Lead Microservices and AI Technical Architect

• Type: Contract
• Job #18748

About the role

We are seeking an experienced Microservices & AI Technical Lead to provide technical leadership across a major business application transformation program.

This role will provide architectural authority and technical direction for the design, governance and evolution of cloud-native, microservices-based and AI-enabled platforms. You will influence system builds and engineering decisions, drive modern engineering practices and guide the adoption of AI across the software delivery lifecycle.

A key focus of the role will be establishing enterprise Microservices and Event-Driven Architecture foundations while embedding AI-enabled engineering practices across the Software Development Lifecycle (SDLC). The role will also support capability uplift through knowledge transfer, technical governance, mentoring and collaboration across multidisciplinary teams.

Key responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership and architectural authority for cloud-native, microservices and event-driven platforms.
• Design and govern secure, scalable, resilient and maintainable enterprise technology solutions.
• Establish and promote modern engineering practices, including AI-enabled SDLC, DevSecOps, CI/CD, automated testing, observability and platform engineering.
• Lead technology modernisation initiatives, including microservices enhancement, containerization and enterprise system integration.
• Develop reusable architecture and engineering patterns to improve scalability, maintainability, reliability and operational resilience.
• Guide the adoption and operationalization of enterprise AI capabilities, including semantic search and machine learning solutions.
• Influence architecture, engineering and technology decisions across complex transformation programs.
• Promote security-by-design, responsible AI, operational excellence and continuous improvement.
• Lead and support multidisciplinary technical teams and delivery partners.
• Drive knowledge transfer, technical mentoring and capability uplift across delivery teams.
• Establish engineering governance, standards and practices that support sustainable technology delivery.
• Translate complex business requirements into practical and effective technology outcomes.
• Collaborate with technical and business stakeholders to ensure successful delivery of transformation initiatives.

Highly desirable criteria

• Extensive experience designing, implementing and governing cloud-native, microservices and event-driven architectures within complex enterprise environments.
• Demonstrated expertise in AI engineering and AI-enabled solution delivery, including enterprise AI capabilities, semantic search, machine learning and responsible AI practices.
• Strong software and platform engineering capability, including DevSecOps, CI/CD, automated testing, observability and security by design.
• Proven experience leading enterprise technology modernisation and transformation initiatives.
• Strong ability to influence architecture and engineering decisions and provide technical direction.
• Exceptional stakeholder engagement, communication and leadership skills.
• Demonstrated experience leading multidisciplinary technical teams and delivery partners.

Desirable criteria

• Experience designing, implementing and operating container platforms such as Kubernetes, OpenShift, AKS, EKS or GKE.
• Experience with container platform automation, governance and enterprise workload management.
• Experience with cloud platform modernisation and Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices.
• Experience with observability tooling and enterprise-scale automation.
• Experience leading delivery in Agile environments.
• Experience coaching geographically dispersed technical teams and driving engineering capability uplift.
• Demonstrated commitment to collaboration, innovation and continuous improvement.

Skills and experience

The successful candidate will bring strong technical leadership and hands-on experience across modern enterprise technology environments, including:

• Cloud-native architecture and enterprise application modernisation.
• Microservices and event-driven architecture patterns.
• AI engineering, machine learning and AI-enabled software delivery.
• Software, platform and DevSecOps engineering.
• CI/CD, automated testing and engineering automation.
• Containerization and Kubernetes-based platforms.
• Enterprise integration and reusable architecture patterns.
• Observability, reliability, scalability and operational resilience.
• Security architecture and security-by-design principles.
• Responsible AI and governance.
• Agile delivery and technical leadership.
• Stakeholder engagement and executive-level communication.
• Mentoring, knowledge transfer and organizational capability development.

You will be an accomplished technical leader who can operate strategically while maintaining a strong understanding of engineering delivery. You will be confident influencing senior stakeholders, guiding technical teams and turning complex business challenges into secure, scalable and practical technology solutions.

Benefits

• Opportunity to lead a significant technology transformation program.
• Work at the intersection of microservices, cloud, AI and modern software engineering.
• Influence enterprise architecture and engineering standards.
• Work with multidisciplinary technical and business teams.
• Opportunity to drive technology modernisation and engineering capability uplift.
• Lead the adoption of innovative AI-enabled engineering practices.
• Contribute to a culture of collaboration, innovation, knowledge sharing and continuous improvement.

Contact details

For a confidential chat, please contact shilpa on 0438 027 836 or via email at shilpa@exclaim-it.com.au and we would be more than happy to provide you with additional information and assist in the application process.