* Build and scale a healthcare platform using AI-first engineering
* Hybrid role
Note: This role is focused on relational database architecture — schema design, optimisation, and large-scale migrations — not data science, analytics pipelines, or ML/AI model training.
At vital.ly, our engineering scope is broad and complex.
Externally, our proprietary customer platform supports over 14,000 healthcare practitioners. It enables wholesale ordering for clinic dispensaries, advanced prescribing workflows with built-in clinical safety features, and digital prescriptions sent directly to patients for online fulfilment - all powered by Australia's most comprehensive complementary medicine reference tools.
Internally, the proprietary platform is the backbone of our distribution business, turning prescriptions into deliveries. It provides customised workflows and tools that manage practitioner access, inventory, orders, and reference content as well as protect patient data - making this ecosystem uniquely powerful.
Connecting every part, internal and external APIs ensure seamless integration, while AWS infrastructure delivers security, resilience, and scalability.
As we evolve the platform, we are undertaking a critical transformation of our data architecture — moving from a legacy MySQL schema to a structured, scalable PostgreSQL environment, while embedding AI-first engineering practices into how we build.
Who this role is for
You've spent years inside relational databases — arguing about index cardinality, diagnosing query plans, and adding foreign keys to production tables without downtime. You've migrated between database engines and you know the hardest part is never the data — it's the implicit assumptions in the application code.
This is a principal engineer role from day one. Your first major workstream is owning the MySQL → PostgreSQL migration end-to-end. Once that lands, your focus shifts to platform architecture, data modelling, and technical leadership alongside the Head of Engineering.
You think in terms of systems, not just features. Data integrity, performance, and long-term maintainability matter to you, and you take a structured approach to solving problems that others may consider too complex or risky.
You are comfortable working independently and taking ownership of a critical workstream. When something isn't ready, you can clearly explain why — and back that up with sound technical reasoning.
We build with AI-assisted development tools (Claude, agentic workflows).
This isn't an ML role - we expect you to be an efficiency multiplier, designing workflows and guardrails for the team and pushing the boundaries of AI-amplified engineering. If you're still hand-writing every line and plan to keep it that way, this isn't the right fit.
THE RESPONSIBILITIES
* Design and operate agentic AI workflows (tools, prompts, guardrails) to accelerate schema auditing and migration tasks.
* Audit the full MySQL schema, including tables, columns, indexes, implicit relationships, and type/charset/collation inconsistencies.
* Add foreign keys and constraints to a live production database without downtime using Laravel's migration tooling.
* Resolve data inconsistencies, including orphaned rows, type mismatches, and ambiguous columns, in collaboration with founding engineers.
* Plan and execute the MySQL to PostgreSQL migration end-to-end.
* Document all schema changes with migration files, clear rationale, and rollback plans.
* Coordinate migration sequencing and provide clear, consistent progress reporting to the team.
Phase 2 (Platform Expansion)
* Partner with the Head of Engineering to uphold high standards of data architecture and optimisation across the platform.
* Define and refine AI agent rules, roles, and guardrails to support AI-first engineering practices.
* Review merge requests and authorise production releases.
* Own the search architecture, including tsvector FTS, postGIS and pgvector embeddings.
* Design and build platform features on the migrated architecture.
* Own modules end-to-end across the service layer, APIs, and frontend where required.
* Optimise query performance, define indexing strategies, and guide ongoing data modelling across the platform.
* Shape technical direction and architectural decisions as the product evolves.
REQUIREMENTS
Must haves
* Deep expertise in relational database internals: storage engines, locking behaviour, transaction isolation, index internals, and collation/character set optimisation. You should be able to explain why a query is slow, not just that it is.
* Proven experience executing large-scale data migrations (millions of rows) with batching, progress tracking, validation, and safe rollback strategies.
* Architecture-level engineering experience, including API, modular monoliths, and contract-driven design.
* Experience with AI-assisted development workflows and a genuine enthusiasm for pushing their boundaries - including reviewing and validating AI-generated output for production quality.
* This is a permanent, full-time role and requires unrestricted and ongoing work rights in Australia.
Nice to have
* Experience with CDC processes and MySQL binlog-based replication or change data capture mechanisms.
* Experience working with pgvector for embedding storage and similarity search.
* Experience optimising PostgreSQL full-text search using tsvector and related indexing strategies.
* Production experience with AWS infrastructure and services, including ECS, RDS, CloudFront, Secrets Manager, EC2, and CloudWatch.
* Experience in healthcare or other regulated environments.
* Hands‐on experience with PHP/Laravel
* Experience building custom developer tooling - MCP servers, CLI tools, workflow automation.
About vital.ly
vital.ly is the infrastructure behind sustainable clinical practice. Trusted by over 14,000 practitioners across Australia, vital.ly integrates three pillars of infrastructure — technology platform, distribution capability, and practitioner expertise — to transform how clinics prescribe and dispense complementary medicines.
Through vital.ly, practitioners can access wholesale ordering from leading brands, dispense prescriptions digitally, and use advanced prescribing tools with built-in clinical safety tools. Every order is fulfilled through our own dedicated warehouse, with fulfilment operations designed for speed, accuracy, and scale. Behind it all is a team of qualified practitioners and experienced professionals who provide the support and guidance needed to practice with confidence.
Joining vital.ly means becoming part of a business that empowers practitioners, improves patient outcomes, and drives innovation in complementary medicine.
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