Woolworths

Senior Data and AI Engineer

• Crucial contributor role with the Data and Ai Engineering team

• Surry Hills and Norwest location.

• Hybrid Working (3 days in the office).
  

Welcome to BIG W

For over 50 years, we’ve been helping Aussie families find those little wins. Who makes it all happen? Our team. They’re our biggest asset, the heart of everything we do. From new ideas to big energy and genuine care, they bring it every day, on every shift, at every shelf and in every customer moment. 

We’re part of the largest Australian employer group, a community icon, and our scale opens the door to career possibilities as big as your ambition. Whether you’re on the shop floor, in one of our dynamic support offices, or a bustling distribution centre, we’ll back you to grow, make an impact, and feel proud to be part of something that truly matters. 

If you have a passion for delivering great Customer and Team experience through hands-on strategic problem solving, commercial optimisation, data & analytics - and a desire to join a rapidly evolving retailer where we work collaboratively to unlock exciting opportunities, while creating opportunities for your career development and growth - then you could be the one who we’re looking for.

What you’ll do 

You will be responsible for the hands-on design,build, and optimisation of BIG W's core data and AI platforms. A crucial individual contributor within the Data & AI Engineering team, ensuring that BIG W has scalable, reliable platforms and frameworks to power data, analytics, and AI across the business.

Your deep technical expertise will help  evolve our GCP-based data pipelines and applications and actively contribute to the architectural patterns. A key focus will be enabling BIG W by developing and operating the Data Engineering framework and contributing to the Agentic AI development.  Mentor to junior engineers and analysts and champion engineering best practices.While not a core requirement, app development experience (e.g., back-end or full-stack) would be a strong advantage. 

• Data Platform Engineering: Architect, build, and manage our core data ingestion, processing, and warehousing solutions on Google Cloud Platform (GCP),including BigQuery and Composer.

• MLOps & AI Enablement: Building and operating a robust MLOps framework on Vertex AI to automate the deployment, monitoring, and management of machine learning models developed by the Data Science team.

• Platform Operations & Governance: Ensure the reliability, scalability, and security of our data platforms, managing CI/CD, and implementing data governance standards.

• Agentic AI Development: Designing, building, and deploying autonomous AI agents that can reason, plan, and execute complex tasks to automate and optimise core business processes.

What you’ll bring 

We’re looking for someone who demonstrates a strong learning mindset, curiosity, and a passion for continuously improving their craft. Solid understanding of data modeling principles and the ability to translate business requirements into detailed technical specifications. This includes a proven track record of engineering secure, scalable, and reusable frameworks for both data pipelines and AI applications.

• Experience: 5+ years of dedicated hands-on experience in data engineering or related software engineering roles, with direct exposure to building and operating MLOps platforms (preferably Vertex AI) and supporting production-grade machine learning systems.

• Deep technical proficiency in building and optimizing data/AI solutions on a major cloud platform (GCP highly desirable). 

• You should have strong experience with core cloud services such as:Expert coding skills in essential languages such as Python and SQL ○ Orchestration & Compute: (e.g., Composer/Airflow, Cloud Run)○ Data Warehousing: (e.g., BigQuery, Snowflake, Redshift)○ Security & DevOps: (e.g., IAM, Secret Manager, CI/CD workflows via GitHub Actions)

• Experience in designing and building Agentic AI systems or similar autonomous software agents. 

• Experience with application development (back-end or full-stack) is highly desirable but not essential.

• Data Standards: Strong understanding of data governance, data quality, and security frameworks as they apply to both enterprise data and AI model outputs.

• A passion for retail and creating great experiences for families.

What you’ll experience

• A global business with endless career possibilities around every corner and across every discipline – with valuable exposure to a vast and exciting business network.

• Team discounts across our range of Woolworths Group brands you know and love and a robust rewards program that celebrates and incentivises purpose-driven work.

• 12 weeks paid parental leave for primary caregivers plus paid superannuation for up to 12 months while the Team Member is on parental leave - eligible from the first day of employment.

• A range of programs to help you prioritise and manage your wellbeing, including 24/7 access to the Sonder app. A progressive and competitive leave policy that gives you more space for what matters to you.  

Endless possibilities with Woolworths Group

We’re a proud part of the Woolworths Group – 200,000+ bright minds, passionate hearts and unique perspectives working together connected by a shared Purpose – ‘to create better experiences together for a better tomorrow.’ 

Here you’ll be supported and empowered to explore new ideas, make brave commitments and innovate better ways to meet the food and everyday needs of more than 24 million customers every week. Backed by a culture of genuine care, a flexible approach to work and the support to grow your career and make a meaningful impact, the possibilities for what we can achieve together are endless.

Everyone belongs at Woolworths Group 

As one of the largest employers in Australia and New Zealand, we aim to create a truly inclusive workplace where everyone feels that they belong, can be their best selves, and reach their full potential.

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are key to realising our purpose of better together for a better tomorrow. We recognise the value our team’s diversity brings to our business, customers, and communities and that teams with diverse experiences and backgrounds enrich our group and are better able to innovate and solve problems. 

Woolworths Group is an inclusive, team-first company and we value all skills and experiences. If you meet some, but not all of the requirements, we encourage you to submit your application.