Director of Engineering

at; Council of the City of Sydney; On-site; AUD 150,000 - 200,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology firm in Australia is seeking a Director of Engineering to lead teams driving innovative solutions that serve 80 million users globally. The role focuses on scaling high-performance engineering teams and driving technical vision, ensuring reliability and impact of the systems being developed. Ideal candidates will have extensive experience in engineering leadership, internet-scale software development, and strong communication skills.

Benefits

Premium Sydney HQ

Quarterly Hackathons

Fully stocked kitchens and wellness programmes

Qualifications

• Proven track record of building high-performing engineering organizations.
• Significant experience building web software serving millions of users.
• Experience in continuously shipping environments.
• Ability to engage with senior architects meaningfully.
• Strong writing and verbal skills to influence stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Build and scale high-performance engineering teams.
• Drive technical vision and execution.
• Engage with senior architects on technical plans.
• Establish high standards of software quality.
• Work closely with product managers and cross-functional teams.

Skills

Leadership experience

Internet-scale engineering expertise

Agile delivery mastery

Technical depth

Communication excellence

Ownership mindset

Learning velocity

Problem-solving creativity

Cloud computing mastery

Full-stack proficiency

Education

Tertiary degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field

Tools

AWS

Docker

Kubernetes

Python

Go

Job description

Director of Engineering - Role

Imagine leading engineering teams that power platforms serving 80 million users globally. Picture yourself architecting systems that have transformed how business gets done, from the world’s largest freelancing marketplace to a payment ecosystem securing over US$7 billion in transactions.

This is your chance to join Freelancer (ASX: FLN) and lead engineering for category‑defining platforms:

• Freelancer: Thirteen‑time Webby Award winner and the heartbeat of work online
• Escrow.com: The trust layer of the internet, safeguarding billions in transactions
• LoadShift: Australia’s freight revolution, moving more tonnage than Earth to the moon on weekdays

You’ll thrive here if you: Dream in systems. Think in architecture. Believe great engineering solves real problems at scale, not just ships code.

Lead brilliant engineering minds across six continents, from Sydney to San Francisco. Our culture celebrates technical excellence, thrives on rapid iteration, and measures success in impact.

Ready to build products that matter to millions?

As Director of Engineering, you will:

Build and scale high‑performance engineering teams that ship production code multiple times daily, cultivating a culture of ownership, quality, and continuous improvement across globally distributed squads.

Drive technical vision and execution by partnering with engineering teams to develop roadmaps, define delivery goals, and achieve them within aggressive timelines while maintaining our reputation for reliability at internet scale.

Architect for impact engaging directly with senior architects to contribute to technical plans and designs that solve complex distributed systems challenges across messaging, payments, translations, and notification systems processing millions of events hourly.

Lead through influence communicating effectively with stakeholders business‑wide, from product managers to C‑suite, translating technical complexity into business value and strategic decisions.

Elevate engineering excellence by establishing and practicing world‑class engineering habits, maintaining high standards of software quality through code review, testing discipline, and continuous learning culture.

Optimise across constraints working closely with product managers and cross‑functional teams to achieve the best outcomes given competing priorities of speed, quality, and technical debt management.

Cultivate championship culture centered on our company values, where engineers take charge, improve daily, leverage data, and perform like a pro sports team.

Requirements

Leadership experience managing and scaling development teams, with proven track record of building high‑performing engineering organizations that consistently deliver business‑critical systems.

Internet‑scale engineering expertise with significant experience building and operating large‑scale web software serving millions of users across modern frontend stacks (Angular/React/Vue) and distributed backend systems.

Agile delivery mastery working in continuously shipping environments where multiple deploys per day is standard, balancing technical excellence with aggressive delivery timelines.

Technical depth that earns respect – We expect you can engage with our senior architects to contribute meaningfully to technical plans and designs, not just manage from above.

Communication excellence with strong writing and verbal skills to articulate technical strategy, influence stakeholders, and mentor engineers at all levels.

