Senior Infrastructure Engineer

Application closing date: Thursday, 08 January 2026
• 11:59pm, Canberra time

Estimated start date: Monday, 02 March 2026

Location of work: ACT

Working arrangements: Candidates must be available to work full-time on-site at 51 Allara St, Canberra City. Work from home is possible on an ad-hoc basis at DFAT's discretion. Remote/interstate based workers will not be considered.

Length of contract: 12 months

Contract extensions: 2x 12 months

Security clearance: Must have Negative Vetting Level 1

Rates: $110 - $140 per hour (inc. super)

This role resides in the Department of Foreign Affairs & Trade (DFAT) Telecommunications and Data Centre Support Section (TCS). The DFAT TCS section resides within the Information Management Division under the Infrastructure and Operational Support Branch. TCS comprises of a combination of APS and contract technical resources working, predominantly in wide area networks, data centres, and Voice and Video technologies. The team supports both projects & operations.

The Telecommunications and Data Centre Support Section within the Infrastructure and Operational Support Branch of DFAT's Information Management and Technology Division has a requirement for an ICT labour hire resource to fill the role of Senior Unified Communications Engineer.

The Senior Unified Communications Engineer will be responsible for:

• Identify business needs by documenting functional and technical requirements for hardware, processes, workflows, and operating systems.
• Provide subject matter expertise on technical solutions and serve as the primary technical contact for the design and implementation of Unified Communications (UC) capabilities, ensuring scalability, security, and efficiency.
• Develop UC roadmaps in collaboration with internal stakeholders, including architecture, design, and cybersecurity teams.
• Support solution design and implementation for communication, collaboration, and networking systems.
• Maintain UC systems and services, including telephony, collaboration platforms, messaging, desktop and softphones, mobile devices, PBX systems, and voice/video conferencing environments.
• Create and maintain policies, procedures, and training plans for system administration and appropriate use.
• Research emerging technologies—products, services, protocols, and standards—to inform procurement and development efforts.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to ensure architectural alignment and consistency across projects.
• Engage stakeholders to address design and security challenges, provide solutions to complex infrastructure and software issues, and deliver technical support for UC system upgrades.
• Contribute to operational strategies and best practices to enhance system performance and reliability.

The Skills Framework for the Information Age (SFIA) has been used to inform the requirements. In summary, DFAT seeks a candidate with the following relevant skillsets:

• Category: Development and Implementation
• Subcategory: Systems Development
• Skills:
  - Requirements definition and management (REQM) - Level 5
  - Solution Architecture (ARCH) - Level 6
  - Network Design (NTDS) - Level 5
  - Systems Design (DESN) - Level 5
  - Infrastructure design (IFDN) - Level 5
  - Systems Integration and build (SINT) - Level 5
  - Deployment (DEPL) - Level 5
  - Service acceptance (SEAC) - Level 5

Qualifications:

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Communications, or a similar field.

Essential criteria

1. Ten years of experience in designing, deploying and managing UC systems and solutions.
2. Strong stakeholder management and client services skills.
3. Ability to articulate technical detail through detailed design and implementation plans.
4. Highly developed diagnostic and problem-solving skills.
5. Ability to work effectively as a team member.
6. Excellent communication skills, both written and oral.

Desirable criteria

1. A broad understanding of industry, whole of government direction, emerging technologies and how they can be applied to solve business problems.
2. Experience in the day-to-day operations of Unified Communications systems and solutions, including the management of voice and data transmissions through the deployment, monitoring, troubleshooting and optimising of the workflow of UC systems (voice, video and VoIP).
3. A strong understanding of ASD Essential 8 and experience with contributing to security accreditation of ICT systems.
4. Progressive experience and familiarity with current and emerging networking and collaboration technologies.

HOW TO APPLY

Please provide an updated CV (a maximum of 3-5 pages) to reflect your suitability to the role based on the job description. You will also need to complete a summary which is no more than 5000 characters in total in response to the requirements for the role and the essential and desirable criteria. Your application will be reviewed based on ability to demonstrate, or potential to develop, the capabilities required.