Principal Network Automation Engineer

St George Bank; Sydney; Hybrid; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible work arrangements

Learning and development opportunities

Volunteer/community involvement

Job summary

Westpac is seeking a Principal Network Automation Engineer to lead the design, build and operation of scalable, production‑grade network automation in our data centre environments. You will code, set technical direction and mentor engineers to adopt code‑driven lifecycle management across the network.

Essential skills include Terraform, Ansible, Python, GitLab/GitHub CI, YAML/JSON, and experience with BGP, leaf-spine architectures, and automated testing.

Qualifications

• Deep IaC experience delivering production network infrastructure with Terraform/Ansible.
• Strong software engineering capability in Python with modular design and automated testing.
• Proven experience designing and maintaining Git-based CI/CD pipelines with secure credential handling.

Responsibilities

• Define and deliver scalable, secure network automation solutions using IaC and CI/CD.
• Provide technical leadership, set engineering direction, and mentor engineers across teams.

Skills

Terraform

Ansible

Python

CI/CD pipelines

Networking fundamentals

Tools

GitLab CI

GitHub Actions

Azure DevOps

Nautobot/NetBox/Nornir

Job description

What’s the role?

The Principal Network Automation Engineer is a senior, hands‑on technical role responsible for engineering the automation capabilities that underpin Westpac Group’s data centre networks. You will bring deep, demonstrable Infrastructure as Code (IaC) expertise and a software engineering mindset to design, build and operate reusable, tested and production‑ready network automation. As a Principal Engineer, you will set technical direction, remain actively involved in coding and solution delivery, and guide engineers in adopting code‑driven network lifecycle management rather than manual configuration or isolated scripts.

This role will be responsible for defining and delivering scalable, secure and reliable automation solutions, including reusable IaC and CI/CD capabilities. You will provide technical leadership, uplift engineering practices and partner across teams to improve automation, consistency and operational efficiency.

What do I need?

Essential:

• Deep practical IaC experience delivering production network infrastructure with tools such as Terraform and Ansible, including reusable modules and roles, declarative configuration, state management where applicable, idempotency, drift detection and safe lifecycle changes.
• Strong software engineering capability in Python, including modular application design, API integration, structured error handling, logging, packaging, dependency management and automated testing; ability to build supported software rather than one‑off scripts.
• Proven experience designing and maintaining Git‑based CI/CD pipelines using platforms such as GitLab CI, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps or Jenkins, with pull requests, quality gates, versioned releases, deployment controls and secure credential handling.
• Strong data centre networking fundamentals, including TCP/IP, BGP, routing, switching, segmentation, high availability and leaf‑spine architectures, with the ability to translate network intent into reliable automation and validation logic.
• Experience modelling and validating network data using YAML, JSON, schemas and templating, and integrating APIs with authoritative sources of truth, inventory or IP address management systems.
• Experience implementing automated unit, integration and network tests, including pre‑change and post‑change validation, failure handling and recovery, to reduce the risk of production network changes.
• Demonstrated principal‑level technical leadership: setting engineering direction, making and documenting architectural decisions, leading code and design reviews, mentoring engineers and influencing across architecture and operations teams while remaining hands‑on.
• Experience operating and supporting production automation services, including Linux environments, observability, incident response and troubleshooting across code, pipelines and network infrastructure, with participation in on‑call support.
• Understanding of secure software delivery, least‑privilege access, secrets management and auditable change controls, and the ability to align automated delivery with ITIL incident, change and problem management.
• A track record of taking network automation from prototype to a supported production capability, with evidence of reuse, adoption, maintainability and reduced manual effort.

Desirable:

• Hands‑on experience with Cisco Nexus NX‑OS, VXLAN EVPN and fabric automation, including multi‑site environments.
• Strong Ansible/AAP network automation experience, with exposure to Nautobot, NetBox, Nornir or similar platforms.
• Experience with containerised, self‑service or event‑driven automation in large, regulated environments; relevant certifications desirable.

Why join us?

We’re obsessed with becoming our customers' #1 banking partner for life and we’re looking for people who are passionate about helping us achieve that goal. In return, we’re committed to making Westpac the best place to work in the country. Here are just a few of the ways we’re already doing that:

• Special offers on banking products and discounts from top brands, including generous employee‑only mortgage rates!
• Flexible work arrangements to help you achieve a greater work/life balance, and a variety of leave options including Culture, Lifestyle and Wellbeing leave.
• Tailored learning and development opportunities to help your grow your career within the bank.
• Lots of opportunities to ‘give back’ to the Community by getting involved in our many volunteering initiatives.

Create your future today

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

If you need any adjustments during the recruitment process, you can find more information and contact details on our FAQs and how to contact us page, under the ‘Diversity, sustainability and flexibility’ section.

#LI - Hybrid.