Lead Microservices and AI Technical Architect

Summary

This role is for a Lead Technical Architect within a federal government department to oversee cloud-native, microservices, and AI-enabled platform development. The position involves setting technical direction, driving modernization initiatives, and leading engineering teams in a hybrid environment.

A federal government department is seeking a Lead Microservices and AI Technical Architect to join its CIO Division, providing technical leadership and architectural authority across cloud-native, microservices-based and AI-enabled platforms.
This is a senior, hands-on architecture leadership role for someone who can set technical direction, influence architecture across a complex enterprise environment, and lead modern engineering and AI delivery practices — while directly uplifting the capability of the teams around them.

The Role
  • Provide architectural authority for cloud native, microservices-based and event-driven platforms
  • Lead AI-enabled solution delivery — enterprise AI, semantic search, ML, and responsible AI practices
  • Champion modern engineering practices: AI-enabled SDLC, DevSecOps, CI/CD, automated testing, observability
  • Drive technology modernisation initiatives — microservices, containerisation, integration, reusable patterns
  • Build organisational capability through knowledge transfer, coaching and engineering leadership
  • Engage confidently across multidisciplinary teams, delivery partners and senior executives
Essential Criteria
  • Extensive experience designing, implementing and governing cloud native, microservices and event-driven architectures in complex enterprise environments
  • Demonstrated AI engineering and AI-enabled solution delivery expertise, including enterprise AI, semantic search, ML and responsible AI
  • Strong software and platform engineering background — modern frameworks, DevSecOps, CI/CD, automated testing, observability, security by design
  • Proven leadership of enterprise technology modernisation/transformation — setting technical direction and delivering measurable reliability, security and scalability gains
  • Exceptional stakeholder engagement, communication and leadership across multidisciplinary teams, delivery partners and senior executives
Desirable Criteria
  • Container platform experience (Kubernetes, OpenShift, AKS, EKS, GKE) — automation, governance, workload management
  • Cloud platform modernisation, SRE, platform engineering and enterprise observability/automation
  • Agile delivery leadership — coaching dispersed teams and driving capability uplift
Engagement Details
  • Level: Lead — EL2 equivalent
  • Location: ACT, Hybrid, max 40 hours/week
  • Start date: 1 October 2026
  • Term: Initial 12 months, plus 2 x 12-month extension options
  • Clearance: Must be able to obtain Baseline
Apply Now

Applications close Monday 14 September 2026

See also

Architecture jobs by country — openings, pay and top skills →

Tailor your CV for this role?

We couldn't check your fit for this role — add a CV to your profile to see it next time.

A new version of freehire is available