Databricks Platform Operations Lead

Downer; Sydney; On-site; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Professional development

Flexible work arrangements

Parental leave

Employee Assistance Program

Diversity & inclusion

Corporate benefits

Job summary

Downer in Sydney seeks an experienced Databricks Platform Operations Lead to drive reliability, governance, and security of our enterprise Azure Databricks Lakehouse. You will lead incident response, capacity planning and cost optimization across data teams.

Reporting to Head of Data Platforms, you will mentor operations staff, collaborate with data engineering, analytics and cloud infra teams, and ensure platform SLAs and ITIL practices are embedded.

Qualifications

• 7+ years in data platform, cloud platform or infrastructure operations.
• Experience managing production support and operational service delivery teams.
• Strong understanding of Databricks Lakehouse architecture, Unity Catalog and Delta Lake.
• Experience with Azure services including Data Factory, Data Lake Storage, Key Vault and networking.
• Experience implementing security, governance and access management frameworks.
• Experience managing vendors and outsourced support providers.
• Strong incident, problem and change management capabilities.
• Experience leading service improvement and operational excellence initiatives.

Responsibilities

• Own the operational health and performance of the Databricks platform.
• Lead incident, problem and change management processes.
• Manage platform monitoring, alerting and service reliability.
• Drive platform stability, availability and performance improvements.
• Establish runbooks, procedures and support processes.
• Ensure ITIL-aligned service management practices are embedded across the platform.

Skills

Databricks Lakehouse

Azure Databricks

ITIL governance

Vendor management

Incident management

Security governance

DevOps/DataOps

Monitoring

Tools

Azure Data Factory

Data Lake Storage

Key Vault

CI/CD tooling

Job description

We are seeking an experienced Databricks Platform Operations Lead to lead the operational management, governance, support and continuous improvement of our enterprise Azure Databricks Lakehouse platform.

Reporting to the Head of Data Platforms, you will be responsible for ensuring the reliability, security, performance and scalability of a business-critical data platform that underpins analytics, AI and operational reporting across the organisation.

This role combines platform leadership, operational excellence, stakeholder management and technical expertise. You will work closely with data engineering teams, analytics teams, cloud infrastructure teams, vendors and business stakeholders to deliver a secure, well-governed and highly available data platform.

Key Responsibilities

Platform Operations & Service Management

• Own the operational health and performance of the Databricks platform.
• Lead incident, problem and change management processes.
• Manage platform monitoring, alerting and service reliability.
• Drive platform stability, availability and performance improvements.
• Establish and maintain operational runbooks, procedures and support processes.
• Ensure ITIL-aligned service management practices are embedded across the platform.

Databricks Platform Administration

• Manage Databricks workspaces, clusters, compute policies and platform configurations.
• Oversee Unity Catalog administration, data governance and access management.
• Manage RBAC, ABAC and security controls across the platform.
• Govern Delta Sharing and secure external data collaboration.
• Coordinate platform upgrades, feature releases and vendor roadmap adoption.
• Oversee Azure resources supporting the data platform including Storage Accounts, Data Factory, Key Vaults, networking and integration services.
• Manage platform capacity, cost optimisation and resource utilisation.
• Ensure platform security, compliance and resilience standards are maintained.
• Work closely with cloud infrastructure and cyber security teams.
• Lead platform support activities and vendor-managed service providers.
• Coordinate triage and resolution of platform incidents and service requests.
• Drive root cause analysis and preventative improvement initiatives.
• Ensure service levels and operational KPIs are achieved.
• Manage relationships with Databricks, Microsoft and delivery partners.
• Coordinate platform roadmaps and service improvements.
• Act as the primary escalation point for platform-related issues.
• Partner with delivery teams to support onboarding of new data products and use cases.
• Identify opportunities to improve platform automation, governance and self-service capabilities.
• Drive adoption of DevOps, DataOps and platform engineering best practices.
• Develop operational metrics and reporting on platform health, performance and user satisfaction.
• Build organisational capability through knowledge sharing and mentoring.

About You

You will be a hands-on platform leader with strong operational and stakeholder management skills, combined with deep experience managing modern cloud-based data platforms.

• 7+ years' experience in data platform, cloud platform or infrastructure operations roles.
• Experience managing production support and operational service delivery teams.
• Strong understanding of Databricks Lakehouse architecture, Unity Catalog and Delta Lake.
• Experience with Azure services including Data Factory, Data Lake Storage, Key Vault and networking.
• Experience implementing security, governance and access management frameworks.
• Experience managing vendors and outsourced support providers.
• Strong incident management, problem management and change management capabilities.
• Experience leading service improvement and operational excellence initiatives.

Technical Skills

• Unity Catalog
• Python and SQL
• CI/CD practices
• Monitoring and observability tooling
• Databricks certification.
• ITIL certification.
• Experience supporting Power BI/Fabric environments.
• Experience operating data platforms supporting AI and machine learning workloads.

Benefits Of Working with Downer

• Work with an ASX listed company, working with market leaders.
• Grow your career with us, we are passionate about giving our people opportunities to grow through personal and professional development and continuous learning:
  • Professional development programs
    • Access to professional memberships and industry networks
      
• Be part of a team that cares, we foster a work environment built on support that is flexible around our employee's wellbeing needs:
  • Flexible work arrangements
    • Parental leave
      
    • Employee Assistance Program
      
    • Programs promoting diversity and inclusion
      
• A range of Corporate Benefits, including:
  
  
  • Discounted services (car hires, hotels, insurance, retail stores, gyms)

Why Downer?

As a trusted name in infrastructure, transport, facilities management, and construction, Downer is committed to delivering projects that create a lasting, positive legacy. We're committed to building a team that reflects the diverse communities we serve, and we welcome people of all ages, genders, sexual orientations, cultures, abilities, and lived experiences. We especially encourage applications from those whose voices have traditionally been underrepresented in our industry, including women, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples, Māori and Pasifika Peoples, veterans, people with disability, and neurodivergent individuals.

Even if your experience doesn't align perfectly with this role, we'd still like to hear from you. If it feels like the right fit, apply - potential counts, and so do you.

As a WORK180 Endorsed Employer, we support flexibility that works for your life, inclusive leadership that values your voice, and equitable access to opportunity so you can do your best work and bring your whole self to it.