Lead Microservices & AI Technical Architect (Citizens only - must be able to obtain baseline security)

Darumatic Cloud Native; Canberra; Hybrid; AUD 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Hybrid work model

Flexible working arrangements

Job summary

Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR) seeks a Microservices & AI Technical Lead in Canberra, ACT. The role provides technical leadership, shaping cloud-native platforms, microservices and AI-enabled delivery across the service lifecycle.

You will drive modern engineering practices, enable secure and scalable operations, and mentor multidisciplinary teams as part of a nationwide delivery approach.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience designing cloud native, microservices architectures for enterprise systems.
• Proven ability to implement AI-enabled platforms and guide AI delivery across lifecycles.
• Strong software/platform engineering, DevSecOps, CI/CD, automated testing and observability.
• Leads enterprise modernization, drives reliability, security and engineering maturity.
• Exceptional stakeholder engagement and leadership across multidisciplinary teams.

Responsibilities

• Provide architectural authority for cloud native, microservices and AI platforms aligned with enterprise goals.
• Lead modern engineering and AI delivery practices, including SDLC, CI/CD and security by design.
• Drive platform modernisation, containerisation and integration with enterprise systems for scalability.
• Build capability and maturity through governance, knowledge transfer and leadership of teams.
• Collaborate with executives and delivery partners to translate requirements into practical tech outcomes.

Skills

Cloud native design

Microservices architecture

AI engineering

DevSecOps

Stakeholder leadership

Job description

• Estimated start date
• Initial contract duration
• Extension term
• Number of extensions
• Experience level
• Location of work
• Working arrangements
• Maximum hours
• Security clearance

Thursday, 01 October 2026

12 Months

12 months

2

Lead - EL2 equivalent

ACT

Hybrid

40 hours per week

Must be able to obtain Baseline

The buyer's primary location is Canberra, ACT. The department supports flexible and remote working arrangements where operational requirements permit. To support a nationally distributed workforce and delivery model, the department maintains offices in all Australian capital cities and a network of regional offices across Australia. As a result, resources may be required to collaborate with stakeholders located throughout the country, with occasional travel to Canberra or other locations.

Job details

The role will provide technical leadership, influence system builds and engineering decisions, guide the adoption of AI across the service deliver lifecycle and ensure capability transfer occurs throughout delivery.

Key duties and responsibilities

The successful candidate will be required to,

Provide technical leadership and architectural authority for the design, governance and evolution of cloud native, microservices based and AI enabled platforms, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture, security and business transformation objectives.

Lead the establishment of modern engineering and AI delivery practices, including AI enabled software development lifecycle (SDLC), DevSecOps, CI/CD, observability, automated testing and platform engineering standards that support secure, scalable and reliable service delivery.

Drive technology modernisation and platform adoption, including microservices enhancement, containerisation, integration of enterprise systems and implementation of reusable patterns that improve scalability, maintainability and operational resilience.

Build organisational capability and technical maturity through knowledge transfer, engineering governance and leadership of multidisciplinary teams, fostering engineering excellence and continuous improvement.

About The Team

The CIO Division provides a range of enabling services and operations delivery to the department and to Australian businesses and are seeking a Microservices & AI Technical Lead to support business application transformation program of work.

About The Project

The program is establishing DISR's first enterprise Microservices and Event-driven Architecture foundations and is embedding AI enabled engineering practices across the software delivery lifecycle. The role will provide technical leadership, influence system builds and engineering decisions, guide the adoption of AI across the service deliver lifecycle and ensure capability transfer occurs throughout delivery.

About The Organisation

The Department of Industry, Science and Resources (DISR) strives to encourage the sustainable growth of Australian industries including the delivery of a national innovation system to drive knowledge creation, international competitiveness and greater productivity. Our staff are committed to developing policies and delivering programs, in partnership with stakeholders, to provide lasting economic benefits based on principles of social justice and equity for all Australians.

Criteria

The buyer has specified that each candidate must provide a one page pitch to address all criteria specified. This is equal to 5000 characters.

Essential criteria

• 1. Extensive experience designing, implementing and governing cloud native, microservices and event driven architectures within complex enterprise environments, delivering scalable, resilient and secure business critical platforms.
• 2. Demonstrated expertise in AI engineering and AI enabled solution delivery, including the development, deployment and operationalisation of enterprise AI capabilities, semantic search, machine learning solutions and responsible AI practices.
• 3. Strong software engineering and platform engineering capability, including modern development frameworks, DevSecOps, CI/CD, automated testing, observability, security by design and operational excellence.
• 4. Proven ability to lead enterprise technology modernisation and transformation initiatives, providing technical direction, influencing architecture decisions and delivering measurable improvements in platform reliability, security, scalability and engineering maturity.
• 5. Exceptional stakeholder engagement, communication and leadership skills, with demonstrated experience leading multidisciplinary teams, delivery partners and senior executives and translating complex business requirements into practical technology outcomes.

Desirable criteria

• 1. Experience designing, implementing and operating container platforms using technologies such as Kubernetes, OpenShift, AKS, EKS or GKE, including platform automation, governance and workload management.
• 2. Experience with cloud platform modernisation, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), platform engineering, observability tooling and enterprise scale automation practices.
• 3. Experience leading delivery within Agile environments, including coaching geographically dispersed teams, driving capability uplift and fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation and continuous improvement.