Head of AI Platform & Distributed Systems

The Onset Group; Sydney; On-site; AUD 260,000 - 340,000; Full time

Job summary

The Onset Group is partnering with a leading Australian technology business to appoint a Head of Engineering / Distinguished Engineer to shape a 100+ person engineering organisation in an AI-first world. This is not a traditional people-management role; it's about technical credibility, strategic thinking, and guiding major bets on how software will be built over the next five years.

You will define internal AI infrastructure and developer platforms, enable hundreds of engineers to build better

Qualifications

• Exceptional CS fundamentals with a focus on distributed systems and scalable architecture.
• Built AI/ML infrastructure, developer platforms or engineering productivity tools at scale.
• Led senior engineers and potential direct reports across large teams.
• Experience shaping architecture and strategy in fast‑moving product environments.

Responsibilities

• Define engineering strategy and architecture for AI infrastructure and platforms.
• Lead Senior Engineering Managers, Directors or equivalent, shaping technical direction.
• Scale internal tooling to enable hundreds of engineers to ship faster.
• Collaborate with executives on bets about AI-native software and platform investments.

Skills

Distributed systems

AI/ML infrastructure

Developer platforms

Cloud platforms (AWS/GCP)

Leadership of engineers

Tools

Kubernetes

Terraform

APIs

Job description

The Onset Group is partnering with a leading Australian technology business to appoint a Head of Engineering / Distinguished Engineer to shape a 100+ person engineering organisation in an AI-first world. This is not a traditional people-management role; it's about technical credibility, strategic thinking, and guiding major bets on how software will be built over the next five years.

You will define internal AI infrastructure and developer platforms, enable hundreds of engineers to build better