We're the airline that dares to do things a little differently. Bold, down-to-earth and built around giving our guests real choice.

Safety is our backbone, service is our heartbeat, and our people are our superpower. We blend heart and smarts to deliver experiences that feel good, work brilliantly and bring a spark of fun back to flying.

We're vibrant, authentic and unapologetically human. Here, you can bring your whole self, your Virgin Flair and your ambition to a team that champions individuality, innovation and a whole lot of heart. If you're excited by meaningful work, real opportunities to grow, and a culture where you can genuinely make a difference, you'll feel right at home with us.

In our IT team, we’re the engine room that keeps Virgin Australia running smoothly, blending technical excellence with that signature Virgin spirit. We’re curious problem solvers who move fast, think smart and own our impact. Whether we’re delivering seamless digital experiences or strengthening the systems that keep our operation flying, we do it with discipline, heart and a healthy dose of innovation.

What you'll be doing…

As Head of Data, you will lead the evolution of Virgin Australia’s data capabilities, helping our people make better decisions, improve operations and deliver value through analytics and AI.

Reporting to the CTO, Platforms, you will lead our data strategy, platforms, engineering and governance capabilities. You will partner with technology and business leaders to prioritise investment, strengthen data ownership and quality, and build trusted data foundations that support reporting, advanced analytics and AI at scale.

You will lead the evolution and operation of our Databricks data platform,



making trusted data easier to discover, understand and use. You will also guide how AI improves the way we engineer, manage and consume data.

This role combines strategic leadership, business partnership and operational accountability. You will lead internal teams and delivery partners, including an offshore service provider, and build a culture of accountability, collaboration and continuous improvement.

Your responsibilities

Set direction and deliver business value

- Define and deliver an enterprise data strategy and investment roadmap aligned with Virgin Australia’s business priorities and technology strategy.
- Partner with business leaders to identify and prioritise opportunities across operational performance, customer experience, revenue, efficiency and risk.
- Translate priorities into executable plans, with clear ownership, dependencies, investment decisions and measurable outcomes.
- Track business adoption and value alongside data quality, delivery performance, platform reliability and cost.

Build trusted data foundations for analytics and AI

- Lead the architecture, evolution and operation of our Databricks data platform, ensuring it supports enterprise reporting, analytics and AI and integrates effectively with our broader technology setting.
- Develop reusable data products with clear owners, consistent business definitions,



quality expectations and service standards.
- Make structured and unstructured data fit for its intended use, including reporting, analytics, generative AI and AI-enabled workflows.
- Strengthen data discovery, metadata, lineage and access controls so people and AI systems can use appropriate data with confidence.
- Enable self-service through trusted data, accessible tools and effective controls that protect sensitive information.

Strengthen governance and responsible use

- Establish practical data governance with business leaders, including clear accountability for data ownership, stewardship, quality and lifecycle management.
- Partner with Cyber Security, Privacy, Risk and Legal to embed security, privacy, retention and regulatory requirements into data services.
- Work with AI and business leaders to ensure AI solutions use appropriate data, have clear accountability and include evaluation, monitoring and human oversight proportionate to their risk.
- Drive remediation of material data issues, prioritising their operational and business impact.

Modernise delivery and operations

- Build effective engineering practices across automated testing, deployment, monitoring and recovery.
- Apply AI to improve data engineering, documentation, quality management and self-service, with appropriate validation and controls.
- Partner with technology, business and AI leaders to move prioritised use cases into reliable, governed operation, with clear ownership and measurable outcomes.
- Manage platform availability, performance, resilience and incident response in line with business criticality.
- Optimise data and AI ser

📌 Head of Data (Brisbane)
🏢 Virgin Australia Airlines
📍 Brisbane