Senior Engineer (AI Forward Integration)

Virgin Australia; Sydney; Hybrid; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Discounted flights for you and family

Hybrid work style

Brisbane and Sydney offices

Travel discounts

Wellbeing program

Dress for Your Day

Job summary

This hands-on role requires strong coding discipline, production readiness, and collaboration with onshore and offshore teams. You will drive architectural decisions and mentor engineers in adopting AI-first practices.

Qualifications

• Extensive software engineering experience with integration focus.
• Strong hands-on experience designing APIs and microservices.
• Experience using AI-assisted coding tools and reviewing AI outputs.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end integration solutions from discovery to deployment.
• Design and develop APIs, microservices, and event-driven patterns.
• Review and oversee AI-generated code for security and scalability.
• Create AI-assisted engineering workflows to improve quality and speed.
• Lead code reviews and ensure adherence to engineering standards.

Skills

Java & Spring

APIs & Microservices

AI-assisted Eng

Kafka

REST & SOAP

AWS / Kubernetes

Tools

Apigee

Kubernetes

Docker

OpenAPI

Job description

Newly created permanent role, based out of our beautiful Brisbane or Sydney office.

Hello. We’re Virgin Australia. We’re the airline that’s always done things a little differently. Our way. The Virgin way.

We’re on a mission to make flying better than ‘nice’. And to do that, it takes talented people who are passionate about customer experience, doing the right thing, keeping safety front and centre, and bringing fresh thinking to how we work.

What you’ll be doing

As our Senior Engineer you’ll be an end-to-end, AI-first engineer responsible for designing and building the integration services that connect critical platforms across Virgin Australia and Velocity Frequent Flyer.

This is a highly hands-on role for someone who likes to take ownership. You’ll be expected to operate as a self-starter, lead technical thinking, complete solution design independently and drive work from initial requirements through to production.

AI will be embedded into the way you engineer. You’ll use agentic and AI-assisted development approaches to accelerate delivery, while retaining strong engineering oversight and accountability for the quality of what is produced. That includes building the right development and test harnesses, reviewing agent-generated code, validating requirements, and ensuring outputs meet our engineering, security and quality standards.

You’ll bring engaging, creative energy to the team and help shape how AI-first engineering is adopted across our integration environment.

You’ll:

• Own integration solutions end-to-end, from technical discovery and design through to development, testing and implementation
• Independently complete solution and API design for complex integration requirements
• Design and develop APIs, microservices and event-driven integration solutions
• Build and maintain development, validation and test harnesses to govern and verify code and requirements produced through AI agents
• Review, challenge and oversee agent-generated code to ensure it is secure, scalable, maintainable and aligned with engineering standards
• Use approved AI-assisted engineering tools across technical discovery, design, development, testing, code review and documentation
• Create repeatable AI-assisted engineering workflows that improve quality and delivery speed
• Write testable, scalable and efficient code and lead code reviews
• Build cloud-based microservices using Java and Spring Boot
• Work across synchronous and asynchronous integration patterns
• Design and implement integrations across microservices-based architectures
• Work with SOAP and REST APIs, Apigee, Kafka, Kubernetes and Docker
• Develop solutions that operate at scale across AWS and Kubernetes environments
• Contribute to layered API and microservice architectures, including Experience, Business, Domain and Adapter API layers
• Apply strong engineering practices across testing, automation, CI/CD, observability and documentation
• Support production readiness, resilience and ongoing service improvement
• Work closely with engineering leads, peers, testers, delivery teams and offshore teams
• Clearly communicate technical decisions, risks and dependencies across teams
• Mentor engineers and help establish stronger AI‑first engineering practices, standards and reusable patterns

You’ll be great in this role if you have…

You’re an experienced engineer who enjoys owning a problem rather than waiting for someone else to define the answer. You’re comfortable moving from an ambiguous requirement through design, build, test and production, and you bring the judgement to know when AI can accelerate the work and when deeper engineering intervention is required.

You’ll bring:

• Extensive software engineering experience, with strong experience in integration engineering
• Deep hands-on experience with Java and Spring Boot
• Strong experience designing and developing APIs, microservices and integration solutions
• Practical experience using AI coding assistants or software engineering agents across design, development, testing, review and documentation
• Experience reviewing and validating AI-generated code and outputs rather than simply accepting them
• The ability to create effective prompts, technical context, development harnesses and test harnesses that generate consistent, high-quality outcomes
• Strong experience with event-driven integration and Kafka
• Experience with Apigee, REST, SOAP, Kubernetes, Docker and cloud-based microservices
• Experience with OpenAPI and API-first design
• A strong understanding of layered API and microservice architecture
• Strong knowledge of software engineering practices including testing, CI/CD, observability and production support
• The technical confidence to complete solution design independently and drive work through delivery
• A proactive, self-starting approach and the ability to lead without needing heavy direction
• Strong communication skills and an engaging, creative approach to solving complex problems
• A collaborative, team-first mindset and the ability to work effectively across onshore and offshore teams

Experience working in a high-volume, customer-facing or regulated environment will be highly regarded.

What you’ll get from us

We’re committed to looking after you, with some of the best benefits and conditions in the industry, including but not limited to:

• Discounted flights for you and your loved ones, including $1,000 worth of travel credits per year
• A flexible, hybrid work style. Work from home or the office and adapt your location to suit your style and needs
• One of Brisbane’s most admired head office locations, with South Bank train station, a supermarket, pharmacy and lunch options downstairs, plus a five-minute walk to the Busway, a rooftop restaurant, onsite gym and South Bank Parklands just across the road. We also have a central Sydney CBD office.
• Discounts on travel insurance, lounge membership, car hire, accommodation and experiences worldwide
• Cheaper hospitality, retail, technology, beauty and wellness services
• Free counselling and access to a wellbeing app supporting your physical, mental, social and financial health
• Dress for Your Day, giving you the freedom to wear whatever makes you feel great for the work you’re doing and the day ahead

When everyone is included, everyone wins

We’re all individuals. And we love that. That’s why we encourage applications from Indigenous Australians, people with disability, those from diverse cultural backgrounds, our friends in the LGBTQIA+ community, and anyone else who wants to join our family.