Application closing date: Friday, 12 April 2024 • 11:59pm, Canberra time

Estimated start date: Monday, 03 June 2024

Location of work: NSW

Working arrangements: The successful candidate will work 5 days per week and up to a maximum of 40 hours per week, unless otherwise agreed with their manager. The role is Canberra based, however interstate candidates will be considered. Remote working arrangements will be negotiated on a case-by-case basis. Interstate candidates must:
• Travel to Canberra for the first week of their engagement for induction and to meet their team.
• Travel to Canberra at least once per month for a minimum of 4 working days for key stakeholder, team, and organisational events, as required by their manager.
• Travel will be at the cost of the successful candidate.

Length of contract: 12 months

Contract extensions: 2 x 12 months

Security clearance: Candidates MUST have as a minimum Negative Vetting 1 (NV1) security clearance to perform the role. Candidates with Negative Vetting 2 (NV2) and Positive Vetting (PV) are encouraged to apply. ASD will not sponsor candidates to upgrade their security clearances.

Rates: $120 - $150 per hour (inc. super)

The Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) is a statutory agency in the Defence portfolio that defends Australia against global threats and advances our national interests through the provision of foreign signals intelligence, cyber security and offensive cyber operations as directed by the Australian Government.

ASD requires several Data Engineers at the SFIA Level 5 & SFIA Level 6 to develop and support critical ASD data pipelines and complex data processing systems to deliver mission data outcomes that enable the delivery of ASD's Cyber Defence Capabilities.

The Data Engineers will work closely with stakeholders across business and capability delivery areas to ensure that mission outcomes are realised in a secure, scalable and agile manner.Information on ASD’s Organisational Suitability Assessment (OSA) An OSA is an ASD policy requirement for contractors who will be engaged for a period in excess of 12 months and are conducted to determine a person’s suitability to work in ASD. The OSA requires a psychological assessment, which involves a questionnaire and an interview. Before submitting an application for this role, the candidate should consider their preparedness for questions that may include the following topics: personal relationships, living circumstances, personal values, financial situation, physical and mental health history including substance use, and any civil and/or military record.

The Senior Data Engineer is required to perform and achieve very complex data engineering work within an integrated workforce. They will be responsible for influencing and developing strategies, policies, priorities and operational practices in support of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD) objectives based on high level decision making and judgement.

Job Duties and Responsibilities:

• Accountable to provide a strategic level of specialist and professional analysis to define, structure and solve very complex data engineering challenges.
• Utilise tools and techniques to develop and test data engineering solutions to achieve business outcomes.
• Generate and review very complex advice on requirements, current and future state models and plans, designs and solutions to improve data interoperability, storage, analysis and transmission.
• Build maintain and deploy data pipelines analytical environments and models and data stores to store transform, integrate, analyse and transport data and meta-data from a variety of sources to enable others to use and analyse data.
• Manage the risks associated with the use of data including ensuring the security of data storage and transmission mechanisms.
• Build and sustain strong relationships with a network of key stakeholders to deliver tailored recommendations.
• Analyse very complex problems, applying expertise, professional judgement and initiative to identify and recommend alternative courses of action and opportunities for continuous improvement.
• Anticipate changes and establish priorities, monitor progress and work to deliver required corporate outcomes, within the data function.

Job Skills and Qualifications:

• Demonstrated high-level experience as a Data Engineer in large and very complex enterprise environments.
• Demonstrated experience providing strategic advice to senior management and stakeholders as well as leading and assuming accountability for very complex work that have strategic, political or operational significance.
• Demonstrated experience providing strategic direction to the work unit, including developing business plans, strategies and priorities and monitor work flow.
• Extensive knowledge relating to the methodology, systems and procedures within the data function and have the ability to translate this into strategy.
• Demonstrated experience in Object Oriented Language (Java, Python, go, JavaScript, SQL, Cypher).
• Demonstrated experience in processing and analytics services. (Spark, Java map reduce, Knative, Ray, NIFI).
• Knowledge or experience in working with Open-search, Neo4j,Redis, Oracle, Kafka, Kubernetes.

HOW TO APPLY

1. Please complete a one-page summary (no more than 500 words) that demonstrates your ability to perform the 'Job Duties and Responsibilities' set out in the job description above.
2. Please complete a one-page summary (no more than 500 words) that demonstrates your ability to perform the 'Job Skills and Qualifications' set out in the job description above.