Technical Lead

Nine; North Sydney Council; Hybrid; AUD 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

18 weeks paid parental leave

Employee Exclusives program

Digital newspaper subscription

Stan subscription gift voucher

Job summary

Nine's Data Science & AI team sits within the Digital group, building AI-powered products that create genuine value for Nine's business and audiences. The team operates across data science and AI engineering tracks to ship production AI software.

As Technical Lead you will shape Nine's AI Engineering function, drive software engineering standards, and guide end-to-end builds spanning internal automation to audience-facing features. You will ensure production-grade code and scalable architecture.

Qualifications

• 7+ years of commercial software engineering experience with production systems.
• 2+ years in technical leadership or engineering management.
• Strong Python; Go is a plus.
• Experience with backend systems, APIs, and cloud platforms.

Responsibilities

• Mentor and grow a small high-performing engineering team.
• Set software quality benchmarks via architecture, CI/CD, testing, and design reviews.
• Own the technical architecture for AI-powered systems on GCP/AWS.
• Maintain production stability, monitoring, and incident handling for customer-facing AI apps.
• Improve Agile/Scrum workflows and unblock delivery.

Skills

Python

Go familiarity

GCP/AWS

CI/CD

Infrastructure as Code

Architecture design

Leadership

Education

Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or Software Engineering

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Terraform

OpenTofu

EKS/GKE

Job description

Nine is Australia's largest locally owned media company. Working at Nine, you'll have access to a unique range of experiences and opportunities, helping drive the success of the country's most trusted television, radio, digital and publishing brands.
Our content reaches almost every Australian - meaning what we do has real impact. We bring people together, celebrate the big moments, and capture the everyday ones.
Some of our most beloved brands have been part of Australian life for generations, and others - new on the scene - have already found their place firmly in our lives. We're evolving and we need people like you to bring new ideas, innovate and make your mark.

Job Descrption

The Data Science & AI team sits within Nine's Digital group, building AI-powered products that create genuine value for Nine's business and its audiences. The team operates across two complementary tracks: a Data Science function focused on modelling and business optimisation; and an AI Engineering function that designs and ships production AI software.

As Technical Lead you will shape Nine's AI Engineering function, driving software engineering standards across the build, deployment, and operation of our AI products. Working in close partnership with a dedicated AI Product team, you will guide the team through end-to-end software builds that span internal agentic workflow automation to audience-facing features. You will ensure our products are built to last in production, with clean code and robust system architecture.

What you'll do:

People Operations & Team Leadership: Mentor and grow a small high-performing engineering team. Build a culture centered on technical craft, cross-skilling, and continuous learning.

Engineering Standards & Governance: Set the benchmark for software quality by driving best practices in clean architecture, CI/CD, testing, and system design through hands-on code reviews and design sessions.

Architecture & System Design: Own the technical architecture for AI-powered systems across GCP and AWS (EKS), balancing pragmatic, fast delivery with long-term scalability and maintainability.

Production & Operations Integrity: Maintain operational stability, monitoring, and incident management for high-availability, customer-facing AI applications running in production.

Delivery & Execution: Improve Agile/Scrum workflows, remove technical and organisational blockers, and keep the team shipping high-quality software consistently.

What you'll bring:

7+ years of commercial software engineering experience, with a record of shipping and operating production systems.

2+ years in a technical leadership or engineering management role, with demonstrated experience mentoring and growing engineers.

Strong programming skills in Python, with familiarity with Go considered a plus, or a similar programming language.

Experience designing and building backend systems and APIs, with a solid grounding in software architecture principles.

Hands-on experience with GCP and/or AWS cloud platforms.

Proficiency with CI/CD pipelines and Infrastructure as Code (such as Terraform or OpenTofu or similar).

A Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or equivalent practical experience.

Desirable but not essential:

Experience building applications with LLMs, agentic AI frameworks, RAG, vector databases, or embedding models.

Exposure to Google Cloud AI services (Vertex AI, Agent Runtime), MLOps practices, or multi-modal AI systems.

Containerisation and orchestration experience using Docker and Kubernetes (EKS or GKE).

Prior experience in a media, publishing, or digital content organisation.

Additional Information

How we work
At Nine, our flexible work options vary by role and team. Depending on the position, this may include flexible hours, hybrid work, or part-time arrangements. We welcome discussing your flexibility needs during the hiring process - just ask the Talent Acquisition team.

Our employee benefits include:

• 18 weeks paid parental leave with no distinction between primary and secondary carers
• Access to 'Employee Exclusives' program - a way of getting closer to our incredible brands, offering unique experiences, behind-the-scenes access, and awesome perks.
• Digital newspaper subscription to our mastheads
• Annual gift voucher for Stan subscription

More info at Nine Careers

Our Commitment to Diversity and Inclusion

We're committed to a safe, respectful and inclusive Nine. From day one, you'll be encouraged to bring your whole self to work and will be supported to perform at your best.

We encourage applications from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, people with disabilities, and of all ages, genders, nationalities, backgrounds and cultures as we recognise the importance and value of diverse perspectives. Should you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, please advise us when you apply.

Work rights: Please note to apply for this role you must already have unrestricted rights to lawfully work and live in Australia.