Senior Innovation Software Engineers

Senior Innovation Software Engineers RFQ type DMP2: ICT Labour Hire RFQ ID LH-07358 RFQ published date Friday, 31 July 2026 Deadline for asking questions Tuesday, 04 August 2026 • 11:59pm, Canberra time RFQ closing date Thursday, 06 August 2026 • 11:59pm, Canberra time Buyer Department of Employment and Workplace Relations Buyer contact No contact details reported. Please direct questions through the 'Question and Answers' portion of the RFQ process. Estimated start date Monday, 24 August 2026 Initial contract duration ASAP to 31 July 2027 Extension term 12 months Number of extensions 2 Maximum number of candidates per seller 2 Experience level Senior - EL1 equivalent Location of work QLD, WA, ACT, VIC, NSW, SA Working arrangements Hybrid Onsite, standard 8 hours per day, and 40 hours per week in total. On site at least 3 days a week. Flexible Working Arrangements (including remote working arrangements): Requests will be considered on a case-by-case basis against the business requirements of the department and the needs of the immediate work area. Reduced Activity Period - A reduced activity period may apply where the specified personnel will not work unless the buyer has provided pre-approval in writing. Maximum hours 40 hours per week Security clearance Must be able to obtain Baseline Job details Software Engineers have experience overseeing software development projects, writing optimised code, and provide technical leadership to a team of software engineers. They are responsible for the quality and functionality of the software produced by their team. The Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (DEWR) enables access to quality skills, training, and employment to support Australians find secure work in fair, productive and safe workplaces – supporting individuals, businesses and our nation to prosper. The department is seeking an experienced Software Engineers - Innovation to meet emerging needs of the department and business areas. Key duties and responsibilities As an AI Engineer (Software Engineer), you will be responsible for the design, development, testing and support of innovative digital solutions, prototypes and technology capabilities that align with departmental priorities and strategic objectives. Working as part of the Innovation team, the successful candidate will apply contemporary software engineering practices to develop secure, scalable and maintainable solutions using technologies including .NET, Azure and Python. The role will contribute to the identification, evaluation and adoption of emerging technologies, industry best practices, Artificial Intelligence (AI) capabilities and innovative delivery approaches. This includes researching and assessing new tools, technologies and patterns, developing proof-of-concepts and rapid prototypes, and validating technical hypotheses to demonstrate business value and support informed investment and adoption decisions. The successful candidate will play a key role in translating innovative concepts and experimental solutions into enterprise-ready capabilities. This includes supporting the industrialisation, operationalisation and broader adoption of new technologies by ensuring solutions align with departmental architecture, security, scalability, supportability and governance requirements. Working collaboratively with architects, engineers, delivery teams and business stakeholders, the Software Engineer will contribute to the development and refinement of technical patterns, reusable components, libraries, frameworks, standards and processes that support consistent and effective delivery outcomes. The role will require a practical and hands-on approach to problem-solving and experimentation, with the ability to balance rapid delivery and innovation with enterprise reliability and risk management considerations. The Software Engineer will contribute to capability uplift across the organisation through knowledge sharing, mentoring and documentation. This includes capturing technical learnings, lessons and best practices and embedding these into reusable assets, guidance materials and platform capabilities to support future delivery. Experience working across diverse organisations, technology environments and delivery models will be highly regarded, together with strong communication, collaboration and stakeholder engagement skills. The successful candidate will demonstrate a passion for software engineering, emerging technologies and applied AI, and will contribute to fostering a culture of innovation, continuous learning, experimentation and improvement across the organisation. ***Please note that DEWR will not be extending this opportunity to any additional Sellers*** Criteria The buyer has specified that each candidate must provide a one page pitch to address all criteria specified. This is equal to 5000 characters. Essential criteria 1. Demonstrate your knowledge and experience in the following technologies: - C# and .NET web applications and APIs - Python for AI/ML, prototypes and web frameworks - Azure, IaC, terraform - Establishing patterns to support enterprise capability Experience with analogous technologies is valued, explain to us how it relates. 2. Demonstrated experience working in AI, innovation or start-up like environments. Personal projects, side-hustles or personal learning and exploration. Contributions to open-source projects, published research, and participation in hackathons or innovation challenges are also highly valued. Demonstrated understanding of AI safety, highly valued. 3. Demonstrated experiences in applying AI/ML software practices to specific business problems/challenges. 4. Demonstrate experience in Government or large enterprise IT design and delivery. Desirable criteria 1. The ability to work agile in a fast-paced environment. The ability to be adaptive, collaborative, supportive and bring your team along on the journey. 2. Demonstrated ability to automate environments using CI/CD pipelines (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions, etc.), experience integrating DevOps practices into AI workflows –including code versioning, and monitoring of deployed models.