$140 to $155/hr inc. | Contract to 30 June 2027
Hybrid Data Science & Data Engineering role | R, Databricks, Spark & Python
Multiple locations across ACT, NSW, VIC, QLD, SA, WA, TAS & NT | Baseline required

Your new company

This Federal Government agency is delivering complex data and modelling work supporting Australia's labour market and skills system. The team is looking for an experienced Data Scientist to join an established technical environment and support the ongoing development and post-production of a large-scale microsimulation model.

This contract runs through to 30 June 2027, with opportunities across multiple Australian locations. A Baseline security clearance is required.

Your new role

This is not a traditional Data Scientist position. You'll work across data science and data engineering, taking ownership of an existing microsimulation model written heavily in R and helping transition it into a stable, scalable production workplace within Azure Databricks.

You'll review and refactor complex R code, improve model and compute performance, develop repeatable scenario testing and support the underlying Python and Spark-based data pipelines. You'll also help strengthen engineering practices around testing, version control, monitoring, logging and documentation.

You'll work alongside data scientists, analysts, engineers and domain specialists to ensure the model remains accurate while improving how efficiently and reliably it operates.





What you'll need to succeed

You'll bring a combination of Data Science and Data Engineering experience, with strong hands-on capability across:

- Advanced R development, including writing custom functions and working with complex existing codebases

- Statistical, simulation or analytical modelling

- Azure Databricks and Spark

- Python and data pipelines

- Refactoring and performance optimisation

- Taking analytical or statistical models into production

- Unit testing, version control and modular development practices

- Scenario testing and model validation

Experience with Azure Data Factory, Delta Lake, Unity Catalogue, labour market datasets or ABS data would be advantageous.

Baseline clearance required.

What you'll get in return

You'll join a specialist Federal Government data environment where you'll work across both the modelling and engineering sides of a significant analytical capability. Rather than developing another dashboard or isolated model, you'll have the opportunity to improve an existing complex model and directly influence how it performs in production.

What you need to do now

If you're interested in this role, click 'apply now' to forward an up-to-date copy of your CV, or call us now.

If this job isn't quite right for you, but you are looking for a new position, please contact us for a confidential discussion about your career.

📌 Data Scientist (Harman)
🏢 Hays
📍 Harman