I’m supporting an established scale-up that is investing heavily in intelligent automation and next-generation AI products. This is a rare opportunity to join a newly formed team as a Lead AI Engineer , working on greenfield initiatives and shaping both the technical direction and long-term AI strategy. You’ll be stepping into a high-impact role where you’ll build sophisticated AI systems, guide engineering decisions, and collaborate closely with product and platform teams. If you enjoy solving complex problems, designing production-ready ML solutions, and influencing architecture in an early-stage environment, this one will resonate. What You’ll Do Architect and develop AI systems that solve real business problems, from workflow automation to advanced agent-based intelligence. Build and refine AI/ML models using both traditional ML techniques and modern LLM-based approaches. Develop autonomous agents using tools such as Google ADK, LangGraph, or similar frameworks. Lead technical design and decision-making across the AI engineering domain, acting as the senior technical voice on the team. Deploy and productionise AI models, including monitoring, optimisation, and reliability engineering. Collaborate closely with data and platform engineers to ensure robust pipelines, scalable architectures, and dependable data foundations. Work hands-on across the core backend stack, primarily using Python and C# or related backend technologies. Contribute to the team’s engineering culture, ensuring best practices around testing, documentation, and performance. What You’ll Bring 7 years’ experience delivering AI/ML systems in a production environment. Strong track record in a Tech Lead-style role (architecture, design, mentoring), without needing to manage people formally. Deep proficiency in Python and modern ML/LLM frameworks (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, spaCy, scikit-learn). Experience building LLM-driven systems and autonomous agents. Strong understanding of MLOps, including CI/CD, orchestration, monitoring, and model lifecycle management. Experience working with and Google ADK (or similar agent/LLM toolkits). Solid grounding in traditional ML methods as well as cutting-edge generative approaches. Background in backend engineering, ideally with C# or a similar strongly typed language. Degree in Computer Science, AI, Statistics, or related field; postgraduate qualifications welcome but not essential. We are looking to have this role filled ASAP and will move quick. If you have any questions about this role or others we have available you can email our team directly via jack@thedrivegroup.com.au For The Latest Jobs, Tech News or to 'Introduce A Friend' for a $1000 Referral Fee - Follow Us On Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/thedrivegroup TheDriveGroup is 100% committed to improving meaningful diversity in the technology industry. We partner with clients who embrace diversity and seek candidates across all backgrounds, abilities, genders, sexualities, cultures, and faiths. If you have the right skills and attitude we would love to hear from you!