Ownership mindset demonstrating self‑management, accountability for outcomes, and the ability to drive results without hand‑holding.

Learning velocity with track record of rapidly acquiring new technologies and applying them to solve complex problems in production environments.

Problem‑solving creativity combining strong troubleshooting skills with innovative thinking to tackle novel challenges at scale.

Academic foundation with tertiary degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field; MSc or PhD a plus.

Nice to haves

Cloud computing mastery, preferably AWS with experience architecting for scalability, reliability, and cost optimisation.

Deep expertise in SOA, microservices, and containerization architectures using Docker, Kubernetes, and modern orchestration tools.

Public API design and development experience building developer‑facing platforms that scale.

Full‑stack proficiency with web development languages including Python, Go, and modern JavaScript frameworks.

Database expertise with relational databases, SQL optimisation, and experience with distributed data systems.

Cross‑platform systems knowledge spanning Windows and Linux environments.

Networking depth with strong understanding of computer networking, load balancing, and CDN optimisation.

Security consciousness with sound understanding of OWASP and web security best practices applied in production.

What's In It For You

Career Acceleration

True meritocracy: Your impact directly drives your trajectory. Our current VP of Product started as a grad. Our Head of Support began as a CX agent.

Innovation & Learning

Quarterly Hackathons: Two‑day innovation sprints where engineering teams ship real solutions, compete for prizes, and see their ideas go to production.

Technology diversity playground: Work across cutting‑edge stacks – Angular/TypeScript/RxJS frontends, Python/Go microservices, AWS cloud architecture, and distributed systems processing internet‑scale traffic.

Global scale challenges: Debug systems serving 80M users across multiple products. Few engineers get this breadth of complexity and impact.

Continuous learning environment: Exposure to diverse engineering challenges across Freelancer.com, Escrow.com’s transaction processing, and LoadShift’s logistics optimisation.

Lifestyle & Perks

Premium Sydney HQ: Grosvenor Place with harbour views of the Sydney Harbour Bridge and Opera House, plus weekly building events and wellness programmes.

Friday culture: Catered lunches featuring rotating local restaurants, team celebrations, and informal technical discussions.

Work hard, play harder: Fully stocked kitchens, beer taps, and a bar with killer views. We once built a soccer stadium with two tonnes of turf. Because why not?

Engineering‑friendly amenities: Everything you need for long debugging sessions, architecture planning, and code review marathons.

Just when you thought it couldn't get any better

You'll be architecting systems that connect over 80 million people to economic opportunity worldwide. Every line of code your teams ship directly impacts someone's ability to earn a living, build a business, or change their life trajectory.

The Impact You'll Make

Change Lives: It's our engineering mission. Last month alone, our platforms powered commerce across 247 countries, regions and territories. Your engineering leadership will literally help feed families, fund education, and build futures.

Take Charge: Own your technical decisions like a founder. No hand‑holding, just ownership and impact.

What Can I Improve Today?: We ship to production multiple times daily, iterate constantly, and never settle for "good enough".

What Does the Data Say?: Every architectural decision backed by metrics, every performance assumption tested in production.

We’re a Pro‑Sports Team: We recruit the best engineers, reward performance, and build to win at scale.

Our mission: Enable one billion jobs globally. This is the engineering challenge that defines us.

Career trajectory that matches your ambition: We promote from within and produce industry leaders. Our meritocratic culture is renowned for promoting into senior roles from within and developing engineering executives who go on to lead at major tech companies. When you deliver results here, your career moves at startup speed with public company resources and internet‑scale problems.

This won't be your typical cog‑in‑the‑machine type of job. If you're a high achiever with talent, looking for something more than a boring job in corporate, want to work with the best and brightest engineers, don't need to be handheld, and want to be in at ground zero with a company that has a shot at being one of the biggest sites on the Internet, then please join us.

Application

• Are you currently based in Australia and have full working rights?