Lead Microservices and AI Technical Architect

Our Federal Government client is seeking an experienced Microservices & AI Technical Lead to support a major business application transformation program. This role will provide technical leadership across cloud-native, microservices-based and AI-enabled platforms, influencing architecture decisions, guiding modern engineering practices, and driving the adoption of AI throughout the software delivery lifecycle. The successful candidate will play a key role in establishing enterprise microservices and event-driven architecture foundations while ensuring knowledge transfer and capability uplift across delivery teams.

Role Title: Microservices & AI Technical Lead

Contract Role Till: 12 Month Initial Contract, with 2 possible further extensions.

Daily Pay: Competitive Market Rates

Location: Candidates in capital cities across Australia are considered, with occasional travel to Canberra or other locations. Canberra, ACT (2601) is the home office, with hybrid working arrangements available.

Security Clearance: Baseline Clearance required before starting. This role requires candidates to have Australian citizenship.

Tasks & 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 requirements and business transformation objectives.
• Lead the establishment of modern engineering and AI delivery practices, including AI-enabled Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC), DevSecOps, CI/CD pipelines, observability, automated testing and platform engineering standards.
• Drive technology modernisation initiatives through microservices enhancement, containerisation, enterprise system integration and implementation of reusable architectural patterns that improve scalability, maintainability and operational resilience.
• Provide technical oversight and direction on engineering decisions, solution architecture and platform design to support secure, scalable and reliable service delivery.
• Guide the adoption and operationalisation of AI capabilities across the software delivery lifecycle, ensuring alignment with responsible AI principles and enterprise governance frameworks.
• Support the implementation of enterprise microservices and event-driven architecture foundations to enable future digital transformation initiatives.
• Champion engineering excellence through governance, continuous improvement practices and the adoption of modern cloud-native technologies.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders, delivery teams, architects and executive leadership to translate strategic objectives into practical technology outcomes.
• Lead multidisciplinary teams and delivery partners, fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration and technical excellence.
• Build organisational capability through coaching, mentoring, knowledge transfer and capability uplift initiatives.

Experience & Skills Required:

• 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.
• 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.
• Strong software engineering and platform engineering capability, including modern development frameworks, DevSecOps, CI/CD, automated testing, observability, security-by-design and operational excellence.
• 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.
• 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.

Desirable Skills:

• Experience designing, implementing and operating container platforms using technologies such as Kubernetes, OpenShift, AKS, EKS or GKE, including platform automation, governance and workload management.
• Experience with cloud platform modernisation, Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), platform engineering, observability tooling and enterprise-scale automation practices.
• Experience leading delivery within Agile environments, including coaching geographically dispersed teams, driving capability uplift and fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation and continuous improvement.

If you feel this opportunity matches your skills and previous experiences, please apply with your CV.
Candidates must be based in the Australian Capital Cities and possess Citizenship of Australia.