Principal Engineer - AI Innovation Office

Westpac Group; Sydney; On-site; AUD 220,000 - 300,000; Full time

Job summary

Westpac Group in Sydney seeks a hands-on Chief AI Innovation Officer to shape enterprise AI engineering initiatives. You will lead across teams to turn AI strategy into scalable production systems and reusable platforms.

You will balance model quality, latency, cost, security and risk, embedding responsible AI, observability and operational readiness from day one, while coaching engineers and influencing multiple partners without formal authority.

Qualifications

• Deep hands-on AI engineering experience in large, complex or regulated environments.
• Proven delivery and operation of AI/ML/LLM-enabled systems at production scale.
• Strong Python, APIs, distributed systems, cloud, containers, IaC, CI/CD and secure engineering capabilities.

Responsibilities

• Architect and engineer production-grade LLM, RAG, plus agentic and ML systems.
• Hands-on coding, testing assumptions, investigations and removing blockers.
• Create reusable platforms, reference architectures, guardrails and golden paths.
• Balance model quality, latency, resilience, cost, security, privacy, risk and customer impact.
• Embed evaluation, observability, testing, responsible AI, and operational readiness from day one.
• Coach engineers through code/design reviews, pairing and technical leadership.
• Influence across engineering, product, architecture, data, security and risk without formal authority.

Skills

AI engineering

Python

APIs

Distributed systems

Cloud

Containers

Infrastructure as code

CI/CD

LLMs

RAG

Embeddings

Agents

Orchestration

Observability

Stakeholder mgmt

Security

Privacy

Risk management

Leadership

Job description

Opportunity is knocking …

The Chief AI Innovation Office within Data, Digital & AI (DDAI) is seeking a hands-on technical authority to shape Westpac’s most important AI engineering initiatives.

You will work across teams and domains, setting directions, solving complex delivery challenges, and creating reusable approaches that help our engineers move safely from ideas to production.

It’s an exciting time for Westpac as youhelp shape enterprise AI engineering at a pivotal point in its evolution, with scope across production systems, reusable platforms, agentic engineering, responsible AI, and developer experience.

You’ll be a key contributor who willlift capability across teams and turn strategic AI priorities into secure, scalable production systems.

• Architect and engineer production-grade LLM, RAG, plus agentic and machine-learning systems.
• Stay hands-on: write and review code, test assumptions, lead investigations and unblock critical delivery.
• Create reusable platforms, reference architectures, guardrails, and golden paths that accelerate multiple teams.
• Balance model quality, latency, resilience, cost, security, privacy, risk, and customer impact.
• Embed evaluation, observability, testing, responsible AI, and operational readiness from day one.
• Coach engineers through code reviews, design reviews, pairing, and practical technical leadership.
• Influence engineering, product, architecture, data, security, and risk partners without relying on formal authority.

What you will bring to the table …

• Deep, hands-on AI engineering experience in a large, complex, or regulated environment.
• Principal, Staff, Lead or equivalent experience influencing across teams and technical domains.
• Proven delivery and operation of AI, ML or LLM-enabled systems at production scale, not only proofs of concept.
• Strong Python, APIs, distributed systems, cloud, containers, infrastructure as code, CI/CD, and secure engineering capability.
• Practical expertise in LLMs, RAG, embeddings, agents, orchestration, evaluation, context management, and AI observability.
• Exceptional business acumen and outstanding stakeholder management skills at all levels.
• Sound judgement across AI failure modes, responsible AI, security, privacy, reliability, and operational risk.
• A track record of simplifying ambiguity, setting adopted standards and growing engineering capability.

Your impact:

• AI initiatives move beyond prototypes into trusted enterprise services.
• Teams deliver faster through reusable patterns.
• Risks are designed out early.
• Engineers grow stronger because you leave behind better judgement, platforms, and practices.

Does this sound like you?

We’re all about creating a supportive and inclusive community. We welcome everyone – no matter your age, gender, background, or abilities. We also provide added support to welcome our veterans, Indigenous Australians, and neurodiverse community.

If you need any adjustments during the recruitment process, you can find out more information and additional contact details by visiting the"People with Disability and/or needing Accessibility Requirements"page on ourwebsite.