Staff Data Engineer

Optus is an Australian telecommunications company, delivering more than 11 million services to our customers every day across mobile, broadband and digital solutions.

We're looking for a Staff Data Engineer to join our Data Engineering Centre of Excellence (CoE). This is a senior technical role that blends hands-on engineering with strategic leadership. You'll help shape the future of our enterprise data platform by driving standards, reusable frameworks, and scalable solutions across multiple domains.

Your day to day will consist of

• Defining and evolving data engineering best practices and reusable assets.
• Providing hands-on technical direction for complex data initiatives.
• Leading technical design reviews and approving major decisions.
• Partnering with platform teams to implement CI/CD, automation, and testing frameworks.
• Consulting with delivery teams on architecture, modelling, and engineering challenges.
• Driving adoption of reusable patterns across business domains.
• Leading POCs for emerging tools and AI-powered engineering practices.
• Mentoring senior engineers and contributing to capability uplift across teams.

What you bring

• Strong experience with cloud data platforms (Databricks, Azure, GCP).
• Proficiency in Python and SQL .
• Deep knowledge of ETL/ELT tools like DBT, Spark, and Airflow.
• Strong data modelling skills.
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, automation, and testing frameworks.
• Proven ability to lead technical design and performance tuning.
• Experience mentoring engineers and engaging stakeholders across architecture and business.
• Familiarity with data governance, lineage, and metadata standards.

The good stuff….

• Competitive remuneration and employee discounts. Make life easier (and more affordable) with $80 monthly credit and 25% off Optus products and unique shopping discounts with our retail partners.
• Flexible working arrangements with opportunities to work three days in the office, two days remote or home.
• Vibrant and collaborative office campus that includes cafes, convenience store, chill out zones, GP, post office, gym and on-site childcare centre.
• Competitive leave policies, including additional 'Connected' days to focus on culture, family, health, community, or whatever's important to you.
• We support growing families with inclusive, carer-neutral paid Parental Leave of up to 16 weeks.
• Direct your own development and build future-ready skills with Optus U's industry-focused micro-credentials, developed with La Trobe and Macquarie Universities.
• Build meaningful connections through employee-led networks and diversity initiatives including Culture Connect, Elevate Women, Disability Network and Express Yourself (LGBTQIA+).
• Put your wellbeing first with free access to counselling and support services, 24/7 — in-person, by phone, SMS, or video.

At Optus, we are strengthened by others and that means valuing diversity and saying 'yes' to embracing individual differences. We are committed to ensuring that our application process provides an equal employment opportunity to all job seekers, including individuals from diverse gender, cultural and linguistic backgrounds, individuals with a disability, individuals identifying as being part of the LGBTQIA+ community, individuals who may have served in the armed forces or who identify as Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander. We also want to do our best to make our recruitment process inclusive. If you require any adjustments or accessibility support to participate fairly and equitably in the recruitment process, please email or call We're here to help. When you contact us, please advise your preferred method of contact and we will be in touch within 48 hours.

For more information on Diversity, Inclusion & Belonging at Optus, please visit