Data Engineer

Work with cutting edge technology, making the world a safer and more secure place. DroneShield (ASX:DRO) offers an opportunity to solve some of world’s most challenging technical problems in the Electronic Warfare, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, RF sensing, Sensor Fusion and distributed systems. Working with high profile customers across militaries, government agencies, airports, critical infrastructure, law enforcement and many others.

With one of the largest listed defence company market capitalisations in Australia and having raised approximately $250m in 2024 alone, DroneShield is undergoing hypergrowth stage, fuelled by rapidly increasing use of drones for nefarious applications, from battlefield, to terrorism, to contraband delivery and commercial espionage.

This role is in the DroneShield Sydney headquarters in Sydney CBD. There are approximately 300 staff based in the 4,000sqm facility today, scheduled to grow to approximately 400 staff by end of 2025. Overseas on the ground presence includes Virginia (USA), Denmark, Germany and Dubai, as well as distributors in over 70 countries globally.

About the role

DroneShield is seeking a Data Engineer to join our team in Sydney, Australia. Reporting to the SensorFusionAI (SFAI) Team Lead, you will develop the core data pipelines and tools that turn real-world, multi-sensor data into actionable AI intelligence — powering systems that operate in the world’s most complex and high-stakes environments.

This is a unique opportunity to apply your data engineering expertise in a deeply mission-driven company, working with diverse, high-volume, real-world sensor data (e.g., RF, optical, radar) in dynamic environments.

Responsibilities, Duties and Expectations

- Design, develop, maintain and/or refine internal software tools used for processing data, workflow automation, benchmarking and testing the SensorFusionAI engine.

- Analyse real-world sensor data, identify critical parameters and plan data collection strategy ensuring our target classification models remain at the cutting edge.

- Lead data analysis during new sensor integrations, evaluating detection accuracy and their fit for use within our sensor fusion framework.

- Liaise with drone pilots, QA and field-service engineers to collect real-world data from our multi-sensor installations.

- Oversee data annotation processes and quality control to ensure consistent, model-ready datasets.

- Implement and maintain automated workflows and pipelines (e.g., Git, CI/CD, MLOps, DataOps) to uphold the highest performance and quality standards.

- Continuously improve data engineering pipelines to ensure performance, scalability, and reliability.

- Work in close collaboration with relevant stakeholders to troubleshoot and resolve bug/issue reports.

- Maintain a high standard of software quality through documentation, testing, and code reviews.

- Collaborate closely with other engineers and become a valued member of an autonomous, cross-functional team.

Qualifications, Experience and Skills

- BS degree in Computer Science, Mathematics or similar technical field of study or equivalent practical experience

- Minimum 3 years of experience in a professional Software Engineering environment

- Demonstrated experience in creating automated workflows (CI/CD, DataOps) and AI/ML pipelines (MLOps)

- Proficiency in an object-oriented programming language with strong expertise in one or more general purpose programming languages (ideally Python/Golang)

- Strong grasp of data structures, algorithms, and the application of mathematics and physics in software development

- Familiarity with Linux and containerisation

Nice to have

- Experience in AI or Machine Learning projects

- Proficiency in C++, meta build tools (CMake) and unit testing frameworks

- Experience developing data intensive real-time applications and/or GPU based processing systems (TensorRT, CUDA…)

- Knowledge of sensor fusion and object tracking algorithms

Who you are

- You have a strong foundation in software and data engineering, and you are confident in designing scalable systems that ingest, process, and transform large volumes of real-world sensor data.

- You have hands‑on experience building tools, pipelines, or frameworks that support AI/ML workflows.

- You have worked across the entire data lifecycle — from raw ingestion and transformation to preparing clean, labeled datasets for model training and validation.

- You have hands‑on experience with CI/CD, containerization, and workflow orchestration tools, and enjoy automating complex processes for speed and reliability.

- You take pride in delivering clean, well‑documented, and tested code that integrates seamlessly with broader systems and is easy for others to maintain.

- You are a self‑driven learner, always seeking to improve and stay at the forefront of your field.

- You are comfortable running your software in Linux environments.

- You thrive in fast‑paced, high‑stakes settings and are motivated to help DroneShield scale globally.

Note for recruitment agencies: We do not accept unsolicited candidates from external recruiters unless specifically instructed.

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