The role

• Lead the design and delivery of data solutions to support key delivery initiatives, ensuring alignment with enterprise data strategy, enterprise architecture standards, and organisational priorities. 
• Design, develop and maintain data pipelines and ETL/ELT processes using modern data platforms, supporting both batch and real-time data integration use cases. 
• Design, implement and maintain data solutions leveraging the Bureau’s Cloudera-based enterprise data platform, ensuring scalable, secure and governed data ingestion, storage and processing; and provide expert advice on, and evaluate, emerging technologies and tooling to ensure data platforms remain fit-for-purpose and aligned to future organisational needs. 
• Optimise data processing workflows to improve performance, cost efficiency, scalability, and reliability across cloud-based and hybrid data platforms. 
• Provide technical leadership in data engineering practices, establishing and embedding standards, patterns, and best practices for data integration, data modelling, and pipeline development. 
• Collaborate closely with business stakeholders, product owners, and enterprise and solution architects to translate business requirements into fit-for-purpose data solutions, ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture and long-term platform direction. 
• Engage with cross-functional teams (including data scientists, analysts, application teams, and platform engineers) to support end-to-end delivery of data products and services. 
• Support delivery lifecycle activities, including planning, estimation, implementation, testing, deployment, and transition to operations, ensuring solutions are production-ready and supportable. 
• Provide expert advice and recommendations on data platform capabilities, emerging technologies, and toolsets to continuously enhance the organisation’s data engineering capability and platform maturity. 
• Mentor and guide junior engineers and team members, fostering capability uplift in modern data engineering techniques, tools, and practices. 
• Ensure data solutions align with governance, security and compliance requirements, including data quality, metadata management, lineage, and auditing standards. 
• Contribute to continuous improvement of delivery processes and engineering practices, supporting DevSecOps, automation, and observability across data platforms. 
• Manage competing priorities and deliver outcomes in a complex, fast-paced environment, exercising sound judgement and accountability consistent with APS EL1 expectations.  
• Build and maintain strong working relationships across the organisation, working closely with business areas to ensure data platforms and solutions meet current and future needs and support strategic outcomes.  
• Undertake additional duties as required, consistent with the classification, and demonstrate commitment to APS Values, Code of Conduct, and workplace health and safety obligations. 
• Complying with all Bureau work, health and safety policies and procedures, and taking reasonable care for your own health and safety and that of employees, contractors and visitors who may be affected by your conduct. 

Job description

This role is responsible for leading the design, development, and delivery of scalable, secure, and high-performing data solutions that support key organisational initiatives and strategic outcomes. Operating within a modern, cloud-enabled data environment, the position provides technical leadership across data engineering practices, ensuring alignment with enterprise data strategy, architecture standards, and governance requirements.

The role drives the implementation and optimisation of data pipelines and integration processes (batch and real-time), leveraging the organisation’s enterprise data platform (including Cloudera) to enable reliable data ingestion, storage, and processing. It plays a critical part in shaping platform capability by evaluating emerging technologies and continuously enhancing engineering standards, patterns, and delivery practices.

Working collaboratively with business stakeholders, architects, and cross-functional teams, the position translates complex business requirements into fit-for-purpose data solutions and supports end-to-end delivery of data products. The role also contributes to DevSecOps practices, automation, and observability, ensuring solutions are robust, production-ready, and aligned with compliance, security, and governance frameworks.

In line with APS Executive Level 1 expectations, the position requires strong leadership, sound judgement, and the ability to manage competing priorities in a fast-paced environment. It also focuses on building organisational capability through mentoring, fostering continuous improvement, and maintaining strong stakeholder relationships to ensure data platforms meet current and future needs.

About the agency

The Bureau of Meteorology is one of the few organisations that touches the lives of all Australians and all Australia, every day. The Bureau works across Australia and remote islands, providing services from the Antarctic to beyond the equator, and from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific. We are Australia's national weather, climate and water agency, in the Agriculture, Water and Environment portfolio of the Australian Government, operating under the authority of the Meteorology Act 1955 and the Water Act 2007. We provide data, information, knowledge, insight and wisdom to help Australians prepare and respond to the realities of their natural environment, including droughts, floods, fires, storms, tsunami and tropical cyclones. Our products and services include observations, forecasts, analysis and advice covering Australia's atmosphere, water, oceans and space environments. We undertake focused scientific research in support of our operations and services. Through regular forecasts, warnings, monitoring and advice, we provide one of Australia's most fundamental and widely used public services. We have strong relationships with our customers, partners and stakeholders in Australia, including the Australian Community and the emergency services sectors, all-levels of Government, and focus sectors including aviation, agriculture, energy and resources, national security and water.