Lead Data Engineer

Lead Engineer

• Lead Engineer to own L3 production support and Cloud Operations on GCP, ensuring reliability of applications, data pipelines (BigQuery, Airflow) and Vertex AI workloads through incident management, RCA, monitoring, automation, DevOps and cost optimisation.
• Provide hands-on expertise in GCP, Kubernetes, Python, SQL, Terraform, CI/CD, Claude/Claude Code and Gemini, while leading and mentoring a 7-8 member team, building L3 capabilities, managing escalations, on-call, releases, stakeholder communication and operational excellence.

Woolworths Group India is partnering exclusively with Zinnov Group to recruit for this position.

About this role

The Lead Engineer is a hands-on, AI-focused technical leader. They own Tier-3 (L3) support for engineering solutions, including data pipelines and Vertex AI use cases on Google Cloud, lead the Cloud Ops team and use Claude and Gemini directly in their daily work. The role goes beyond incident handling and focuses on three outcomes:

• Run: Keep production stable, available and cost-efficient across applications, cloud infrastructure, data pipelines and AI workloads.
• Improve: Remove recurring failures through problem management, automation and hands-on use of AI tools such as Claude and Gemini.
• Grow: Own the team's technical L3 capability and build it through mentoring, cross-training, runbooks and structured learning, so L3 never depends on one person.

What youll do

• Own L3 production support across applications, cloud infrastructure, data pipelines and Vertex AI workloads, handling P1/P2 incidents, escalations, debugging, service recovery and RCA.
• Drive production reliability and problem management through monitoring, observability, incident prevention, corrective actions, SLAs/SLOs, ITIL processes and ServiceNow.
• Own GCP data pipeline operations, including batch/streaming ETL/ELT, Cloud Composer/Airflow, BigQuery and Cloud Storage, covering data quality, reconciliation, performance and cost optimisation.
• Manage Vertex AI production workloads, including pipelines, training jobs, model registry, batch/online endpoints and Gemini integrations, troubleshooting model, performance, latency and cost issues.
• Demonstrate hands-on AI-assisted engineering using Claude, Claude Code and Gemini for debugging, code reviews, log analysis, test/script generation, documentation, AI agents, automation and prompt engineering, with appropriate security guardrails.
• Lead Cloud Ops and DevOps across GCP and Kubernetes/GKE, Cloud Run, Compute Engine, networking, IAM, Terraform/IaC, Git, CI/CD, containers, configuration management and deployment automation.
• Provide strong hands-on technical expertise in Python, SQL and shell scripting, monitoring/observability tools (Cloud Monitoring, Splunk, Snyk), infrastructure troubleshooting, performance tuning, security and disaster recovery.
• Lead and develop a 7-8member Cloud Ops team, owning L3 capability mapping, mentoring, cross-training, on-call/shift management, hiring support, knowledge sharing and reducing dependency on individual engineers.
• Own technical delivery and stakeholder management, including code/design reviews, release and change management, operational readiness, risk assessment and collaboration with Engineering, Product, Platform, Security and business teams.
• Drive operational excellence and continuous improvement through automation, runbooks, technical debt reduction, SLO/SLA adherence, MTTD/MTTR, incident trends, change failure rates, cloud cost optimisation and service performance reporting.

What youll bring

• Cloud: GCP, Kubernetes (GKE), Compute Engine, Cloud Run, networking, IAM and Cloud Storage.
• Data Engineering: BigQuery, Cloud Composer/Airflow, ETL/ELT, data modelling, data quality and reconciliation.
• AI/ML Platforms: Vertex AI Pipelines, endpoints, model registry, Gemini on Vertex AI and production AI workload management.
• AI-assisted Engineering: Hands-on Claude, Claude Code and Gemini; prompt engineering, AI agents, automation, guardrails and model evaluation.
• Infrastructure & DevOps: Terraform/IaC, Git, CI/CD pipelines, deployment automation and configuration management.
• Production Operations & SRE: L3 support, incident/problem management, RCA, SLOs, on-call management, capacity planning and disaster recovery.
• Monitoring & ITSM Tools: Google Cloud Monitoring, Splunk, Snyk, observability tools and ServiceNow.
• Programming & Scripting: Strong hands-on Python, SQL and Shell scripting.
• Technical Leadership: L3 capability mapping and development, technical mentoring, team management, rota/on-call management and knowledge sharing.
• Delivery & Stakeholder Management: Delivery planning, release/change management, cross-functional collaboration, stakeholder communication and continuous operational improvement.

What youll experience

• Be a part of Australia’s largest retailer
• Constant mentoring and training provided
• Generous performance based bonus
• 20 days annual leave
• A flexible approach to work
• Premium insurance coverage for you and your dependants

Everyone belongs at Woolworths Group

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are key to realising our purpose of better together for a better tomorrow. We recognise the value our team’s diversity brings to our business, customers, and communities and that teams with diverse experiences and backgrounds enrich our group and are better able to innovate and solve problems. As one of the largest employers in Australia and New Zealand, we aim to create a truly inclusive workplace where everyone feels that they belong, can be their best selves, and reach their full potential.

We encourage all candidates to apply; please let us know in your application if we can support you with any adjustments in the hiring process.

Your Personal Data

By submitting your application, you acknowledge and consent to Zinnov Management Consulting Private Limited and its subsidiaries (Zinnov) and/or Woolworths Group Limited and its subsidiaries (Woolworths Group) collecting, processing and disclosing your personal information, including any sensitive personal information provided by you, for the purposes of managing the recruitment process, assessing your suitability for employment, communicating with you regarding your application, and, where appropriate, considering you for future employment opportunities, to the extent relevant. If your application is successful, Zinnov and/ or Woolworths Group will also use your personal information, including sensitive personal information, for managing your ongoing working relationship.

Your personal information will be handled, in accordance with applicable privacy laws.

To learn more about how we collect, use, disclose and safeguard your personal information, including your privacy rights, please refer to the Zinnov Privacy Policy and Woolworths Group Team Member Privacy Notice.