Engineering Manager - Machine Learning

REA Group; City of Melbourne; Hybrid; AUD 150,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid working

Birthday leave

Purchased leave

Job summary

REA Group is seeking an Engineering Manager - AI to build REA’s residential ML capability from the ground up and lead a distributed team across tribes. You’ll set direction, establish standards and collaborate with product managers, designers and offshore colleagues.

The role focuses on delivering high-quality ML solutions for residential use cases while upholding engineering excellence, governance and scalable delivery in a hybrid work environment.

Qualifications

• Strong knowledge of AI and ML with ability to discuss data, models and production trade-offs.
• Experience leading software, data or ML teams to deliver high-quality outcomes.
• Technical fluency to review code and identify design flaws.
• Experience with global, offshore or distributed teams.
• Strong stakeholder management across multiple product tribes.
• Judgement to assess whether an ML or data science approach is right for a problem.
• Experience with modern software practices, cloud architecture, data platforms or ML engineering workflows.
• Ability to manage ambiguity and adapt to changing priorities.

Responsibilities

• Establish and lead a dedicated ML team for residential, shaping its mission, practices, delivery approach and engineering standards.
• Coordinate work across residential tribes, adapting to changing priorities, product managers, designers and collaborators as initiatives evolve.
• Set clear expectations for the distributed contractor team and work with product stakeholders to negotiate timelines, capacity and delivery outcomes.
• Provide technical guidance across ML, data science and data engineering, including reviewing code and identifying design, architecture or solution risks.
• Help teams decide when an ML solution is appropriate and when a simpler approach suffices.
• Guide the design and delivery of AI/ML products and data capabilities across residential use cases.
• Maintain high standards across software engineering quality, ML evaluation, operational excellence, system health, data governance and engineering compliance.
• Support the development of AI-enabled product capabilities using NLP, LLMs, semantic search and other modern ML approaches.
• Partner with the AI Enrichment team and other AI specialists to share capability and expertise.

Skills

AI/ML fundamentals

Team leadership

Code review

Distributed teams

Stakeholder mgmt

ML engineering

Cloud architecture

Data platforms

Ambiguity management

Job description

• Build REA’s dedicated residential ML capability from the ground up.


• Lead a distributed team and shape delivery across multiple residential tribes.


• Hybrid working, birthday leave and purchased leave options

We’re REA

With bold and ambitious goals, REA Group is changing the way the world experiences property. No matter where you are on your property journey, we’re here to help with every step — from finding your next home to financing it.

Our people are the key to our success. At the heart of everything we do is a thriving culture centred on high performance and care. We’re purpose-driven and collaborative, which drives innovation and our ability to make a real impact.

We’re proud to have been named one of Australia’s Best Workplaces four times since 2021 — including third place in 2025 — as well as Best Workplace for Women in 2023 and Best Workplace in Technology in 2024 and 2025. These accolades are testament to every person who helps make REA a great place to work.

Where the team fits in

This role sits within Residential Advertising Value, supporting product development across REA’s Residential business. Residential is a fast-moving, high-impact part of REA, with opportunities spanning value, packaging, on-market experiences, agent workflows, selling and renting.

You’ll establish a dedicated ML capability for residential, working across tribes rather than being limited to a single product area. The initial team comprises four Xi’an-based contractors, with the potential to grow as demand develops. You’ll also work closely with product managers, designers, XP teams, the AI Enrichment team and other AI teams across REA.

This is an opportunity to shape how ML is applied across residential from the ground up - building the team’s approach, ways of working and technical standards while contributing to products that matter to customers and the business.

What the role is all about

As Engineering Manager - AI, you’ll lead the development of REA’s residential ML capability and play a pivotal role in driving technical quality and delivery success across the Residential portfolio.

This role combines technical leadership, delivery leadership and people leadership. Your focus will be on setting direction, creating clarity and coordinating effective delivery across a distributed team and changing product priorities. While you won’t be expected to spend most of your time implementing models, you’ll need the technical depth to review code, discuss architecture and challenge proposed solutions when a problem may not call for data science.

