Fullstack Software Engineer (GenAI Platforms)

1-year contract, renewableGovernment projectHybrid work arrangementWe are looking for a Full-Stack Software Engineer to drive the development of a Whole-of-Government Chat platform, incorporating modern search architectures and Generative AI capabilities.You will lead by example, guide architectural decisions, mentor engineers, and champion strong engineering practices while responsibly introducing emerging technologies such as GenAI into production systems.What to ExpectTechnical LeadershipProvide technical leadership to an agile, cross-functional development teamDefine and communicate technical vision across multiple workstreamsCollaborate with other Tech Leads to plan technical spikes and long-term technical strategy beyond sprint scopeIdentify technical risks early and lead mitigation strategiesLead resolution of technical blockers and retrospective improvementsEnsure engineering standards are upheld across the teamRepresent the development team in governance and stakeholder meetingsMentor and coach engineers to grow both technically and professionallyArchitecture & AI SystemsDesign scalable, secure, and resilient architectures for search and AI-powered systemsMake architectural trade-offs balancing performance, cost, reliability, and securityArchitect systems leveraging:LLM integrations (e.g. Azure OpenAI, OpenAI APIs, etc.)Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG)Semantic search and vector databasesEstablish guardrails for AI systems including:Evaluation frameworksObservability and monitoringData governance and security considerationsGuide the team from experimentation prototype production-ready AI systemsEvaluate emerging AI technologies and assess suitability for public sector use casesEngineering ExcellenceChampion Agile technical practices (TDD, pair programming, refactoring, CI/CD)Lead DevOps adoption including build, release automation, and infrastructure improvementsOversee automated testing strategy (unit, integration, performance)Stakeholder CollaborationWork closely with Product Owners and Business Analysts to prioritise business stories and technical investmentsCollaborate with UX Designers for feasibility studies and solution estimationPartner with Delivery Managers on long-term planning, system integrations, and resource forecastingHow to SucceedExperience5–7+ years of experience in web application developmentProven experience leading agile development teamsTechnical SkillsStrong hands-on experience with:Node.jsTypeScriptCloud platforms (Azure, AWS, GCP)SQL & NoSQL databasesCI/CD pipelinesDevOps practicesSearch & AI ExperienceDesigned or led systems involving:Search engines (crawl, index, ranking, relevance tuning)Semantic search or vector searchRAG architecturesProduction experience integrating LLMs into applicationsExperience managing AI-related trade-offs:Latency vs costAccuracy vs hallucination risksPrompt engineering strategiesModel evaluation methodologiesUnderstanding of:AI system governanceSecurityResponsible AI practicesPersonal AttributesStrong coaching and mentoring capabilitiesComfortable leading technical discussions and influencing stakeholdersProactive self-starter with strong ownership mindsetPassionate about continuous improvementCurious about emerging technologies and willing to experiment responsiblyStrong communication and stakeholder management skillsMeticulous attention to quality and engineering standards