Head of Engineering
Australian Unity - Melbourne
Hybrid | Leadership role | Purpose‑driven organisation
About us
Established in 1840, we are Australia’s first wellbeing company, delivering health, wealth and care services for our members and the community.
As a social enterprise, we’re motivated by our purpose to positively impact the wellbeing of millions. We reinvest profits to deliver products and services sustainably that matter most to our members, customers and the Australian community.
For us, Real Wellbeing encompasses the whole experience of life. It’s about feeling supported in your health, connected with your community and empowered to live life on your terms.
The Opportunity
We are seeking a highly strategic Head of Engineering responsible for transforming software delivery through modern engineering principles underpinned by robust SDLC practices, enabling high-performing full-stack engineering teams to deliver scalable and secure solutions across DevSecOps, enterprise platforms, and technology delivery.
A newly created position, the Head of Engineering reports directly to the General Manager Engineering with oversight for 4 – 6 direct reports and an onshore / offshore team of circa 40-50 staff. This position sets the strategic direction, establishes contemporary frameworks and standards, and fosters a culture of engineering excellence that empowers teams to deliver with speed, resilience, and consistency.
The Head of Engineering will lead the adoption of modern engineering practices grounded in sound SDLC fundamentals, redefining how teams approach the entire software development lifecycle from planning through operations.
This role advances DevOps maturity through governance and enablement, establishes standards for CI/CD pipelines, full-stack development practices, and enterprise platform delivery including Salesforce, WebMethods, OpenText, Sitecore, and other critical business applications. The position champions secure, automated, and compliant practices that fundamentally reshape engineering execution across the organisation.
What You’ll Be Doing
Engineering Transformation & Strategic Vision
- Lead the transformation to modern engineering practices underpinned by robust SDLC fundamentals, fundamentally reshaping how software is conceived, developed, tested, deployed, and operated across the organisation.
- Define and drive the engineering vision, SDLC strategy, and roadmap aligned with business and technology objectives.
- Champion a DevOps and DevSecOps culture by advocating for collaboration, automation, security-first principles, and continuous improvement across Development, Operations, QA, Security, and Platform teams
Full-Stack Engineering Excellence
- Establish full-stack development standards spanning frontend, backend, API design, data architecture, and infrastructure layers
- Define modern technology stack strategies including frameworks, languages, and architectural patterns that enable rapid, scalable development
- Guide teams in adopting cloud-native development practices, microservices architectures, and API-first design principles
CI/CD Excellence & Modern Development Practices
- Define and promote best practices for Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) aligned with modern SDLC principles
- Establish standardised pipeline patterns, quality gates, automated testing strategies, and deployment approaches ensuring secure, scalable, and reliable delivery
- Act as subject matter expert and advisor on pipeline design, deployment workflows, release readiness, and modern release governance
- Collaborate with technology teams to integrate automated testing, security scanning, code quality analysis, and compliance checks throughout the development lifecycle).
Security, Risk & Compliance Integration
- Embed security throughout the software development lifecycle through DevSecOps practices, automated security controls, and security-first culture.
- Collaborate with security, risk, and compliance teams to align engineering practices with internal policies and external regulatory requirements (ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR, PCI-DSS).
- Support teams in integrating automated security checks (SAST, DAST, SCA, container scanning) at every stage of the software lifecycle.
Enterprise Platform Strategy & Governance
- Define platform engineering strategy and architecture standards across Salesforce, WebMethods, OpenText, Sitecore, and other critical enterprise applications
- Establish modern SDLC practices for enterprise platforms including source control strategies, automated deployment pipelines, testing frameworks, and release management
- Guide platform development teams in contemporary development practices, API design, integration patterns, and platform-specific best practices
Cloud Infrastructure & Platform Engineering Enablement
- Collaborate with platform and operations teams to ensure consistent adoption of modern engineering principles, CI/CD practices, and cloud-native architectures
- Guide teams in adopting Site Reliability Engineering (SRE) practices including SLOs/SLIs, error budgets, and integrating them into development and delivery pipelines
- Provide strategic direction for cloud infrastructure (AWS and/or Azure), container orchestration (Kubernetes), and serverless architectures
Cross-Functional Leadership & Capability Enablement
- Partner with Product, Architecture, Security, Operations, Managed Service Providers and Business stakeholders to align engineering transformation with organisational objectives
- Lead capability uplift initiatives through training programs, documentation, mentorship, and engineering enablement frameworks
- Facilitate communities of practice, centres of excellence, and guilds to drive consistency, knowledge sharing, and innovation
- Drive technical decision-making through architectural governance, design reviews, and standards bodies
Applications Close: June 19th, 2026
About you
You will have exceptional strategic thinking with ability to envision and execute large-scale engineering transformation initiatives with the ability to influence and drive adoption of modern practices and cultural change across autonomous teams without direct authority.
You will have outstanding communication and stakeholder management skill to engage technical and non-technical audiences across all organisational levels. Success will be demonstrated by your ability to foster collaborative culture, break down silos between development, operations, security, and platform teams. Furthermore, you will have the proven capability to establish governance frameworks, build communities of practice and drive knowledge sharing at scale.
Additionally, change leadership expertise with track record of driving organisational transformation and championing continuous improvement will be essential.
You will bring:
- 10+ years of progressive software engineering experience with 5+ years in senior leadership or principal engineering roles
- Proven track record of leading SDLC transformation initiatives and modernising software development practices at scale
- Demonstrated expertise in enterprise platform engineering including Salesforce, integration platforms (WebMethods), content management systems (OpenText), Digital experience (Sitecore) or similar enterprise applications
- Deep hands-on experience across full-stack development including frontend frameworks (React, Angular, Vue), backend services (Java, Python, Node.js, .NET) APIs (REST, GRaphQL gRPC), databases, and cloud infrastructure
- Extensive experience establishing DevSecOps practices, CI/CD frameworks, and engineering standards across multiple teams and technology stacks
- Demonstrated success in strategic enablement roles that influence and uplift organisational capability through frameworks, standards, and cultural transformation).
- Previous team leadership or mentoring experience (desirable but not essential).
Why Join Us?
At Australian Unity, we provide a supportive, flexible, and purpose‑driven environment where you can make a meaningful impact.
You will enjoy:
- Competitive salary + bonus programme
- Additional wellbeing and community leave days
- 14‑week paid parental leave (equal for all parents)
- Hybrid working model
- Employee Assistance Program
- Flare/Maxxia Rewards – discounted retail, travel, entertainment
- Discounts on Australian Unity products including Health, General Insurance and more
- Access to LinkedIn Learning and professional development programs
If you’re looking to step into a leadership role where you can make a meaningful impact across a purpose‑driven organisation, we’d love to hear from you. Apply now and join us in shaping better outcomes for our members and community.
For further benefits visit: https://www.australianunity.com.au/careers/culture
Australian Unity is an Equal Opportunity employer and we encourage applications from all members of the community, including people of Aboriginal and Torres strait Islander descent, culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds and, mature aged people.
