Principal Data Engineer (NV1 contract)
Summary
Contract Principal Data Engineer (Canberra, NV1 clearance required) joining the small Australian team of a US tech company whose AI platform maps global supply chains. Day to day: build and run reliable, secure, cost-effective client data pipelines using Python, SQL, Databricks, AWS and some Azure, while acting as lead technical voice with Australian government clients.
The role
You'll be part of a small Australian team within a US based tech company that uses AI to map global supply chains. You'll build and customise data pipelines for Australian clients, bring their data into the platform, and keep those pipelines reliable, secure and cost effective. The best part about this role is the mix: you're the technical expert in client meetings, and you're still hands‑on, working mainly with Python, SQL, Databricks and AWS, with some Azure.
About you
- 8+ years in data engineering, with end‑to‑end ownership of large‑scale pipelines, from design through to running them in production
- A current NV1 clearance
- Experience as the lead technical voice with clients, ideally government, translating their requirements into architecture
- Hands‑on cloud engineering in AWS and/or Azure, building solutions, not just administering them
- Security minded, with experience in data governance and supporting security reviews or accreditation (IRAP or Essential Eight a plus)
- You set technical direction, mentor others, and can clearly explain your own impact versus the team's
- Familiarity with graph databases, entity resolution, or trade and supply chain data a plus
The offer
- Contract role based in Canberra
- Join a high performing team working on a platform with global impact
- Flexible hours built around client needs, not a rigid 9 to 5
- Modern stack and tooling: Python, SQL, Databricks, OpenSearch, Postgres, Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform, Datadog, AWS and Azure