We're seeking an experienced Lead Principal Engineer to provide technical leadership on a major Federal Government technology transformation program. This is an exciting opportunity to shape enterprise architecture, influence engineering decisions, and drive the adoption of modern cloud and AI capabilities across large-scale platforms.

Key Responsibilities

- Provide technical leadership and architectural direction for cloud-native, microservices-based and AI-enabled platforms
- Lead the adoption of AI-enabled Software Development Lifecycle (AI SDLC) practices
- Drive up-to-date engineering practices including DevSecOps, CI/CD, automated testing, observability and platform engineering
- Lead enterprise technology modernisation, including containerisation, reusable architecture patterns and enterprise integration
- Establish engineering governance, standards and capability uplift across multidisciplinary teams
- Mentor engineers and ensure knowledge transfer to support long-term organisational capability

- Extensive experience designing and delivering cloud-native, microservices and event-driven architectures within complex enterprise environments
- Strong experience in AI engineering , including enterprise AI solutions, semantic search,



machine learning and responsible AI practices
- Deep expertise across modern software engineering including:
- DevSecOps
- CI/CD
- Security by Design
- Automated Testing
- Observability

- Proven success leading large-scale technology transformation initiatives and influencing enterprise architecture decisions
- Outstanding stakeholder engagement and leadership skills, with experience working alongside senior executives, delivery partners and multidisciplinary teams

Highly Desirable

- Kubernetes, OpenShift, AKS, EKS or GKE
- Site Reliability Engineering (SRE)
- Observability tooling
- Agile leadership and coaching geographically dispersed teams

Location: Canberra (Hybrid with flexible working arrangements)

Occasional interstate travel may be required

Start: October 2026

Contract: 12 months + 2 x 12-month extension options

Security Clearance: Baseline

This is an outstanding opportunity for a senior technology leader passionate about AI, cloud engineering, enterprise architecture and modern software delivery to make a significant impact within a large-scale Federal Government transformation program.

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📌 Lead Principal Architect - Cloud, AI & Platform Engineering (Canberra)
🏢 Saltus Group
📍 Canberra