemporary software architecture, including cloud platforms, distributed systems, domain‑based design, application programming interfaces, events or microservices.
• Experience designing resilient and highly available systems where security, observability, controls and operational risk are fundamental.
• Strong command of modern delivery and engineering practices, including automation, secure engineering, CI/CD, and quality at scale.
• The ability to guide solution design across complex problem spaces and establish architecture guardrails that enable autonomous engineering teams.
• An understanding of the opportunities and engineering challenges associated with Agentic AI and generative AI in customer and colleague experiences.
• The influence, communication and mentoring skills to build alignment, navigate ambiguity and grow future technical leaders.

If you’re ready to shape technology that supports better customer conversations, stronger colleague experiences and the future of intelligent service,

Working with us

At CommBank, we're committed to creating an accessible, inclusive and respectful workplace.

If you require support or adjustments, please let us know. We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds and we're particularly committed to making a positive difference for Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

For support please contact 1800 989 ***.

If you're already part of the Commonwealth Bank Group (including Bankwest, x15ventures), you'll need to apply through Sidekick to submit a valid application. We’re keen to support you with the next step in your career.

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