Technical Architect (AI)

Yolk Digital; Canberra; On-site; AUD 150,000 - 230,000; Full time

Job summary

Yolk Digital is engaged by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources to deliver an experienced Technical Architect (AI) to lead modernisation of digital platforms in Canberra. You will provide architectural authority for cloud native, microservices and AI enabled platforms, guiding SDLC, DevSecOps, CI/CD, observability and platform engineering standards.

You will drive AI adoption across service delivery, transfer knowledge, and lead multidisciplinary teams to raise engineering maturity

Qualifications

• Extensive background designing and governing cloud native, microservices and event driven architectures in complex enterprise environments.
• Hands-on AI engineering and AI enabled solution delivery, including enterprise AI capabilities, semantic search, machine learning solutions and responsible AI practices.
• Strong software and platform engineering capability across modern development frameworks, DevSecOps, CI/CD, automated testing, observability and security by design.
• Experience leading technology modernisation and transformation initiatives and lifting engineering maturity.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership and architectural authority for 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.
• Drive technology modernisation and platform adoption, including microservices enhancement, containerisation, integration of enterprise systems and implementation of reusable patterns.
• Build organisational capability and technical maturity through knowledge transfer, engineering governance and leadership of multidisciplinary teams.

Skills

Cloud native

Microservices

AI engineering

DevSecOps

CI/CD

Observability

Security by design

Platform engineering

Leadership

Stakeholder engagement

Tools

Kubernetes

OpenShift

AKS

EKS

GKE

Job description

Applications Close: 11:59pm Monday 14 September 2026

Yolk Digital is engaged by the Department of Industry, Science and Resources to provide an experienced Technical Architect (AI) to lead the modernisation of its digital platforms. You'll provide technical leadership and architectural authority for cloud native, microservices based and AI enabled platforms, influencing system builds and engineering decisions across the department.

You'll guide the adoption of AI across the service delivery lifecycle, establish modern engineering practices spanning DevSecOps, CI/CD, observability and automated testing, and drive technology modernisation including containerisation and integration of enterprise systems. A core part of the role is capability transfer: you'll lift the department's technical maturity through knowledge sharing, engineering governance and leadership of multidisciplinary teams.

Duration

12 months, commencing 1 October 2026, with two 12 month extension options.

Clearance

Must be able to obtain a Baseline security clearance.

Key Responsibilities

• 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.

Skills & Experience

• Extensive background designing and governing cloud native, microservices and event driven architectures in complex enterprise environments.
• Hands-on AI engineering and AI enabled solution delivery, including enterprise AI capabilities, semantic search, machine learning solutions and responsible AI practices.
• Strong software and platform engineering capability across modern development frameworks, DevSecOps, CI/CD, automated testing, observability and security by design.
• Experience leading technology modernisation and transformation initiatives and lifting engineering maturity.
• Confident engaging senior executives, delivery partners and multidisciplinary teams, and translating complex business requirements into practical technology outcomes.
• Architecture depth: 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.
• AI engineering: 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.
• Engineering practice: Strong software engineering and platform engineering capability, including modern development frameworks, DevSecOps, CI/CD, automated testing, observability, security by design and operational excellence.
• Modernisation leadership: 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.
• Stakeholder engagement: 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.
• Container platforms: Experience designing, implementing and operating container platforms using technologies such as Kubernetes, OpenShift, AKS, EKS or GKE, including platform automation, governance and workload management.
• Platform modernisation and SRE: Experience with cloud platform modernisation, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), platform engineering, observability tooling and enterprise scale automation practices.
• Agile delivery leadership: Experience leading delivery within Agile environments, including coaching geographically dispersed teams, driving capability uplift and fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation and continuous improvement.