Principal Engineer

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC); Sydney; On-site; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

15.4% super contribution

Fixed-term contract (18 months)

Job summary

Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) seeks a Principal Engineer to lead engineering across ABC Digital Product. You will provide expert software engineering leadership across front-end, APIs, data platforms and integrations, while remaining hands-on to drive critical projects and strategic technical initiatives.

You will mentor technical teams, shape engineering practices, and ensure scalable, high-quality delivery across multiple product domains in a fast-paced, cross-functional

Qualifications

• Extensive experience providing technical leadership across multiple product or engineering teams.
• Strong architectural expertise for complex, scalable digital platforms.
• Coaching and mentoring of highly technical professionals at scale.
• Ability to align engineering decisions with business goals across teams.

Responsibilities

• Provide expert technical leadership across multiple engineering teams.
• Lead strategic engineering initiatives and align objectives across teams.
• Guide analysis, architecture, design and development of complex digital products.
• Drive sound architectural practices for scalable, maintainable systems.
• Mentor teams in requirements gathering and technical documentation.
• Foster cross-functional collaboration and partnerships across engineering and product.

Skills

Technical leadership

Software architecture

Mentoring

Cross-team collaboration

Digital media systems

Stakeholder management

Job description

• Generous ABC nominated 15.4% super contribution

• Fixed-term Contract for 18 months
• Generous ABC nominated 15.4% super contribution

The Role

This is an exciting opportunity for an accomplished Principal Engineer to join ABC Digital Product in a senior technical leadership role spanning multiple engineering teams.

You'll provide expert software engineering and architectural leadership across a broad technology landscape including front-end applications, APIs, personalisation platforms, media delivery, data platforms and vendor integrations.

Importantly, this is not purely an advisory architecture role. You'll remain connected to software development while leading strategic technical initiatives, shaping engineering practices and helping teams make sound technology decisions at scale.

The Job

• Provide expert technical leadership and software development expertise across multiple engineering teams.
• Lead strategic engineering initiatives and build shared understanding of technical objectives across teams.
• Guide the analysis, architecture, design and development of highly complex digital products and platforms.
• Drive sound architectural practices to ensure systems are extensible, scalable for audience demand, aligned to standards and sustainable to maintain.
• Research and critically assess emerging technologies and platforms against ABC business and technology needs.
• Align development processes and technical decision-making across teams so local decisions consider broader platform and organisational impacts.
• Mentor technical teams in solution analysis, requirements and technical documentation.
• Build strategic partnerships across engineering, product and other disciplines and represent engineering in complex cross-functional discussions.
• Help engineering leaders build a highly accountable, collaborative and high-performing engineering culture.
• Maintain strong awareness of industry best practice and drive continuous improvement in engineering standards and practices

Full position description: PRINCIPAL ENGINEER - BAND 9.pdf

About You

You'll have:

• Extensive experience providing technical leadership and guidance across multiple product or engineering teams.
• Significant experience coaching and mentoring highly technical professionals.
• Expert-level capability developing some of the most complex, secure and high-performance digital products or platforms at scale.
• Strong architectural expertise across environments with multiple major system dependencies.
• Experience managing complex initiatives through the full systems development lifecycle.
• Outstanding knowledge in areas such as digital media publishing, digital content delivery and distribution, personalisation, analytics and integration with diverse data sources and technologies.
• Highly developed planning and organisational capability, including managing competing priorities and tight deadlines.
• Exceptional written and verbal communication skills with the ability to translate highly complex technical information for different audiences.
• Strong cross-team decision-making, influencing and relationship-building capability.

More Info

In line with our focus on diversity and inclusion, applications are strongly encouraged from Indigenous Australians, people from a range of cultural and linguistic backgrounds, people with disability and LGBTQIA+ individuals. The ABC also aims to achieve a gender-balanced workforce.

To request recruitment and selection information in alternate formats, request adjustments, or if you have accessibility requirements, please contact [e-mail]

Applications Close: 11:55 pm, 9 October 2026.