Senior AI/ML Engineer, Melbourne An early-stage AI business, growing rapid, hybrid in Melbourne.

You'd be one of the most senior technical hires on the team, working directly with leadership rather than through layers of management. The mandate is to take ownership of production AI/ML systems that run against real operational data, not synthetic data in a lab, and to be the technical point of contact when a client's own operations team hits a problem.

What you'll own
AI/ML systems built and deployed at scale, through to production, not prototypes that stop at a demo
Current client engagements where the operations team depends on your system working correctly, not just performing well in a demo
What ships, what doesn't, and how it's monitored once it's live
Systems built against data where the trust bar to get access is high and the output has to hold up once it's in the field

What you'll bring
Seven-plus years, hands-on. You're still the one writing and shipping the code
Time in an industrial,



energy or manufacturing setting, enough to know what operational data looks like once it leaves the spreadsheet
Python and SQL as a given, Azure preferred, a track record of getting models into production and keeping them there
The confidence to sit across from a client's operations team without someone more senior in the room

What's on offer
Direct access to the leadership team, no layer in between
Equity, offered to the right hire after the standard probation period
Hybrid, Melbourne-based. Open to Sydney and elsewhere in Australia for the right person
Salary dependent on experience

Small team, real ownership, and problems that run on physical operations rather than a dashboard. Worth a conversation if that's the kind of mandate you're after.

Send me a message or a CV, happy to talk it through first.

Lewis Heeks, Innova Search

📌 Senior Ai Engineer Melbourne
🏢 INNOVA SEARCH
📍 Melbourne