Lead, AI Engineering & Model Lifecycle

Optus; Melbourne; Hybrid; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Employee discounts

Flexible work arrangements

On-site facilities and campus perks

Parental leave and family support

Job summary

Optus is seeking a senior leader to own and evolve the Operational AI Engineering and Model Lifecycle strategy across Network Operations, driving reliable, scalable AI capabilities with governance and cost efficiency.

You will partner with AI, Architecture, Security, and governance teams to deliver production-ready AI, monitor performance, ensure explainability, and guide cross-domain teams toward business value.

Qualifications

• Extensive leadership experience across telecommunications, AI/ML engineering, Network Operations, data engineering or large-scale technology environments.
• Demonstrated experience leading enterprise-scale AI engineering, MLOps/ModelOps or production AI capabilities across complex, distributed environments.
• Strong knowledge of AI/ML engineering, feature engineering, model deployment, registries, monitoring, drift management, retraining and lifecycle governance.
• Strong understanding of operational data, service topology, observability, Operational Intelligence and automation, and how they combine to enable AI-driven operations.
• Experience implementing responsible AI, model assurance, explainability, security and human-oversight controls in production environments.
• Demonstrated ability to lead cross-domain teams and influence senior stakeholders across Operations, Engineering, Architecture, Data and Technology.
• Strong commercial, financial and vendor management capability, including AI operating cost optimisation and value realisation.
• Excellent strategic thinking, communication and executive stakeholder engagement skills.
• Relevant tertiary qualifications in Engineering, Computer Science, Data Science, AI/ML, Telecommunications or Technology, or equivalent significant industry experience.

Responsibilities

• Own and evolve the Operational AI Engineering and Model Lifecycle strategy, capability roadmap and engineering direction across Network Operations.
• Translate operational priorities into a prioritised portfolio of AI engineering capabilities aligned to reliability, resilience, productivity and customer outcomes.
• Lead the engineering and industrialisation of production-ready AI capabilities, including feature engineering, model integration and deployment patterns.
• Establish reusable AI engineering standards and components that enable consistent, scalable delivery across network and service domains.
• Own the lifecycle of operational AI models, from production acceptance through monitoring, retraining, optimisation and retirement.
• Establish model registries, performance monitoring and controls for accuracy, drift, bias, reliability and operational effectiveness.
• Implement AI governance, explainability, traceability and human-oversight controls within operational AI engineering and model lifecycle practices.
• Partner with AI & Architecture, Operational Security Engineering and governance functions to keep operational AI compliant, secure and trusted.
• Integrate AI engineering with trusted operational data, service topology and Operational Intelligence to deliver context-rich models and decisions.
• Partner with Automation Engineering and Orchestration & Autonomous Operations to safely convert trusted AI decisions into governed operational actions.
• Drive the transition of validated AI capabilities into sustained operational use, with clear ownership, support models and lifecycle accountability.
• Establish outcome measures for model accuracy, drift, adoption and realised business value, and optimise AI engineering and model operating costs.
• Build and lead a high-performing AI Engineering capability combining AI/ML engineering, telecommunications, software engineering and operational disciplines.

Skills

Leadership experience

Telecommunications domain

AI/ML engineering

Network Operations

Stakeholder engagement

Education

Tertiary qualification in Engineering/CS/Data Science/AI/ML or equivalent

Job description

Optus is seeking a senior leader to own and evolve the Operational AI Engineering and Model Lifecycle strategy across Network Operations, driving reliable, scalable AI capabilities with governance and cost efficiency.

You will partner with AI, Architecture, Security, and governance teams to deliver production-ready AI, monitor performance, ensure explainability, and guide cross-domain teams toward business value.