The Opportunity

Neilson Financial Services is seeking a Senior Software Engineer (Cloud & DevOps) to join our DataWorks organisation onsite in Sydney. This is a high-impact DevOps Evangelist and technical leadership role, focused on driving a DevOps-first culture across our data, analytics, and integration teams.

This role serves as a critical bridge between Neilson’s DataWorks and TechLabs organisations, aligning cloud platform engineering, data engineering, and application teams around modern DevOps practices, strong governance, and scalable delivery patterns.

Under the direction of our visionary CTO, you will play a central role in advancing Neilson’s digital transformation—setting standards, influencing behaviours, and embedding DevOps principles into how teams design, build, deploy, and operate software globally.

You’ll support Neilson’s life insurance platforms across Australia, the US, UK, and Canada, helping mature our Azure-based cloud, data, and integration ecosystem through infrastructure-as-code, enterprise-grade CI/CD, and secure-by-default platform design.

DataWorks is a division of the Neilson Group responsible for Business Intelligence, Analytics, and Actuarial platforms that enable enterprise-wide insight, governance, and growth.

Why Join Us?

As a Senior Software Engineer (Cloud & DevOps), you will:

·        Act as a DevOps Evangelist for the data organisation, driving adoption of DevOps-first ways of working

·        Play a key role in spreading Modern Engineering Culture led by TechLabs, including Minimum Viable Bureaucracy (MVB) and Organisational Topology (OT)—an advanced, pragmatic approach to Agile delivery

·        Help DataWorks teams adopt these practices in a way that improves flow, ownership, and delivery speed without sacrificing governance

·        Own Azure platform modernisation using infrastructure-as-code tooling (e.g. Terraform or equivalent) and enterprise IaC patterns

·        Design and standardise CI/CD frameworks used across analytics, integration, and application teams

·        Define engineering standards that balance speed, reliability, security, and compliance

·        Ensure architectural consistency and governance across global environments

·        Partner closely with DataWorks and TechLabs to scale platforms safely and predictably

This role offers significant visibility across enterprise data, cloud operations, security, and engineering leadership, with genuine influence over Neilson’s global technology direction.

The Role

You will operate as a senior technical leader within DataWorks—designing, enabling, and governing cloud and DevOps capabilities that support mission-critical analytics and data platforms.

This is not a feature-development role within analytics tools. Instead, you will focus on platform enablement: setting up environments, building pipelines, structuring repositories, defining guardrails, and ensuring teams can deliver safely and efficiently.

You’ll collaborate with engineers across regions, mentor teams on DevOps best practices, and help embed a culture of automation, ownership, and operational excellence.

Key Responsibilities

The Senior Software Engineer does not build application or analytics features directly in the tools below. Instead, you own the platform enablement, CI/CD pipelines, environment design, repository structure, and governance standards that allow teams to use them effectively across development, QA, and production.

This role requires strong experience with Git-based workflows. Experience with GitHub is required, and hands-on experience with GitHub Actions is a significant plus, as GitHub-based CI/CD is a strategic direction for Neilson even where Azure DevOps is currently in use.

·        Azure Data Factory (ADF): environment setup, integration runtimes, CI/CD enablement, deployment patterns, governance standards

·        Azure SQL: environment provisioning, schema versioning strategies, automated deployment pipelines, release controls

·        Databricks + Unity Catalog: workspace architecture, governance models, catalog structure, permission frameworks, environment separation

·        Microsoft Fabric: workspace design, Git integration, CI/CD strategy, promotion across environments, enterprise guardrails

·        Power BI: deployment pipelines, workspace governance, environment promotion models, access controls

·        Logic Apps: lifecycle management, versioning, CI/CD enablement, operational patterns

·        GitHub / Git: repository structure, branching strategies, pull request standards, GitOps workflows

·        Azure DevOps & GitHub Actions: enterprise pipeline architecture, reusable templates, approvals, release orchestration

DevOps & Infrastructure Engineering

·        Architect Azure infrastructure using infrastructure-as-code tooling (e.g. Terraform or equivalent) and enterprise IaC patterns

·        Build and maintain reusable CI/CD pipelines for data, analytics, and integration platforms

·        Improve environment consistency using templates, policies, and automated guardrails

·        Support multi-region deployments and global environment alignment

·        Provide architectural guidance across data, application, and integration teams

Security, Governance & Access Management

·        Implement Azure Key Vault for secrets and certificate lifecycle management

·        Define Entra ID access models, RBAC standards, and identity governance patterns

·        Manage service principals and least-privilege automation identities

·        Ensure compliance with ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, FCA, and internal controls

·        Embed DevSecOps practices across code, pipelines, and infrastructure

Strategic Focus Areas

·        Establish CI/CD standards for Power BI, Logic Apps, and Fabric

·        Lead Git-based source control adoption across analytics teams

·        Implement scalable access governance across Fabric, ADF, Databricks, and SQL

·        Enable automated, version-controlled SQL deployments

·        Raise DevOps maturity across the data organisation

Monitoring, Reliability & Operations

·        Integrate monitoring and alerting using Datadog and native Azure tooling

·        Improve reliability, performance, and operational efficiency

·        Lead incident response and drive root-cause remediation

Collaboration & Leadership

·        Act as a bridge between DataWorks and TechLabs to align tooling and standards

·        Partner with teams across Australia, US, UK, Canada, and Vietnam

·        Mentor engineers on cloud and DevOps best practices

·        Guide architectural decisions and champion enterprise patterns

·        Support audits, regulatory reviews, and governance initiatives

Required Qualifications

·        Demonstrated senior-level capability in cloud or platform engineering within Azure environments

·        Strong experience designing and operating CI/CD platforms and DevOps tooling at scale

·        Proven ability to enable (not just use) platforms such as ADF, Databricks, Fabric, Power BI, or similar

·        Advanced proficiency with infrastructure-as-code tooling (e.g. Terraform or equivalent), Azure DevOps, and Git-based workflows

·        Strong understanding of identity, access management, and secrets handling

·        Experience with containers and orchestration (AKS, Docker)

·        Strong scripting skills (PowerShell, Python)

·        Experience working in regulated or security-conscious environments

Preferred Qualifications

·        Azure certifications (AZ-104, AZ-400, AZ-500, Solutions Architect)

·        Experience supporting data, analytics, or BI teams at scale

·        Background in cloud governance or platform engineering

We Offer

Neilson provides a competitive total compensation package, extensive learning opportunities, and a dynamic environment where you can grow your career. Compensation will be based on experience, skill set, and business needs. Additionally, we support our team with a benefits package designed to help you grow:

·        Free catered lunch every Wednesday and Friday!

·        Discounted gym membership

·        12% superannuation (or current legislated rate)

·        Access to Employee Assistance Program

·        Plus standard legislative benefits

If you’re excited by the opportunity to drive a DevOps-first culture and shape the future of Neilson’s global data platforms, we’d love to hear from you.

Accessibility For Job Applicants

We strive to make our job application process accessible to all individuals, including those with disabilities. If you require accommodation at any stage of the application, interview, or selection process, please contact our Human Resources department. Our team will work with you to provide suitable accommodations to ensure your participation.

Equal Opportunity Employer

Neilson Financial Services is an equal opportunity employer. We welcome and encourage applications from candidates of all backgrounds and abilities. Our commitment to diversity and inclusion is fundamental to our company culture.