Permanent, hybrid position based out of our Brisbane or Sydney office, as part of our AI CoE

We’re the airline that dares to be different, bold, down-to-earth and built around giving our guests real choice. Safety is our backbone, service is our heartbeat, and our people are our superpower.

At Virgin Australia, we’re on a mission to be Australia’s most loved airline, for our people, our guests and our owners and we’re looking for passionate talent to help take us even higher.

We’re vibrant, authentic and unapologetically human. Here, you can bring your whole self, your Virgin Flair and your ambition to a team that champions individuality, innovation and a whole lot of heart. If you’re excited by meaningful work, real opportunities to grow, and a culture where you can genuinely make a difference, you’ll feel right at home with us.

What you’ll be doing

This is a highly visible leadership position, within our AI CoE. Leading the AI Engineering team, you’ll be at the forefront of designing and scaling AI solutions that transform our business. This is a full stack engineering role focused on production-grade engineering (React, Strands, FastMCP, Docker, AWS AgentCore). Reporting to the Head of AI, you will lead a growing team of five Senior AI Engineers and AI Engineers, supported by contractors as required. The team is split between our Brisbane and Sydney head offices. You will work closely with our AI Data Science team, AI Transformation team, and AI Governance team.

This role combines hands-on AI software engineering with people leadership. You will help take high-impact initiatives from concept through to production, while coaching, developing and enabling the engineering team to deliver at its best.

You’ll be great in this role if you…

Hold a Bachelor’s degree or higher in Computer Science, Software Engineering or Data Science or have equivalent applied experience

Bring extensive experience designing, building and operating production-grade AI systems (Typescript & Python).

Have experience with MCP UI, Strands, FastMCP (or equivalents).

Production-grade experience with AI observability (metrics, logs, traces) and security/privacy fundamentals (IAM, secrets, network isolation, PII handling).

Thrive in Agile delivery environments owning roadmaps, estimation and stakeholder communication across technical and executive audiences

Experience leading and mentoring others

Strong communication skills and stakeholder management experience