Job Description
Job Description n
Head of Engineering / Distinguished Engineer
AI Infrastructure | Distributed Systems | Platform Engineering | Sydney.
n We're partnering with one of Australia's most successful global technology businesses to find an exceptional
Head of Engineering / Distinguished Engineer
to help define what a 100+ person engineering organisation looks like in an AI-first world. This isn't a traditional Head of Engineering role focused on process, people management and delivery. We're looking for someone with serious technical credibility; an engineer at heart who can think three steps ahead, challenge conventional thinking and help make some big bets about how software will be built over the next five years.
n The engineering agenda is ambitious. You'll help build the
internal AI infrastructure and developer platforms
that enable hundreds of engineers to build better software faster; redesign how work is specced, built, tested and reviewed using AI; open a major product platform to
APIs, MCP and autonomous agents
; evolve large-scale distributed infrastructure across regions and clouds; and influence major investments across search, data, web, mobile and current greenfield products. You won't personally architect everything, but when the hardest technical problems in the company are being debated, you should be one of the people everyone wants in the room.
n We're looking for someone who combines
Distinguished Engineer-level technical depth with genuine organisational leadership
.



You may already be a VP/Head/Director of Engineering who has refused to become disconnected from technology, or a
Distinguished/Principal
Engineer who has increasingly found themselves leading teams, managers and engineering strategy. Either way, you'll have worked in high-performance product environments, be comfortable challenging ambitious founders and executives, and understand that great engineering is ultimately about creating better products and commercial outcomes.
We'd particularly love to hear from people who have:
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Exceptional
Computer Science fundamentals
, particularly distributed systems, infrastructure and scalable architecture.
n
Built
AI/ML infrastructure, developer platforms, internal tooling or engineering productivity platforms
at meaningful scale.
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Deep thinking around
LLMs, agents, MCP, model orchestration, evals, context engineering and the AI-native SDLC
.
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Led Senior Engineering Managers, Directors or other senior technical leaders — ideally influencing organisations of
100+ engineers
.
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Built complex cloud platforms across
AWS/GCP, Kubernetes, multi-region or multi-cloud environments
.
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Operated inside an ambitious
startup, scale-up or world-class product engineering organisation
where speed and technical excellence both matter.
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The judgement to know
what to build, what to buy, what to kill and what everyone else will need in three years' time
.
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For a more detailed overview of this role, company and opportunity please apply below of reach out to
n

📌 Director Of Engineering (New South Wales)
🏢 The Onset
📍 New South Wales