You’ll:

• Establish and lead a dedicated ML team for residential, shaping its mission, practices, delivery approach and engineering standards.


• Coordinate work across residential tribes, adapting to changing priorities, product managers, designers and collaborators as initiatives evolve.


• Set clear expectations for the distributed contractor team and work with product stakeholders to negotiate timelines, capacity and delivery outcomes.


• Provide technical guidance across ML, data science and data engineering, including reviewing code and identifying design, architecture or solution risks.


• Help teams make pragmatic decisions about when an ML or data science solution is appropriate — and when a simpler approach will better solve the problem.


• Guide the design and delivery of AI/ML products and data capabilities across residential use cases, including value, packaging, on-market, agent workflow, sell and rent.


• Maintain high standards across software engineering quality, ML evaluation, operational excellence, system health, data governance and engineering compliance.


• Support the development of AI-enabled product capabilities using techniques such as natural language processing, large language models, semantic search and other modern ML approaches.


• Partner with the AI Enrichment team and other AI specialists to share capability, patterns and technical expertise across REA.


• Build strong working relationships with global and offshore team members, ensuring communication, expectations and delivery remain clear.


• Raise the bar for technical judgement, team effectiveness and inclusive leadership across the Residential portfolio.

What success looks like

In this role, success will mean:

• Establishing a credible and effective residential ML team with clear ways of working and the foundations to scale.


• Enabling productive technical conversations about ML and data solutions, including recognising when a problem is not a data science problem.


• Coordinating effectively with product managers and designers across residential tribes as priorities, timelines and capacity change.


• Building trust with the Xi’an-based team and other global collaborators through clear expectations and consistent delivery leadership.


• Demonstrating strong capability in at least one specialist area, such as AI/ML or data governance, while uplifting technical maturity across the wider engineering community.

Who we’re looking for

You’re an experienced engineering leader with a strong technical background in machine learning, data science or data engineering. You may be an established Engineering Manager, or a Staff or Principal Engineer ready to take on team leadership and build a new capability.

You’ll also have:

• Strong conceptual and fundamental knowledge of AI and ML, with the ability to have detailed technical conversations about data, models, evaluation, architecture and production trade-offs.


• Experience leading software, data or ML teams to deliver high-quality product or API-driven outcomes.


• The technical fluency to review code, identify design or architectural flaws and provide constructive challenge, even when you are not the person implementing the solution.


• Experience working with global, offshore or distributed teams and the ability to create clarity across different locations and working styles.


• Strong stakeholder management and influencing skills, with the ability to work across multiple product tribes and build effective relationships with product managers, designers and engineering leaders.


• The judgement to assess whether an ML or data science approach is the right solution for a business or product problem.


• Experience with modern software engineering practices, cloud architecture, data platforms or ML engineering workflows.


• The ability to manage ambiguity, adapt to changing priorities and negotiate realistic timelines and capacity.

The REA experience

The physical, mental, emotional and financial health of our people is something we’ll never stop caring about. This is a place to learn and grow.

Some of our Perks & Benefits include:

• A hybrid and flexible approach to working


• Flexible leave options including, birthday leave and purchase additional leave


• Flexible parental leave offering for primary and secondary carers


• Our Because We Care program offers employees volunteering leave, community grants, matched payroll giving and our Community Café donates 100% of revenue to charity


• Hackdays so you can bring your big ideas to life

Our commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

We are committed to providing a working environment that embraces and values diversity, equity and inclusion. We believe teams with diverse ideas and experiences are more creative, more effective and fuel disruptive thinking. If you’ve got the skills, dedication and enthusiasm to learn but don’t necessarily meet every single point on the job description, please still get in touch.

Join our Talent Neighbourhood

Keen to be part of REA but didn’t find a perfect match with this opportunity? Perhaps the timing isn’t right? You should join our Talent Neighbourhood!

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