Lead Data Engineer

We are currently recruiting for a federal government contractor opportunity based in Canberra, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne or Hobart. There is a requirement to travel to Canberra as part of on-boarding and ongoing requirements.

Estimated start date

Tuesday, 11 November 2025

Initial contract duration

ASAP - 31 December 2026

Experience level

Lead - EL1 equivalent

Maximum hours

40 hours per week

Security clearance

Must be able to obtain Negative Vetting Level 1. Existing NV1 clearance is preferred, but candidates with a baseline clearance will be

Position details

The client is seeking to engage a suitably qualified and experienced Lead Data Engineer to deliver and support a range of ICT projects/programs.

The Lead Data Engineer will be required to work within multi-disciplinary project teams to design, develop, and optimise ETL and data pipelines producing analytical datasets embedded as part of data rich products supporting election systems. This role is pivotal in shaping the data architecture that underpins client's analytics, forecasting and business intelligence capabilities leveraging the full power of the Microsoft ecosystem.

The ideal candidate will be an experienced Data Engineer with expertise in implementing analytical solutions using Microsoft technologies working closely with stakeholders and data modellers to develop an end-to-end solution.

They will be a self-starter with strong communication skills, a robust understanding of the data modelling and ETL lifecycle and have a bias towards collaborative problem solving.

Key duties and responsibilities

The Lead Data Engineer will be responsible for, but not limited to:

• Lead the design and development of scalable ETL/ELT pipelines using Azure Data Factory and SQL Server.
• Optimise and maintain complex stored procedures, views, and database performance in SQL Server.
• Collaborate with data architects, data modellers, analysts, and business stakeholders to understand data requirements and translate them into technical solutions.
• Implement data governance, quality, and security best practices across all data engineering activities.
• Lead other data engineers and oversee code reviews, technical standards, and best practices.
• Monitor and troubleshoot data pipeline failures and performance bottlenecks.
• Following the Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) methodology for software development and contributing to Agile ceremonies.
• Adhering to coding best practices and code quality standards including version control, code documentation, and testing.

Criteria

The buyer has specified that each candidate must provide a one page pitch to address all criteria specified.

Essential

1. Extensive experience delivering enterprise-scale data solutions using Azure Data Factory and Azure SQL, with a focus on robust ETL design and implementation.
2. Highly skilled in SQL and T-SQL development, including writing and optimising complex stored procedures and ensuring high-performance data workflows.
3. Exceptional communication and documentation abilities, with a proven track record of collaborating across technical and business teams.
4. Deep understanding of cloud-based data engineering within the Azure ecosystem, emphasising scalability, security, and compliance.
5. Expertise developing ETL processes for dimension/star schema models for analytical and application use cases.

Desirable

1. Background in building and managing CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps, enabling streamlined deployment and operational efficiency.
2. Prior experience in federal government data domains.
3. Bachelor's or Master's degree in a relevant field (e.g. Computer Science, Data Science, Statistics, Engineering).

Please provide a response to this criteria, in addition to a resume with referees of no more than three pages.

Please contact for more information on this opportunity.