Job Description

Staff Engineer | Sydney | Permanent

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- Sydney-based with a hybrid working model
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- Hands-on technical leadership — no people management
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- Own architecture across critical, high-scale systems
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- Surry Hills office close to public transport
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The Opportunity

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We are looking for an exceptional Staff Engineer to join a high-performing technology team and play a pivotal role in the architecture and evolution of a rapidly scaling digital platform.

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This is a role for an engineer who wants to operate at Staff / Principal / Lead level without stepping away from the technology.

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You will own the architecture of critical systems, make high-impact technical decisions across multiple teams and help shape the technical roadmap for your area.

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You'll be expected to stay close to the code — designing systems, reviewing critical components, pairing with senior engineers and solving some of the most complex engineering challenges facing the platform.

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This isn't architecture from the sidelines. You'll have genuine ownership and influence over how the platform is built, scaled and operated.

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What You'll Do

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Own the Architecture

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- Own and evolve the architecture of one or more critical systems
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- Make significant architectural and technical decisions that span multiple teams
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- Define and drive the technical roadmap for your area
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- Ensure systems remain scalable, reliable, observable and maintainable
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Lead Distributed Systems & Event-Driven Architecture

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- Be a technical authority across message-oriented and event-driven architecture
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- Design durable, long-running workflows across complex systems
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- Solve challenges around delivery semantics, ordering, idempotency, backpressure and failure recovery
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- Build systems that remain resilient as scale and complexity increase
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Set the Engineering Standard

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- Establish best practices for Kotlin and Java services
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- Improve performance, observability, testing and maintainability
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- Use tooling, templates and engineering practices to make good standards easy to follow
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- Lead by example through hands‐on engineering and high-quality code reviews
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Drive Cloud & Delivery Engineering

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- Help standardise and optimise a GCP environment
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- Work across GKE/Kubernetes, Cloud SQL for PostgreSQL, BigQuery and Pub/Sub
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- Mature CI/CD and engineering automation through GitHub Actions and Terraform
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- Champion a genuine "you build it, you run it" engineering culture
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Think End-to-End

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- Guide integration between JVM backend services and React / TypeScript
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- Shape APIs exposed to partners and external platforms
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- Ensure API contracts are typed, versioned and built to last
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- Build resilient integrations with third‐party platforms you don't control
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Mentor & Influence

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- Mentor senior engineers through design coaching, pairing and high-impact code reviews
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- Transfer engineering judgement rather than simply providing answers
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- Resolve architectural challenges across team boundaries
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- Build consensus around decisions that will stand the test of time
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- Communicate complex technical trade‐offs clearly to non‐technical stakeholders
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What You'll Bring

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We're looking for someone operating at the top end of the engineering profession — an experienced technical leader who has owned significant systems and can influence engineering direction across an organisation.

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You'll ideally bring:

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- 10+ years' software engineering experience, with recent Staff, Principal or Lead-level experience
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- Deep expertise in Kotlin and/or Java
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- Strong understanding of JVM concurrency and memory behaviour
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- Expert‐level knowledge of distributed and event‐driven systems
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- Deep understanding of messaging concepts including idempotency, ordering, backpressure and failure recovery
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- Hands‐on experience with GCP, particularly GKE/Kubernetes, Cloud SQL/PostgreSQL and BigQuery
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- Strong experience with Git and GitHub Actions
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- Hands‐on experience with Terraform and complex delivery automation
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- Working proficiency in React and TypeScript
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- Proven experience building resilient third‐party integrations, including reconciliation, retry and drift detection
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- A solid "you build it, you run it" mindset
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The Type of Engineer We're Looking For

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Technical capability is important, but we're particularly interested in engineers who:

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- Think beyond individual projects and consider the wider system
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- Take ownership and are comfortable making difficult technical decisions
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- Can simplify complex problems without compromising scalability
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- Have strong technical judgement and know when to challenge the status quo
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- Enjoy mentoring and raising the capability of those around them
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- Can influence without relying on organisational authority
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- Are equally comfortable discussing architecture and getting hands‐on in the code
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- Care deeply about reliability, observability and engineering quality
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Why This Opportunity?

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This is an opportunity to have real architectural influence over a platform that is scaling rapidly and sits at the centre of a growing digital business.

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You'll have the chance to:

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- Own critical architecture rather than simply contributing to it
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- Solve genuinely complex distributed systems challenges
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- Work with a modern cloud-native technology stack
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- Influence technical direction across multiple engineering teams
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- Stay hands‐on while operating at Staff/Principal level
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- Mentor and elevate highly capable engineers
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- Build engineering standards that will have a lasting impact
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What You'll Experience

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- Hybrid working from a modern Sydney office in Surry Hills
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- Convenient location close to public transport
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- Team discounts across a range of well‐known Australian brands
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- Access to Sonder, providing confidential 24/7 support for team members and their families
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- An inclusive, collaborative and innovative technology environment
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- The opportunity to work alongside ambitious and highly capable engineers
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If you're a Staff Engineer, Principal Engineer or Lead Engineer who wants to remain hands‐on while having genuine ownership of architecture and technical direction, this could be your next challenge.

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Paxus values diversity and welcomes applications from Indigenous Australians, people from diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds and people living with a disability. If you require an adjustment to the recruitment process, including the application form in an alternate format, please contact me on the above contact details.

📌 Staff Engineer (New South Wales)
🏢 Paxus - Technology + Digital Talent
📍 New South Wales