Think & Grow is a global growth advisory. Our AI Practice helps boards, founders and executive teams turn AI from concept into commercial advantage — 22+ countries, 75+ workshops, 7,000+ client hours saved.
Recent outcomes: 72% chatbot deflection at Wyndham City Council, 70% enquiry resolution at Latitude Financial, 87% reduction in "I don't know" responses at NAB, $1M in fuel savings through a telematics build.
We don't run pilots that go nowhere. Our work has to show up in our clients' P&Ls.
About the Role
Most AI initiatives fail at the data layer, not the model layer. The Sydney AI Data Engineer makes sure that doesn't happen on our engagements.
You'll partner with the Sydney AI PM and AI Engineer — both being hired — to deliver as a complete squad, reporting to the Partner, AI Practice.
What You'll Do
* Build the data layer AI products run on — ingestion, transformation, governance, evaluation datasets, retrieval indexes and monitoring.
* Run client data diagnostics — assess data maturity, identify the gap between current state and what AI use cases require, and design the path to close it.
* Implement modern data stacks — typically dbt, Airflow, Snowflake/BigQuery/Databricks, cloud-native services (AWS/Azure/GCP) and Terraform.
* Build retrieval pipelines and vector indexes — for RAG and agentic systems.
* Build evaluation datasets and pipelines — so AI quality is measured against real data, not synthetic benchmarks.
* Implement data governance — lineage, access control, privacy and retention to a standard that holds up in regulated industries.
* Contribute to the practice — internal Think & Grow data platform and tooling across squads.
You'll Be Successful If You...
* You have 5+ years in data engineering, with at least 2 years on AI/ML data pipelines — training data, retrieval, evaluation, observability.
* You're strong in Python and SQL.
* You're fluent in the modern data stack: dbt, Airflow (or Dagster/Prefect), Spark, and one of Snowflake / BigQuery / Databricks.
* You have cloud fluency in AWS, Azure or GCP — including data and AI services.
* You work infrastructure-as-code: Terraform or equivalent.
* You're hands‐on with vector databases (pgvector, Pinecone, Weaviate, Qdrant or equivalent) and retrieval design for AI.
* You understand data governance, privacy and compliance in AU-regulated industries.
* You use Cursor, Claude Code, Copilot or equivalent as default in day‐to‐day work.
* You can explain data architecture choices to non-technical stakeholders.
* You have the right to work in Australia.
What Success Looks Like
* Production‐grade data foundations delivered for Sydney clients with measurable reliability and cost metrics.
* Sydney squad's data practices matching or beating the rest of the practice on quality, velocity and cost.
* Reusable components contributed to the internal Think & Grow data platform.
* Trusted data voice in client diagnostics and architecture conversations.
This Role Might Not Be for You If...
* You build pipelines for the sake of pipelines — we care about the AI outcome they enable.
* You avoid client‐facing situations or regulated‐industry complexity.
* You prefer working in isolation over a tight, collaborative squad.
* You don't enjoy ambiguity, change or collaborating across silos.
What's in It for You
* Flexible hours — early bird or school run, we work to outcomes, not a clock.
* Hybrid setup — 3 days in the office, 2 from home.
* Global exposure — option to work overseas for a period each year.
* Inclusive parental leave for all parents — birth, adoption and surrogacy.
* Learning days + a budget you actually get to use.
* EAP — confidential wellbeing support for you and your immediate family.
How to Apply
Hit the 'apply' link, and we will be in touch!
Research shows 60% of women and members of traditionally underrepresented communities might have already talked themselves out of applying — even if they don't check every box. Please apply anyway. We care about potential, perspective, and values.
We especially welcome LGBTQIA+ folks, neurodivergent candidates, people living with disabilities, parents and carers, and career changers. Need adjustments at any stage? Just tell us — we'll make it work.
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