Acknowledgement of Country
CSIRO acknowledges the Traditional Owners of the land, sea and waters, of the area that we live and work on across Australia. We acknowledge their continuing connection to their culture and pay our respects to their Elders past and present. View our vision towards reconciliation.
Role highlights
- Work on nationally significant biodiversity data infrastructure
- Use open-source and cloud technologies in a collaborative team
- Contribute to global biodiversity research and decision-making
About CSIRO
As Australia's national science agency, CSIRO is solving the greatest challenges through innovative science and technology. Many of our iconic innovations were once considered impossible until someone, just like you, joined us and took on the challenge.
Visit CSIRO.au for more information.
The opportunity
The Atlas of Living Australia (ALA) is the national biodiversity data platform, helping scientists, governments, and communities access and use information about Australia’s plants, animals, and ecosystems. Hosted by CSIRO and funded through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS), the ALA collects data from museums, researchers, and citizen scientists, making it freely available online to support conservation, research, education, and decision-making.
Our tools and technologies are used by over 25 countries and help drive global biodiversity efforts through our partnership with the Global Biodiversity Information Facility (GBIF).
The ALA is seeking a Data Engineer to join the Software Development team. In this role, you will be part of a dynamic team of over 40 professionals, helping to build and maintain open-source, cloud-based infrastructure that powers biodiversity insights across Australia and globally.
In this role, you will:
- Develop and maintain robust, scalable software and data pipelines.
- Apply modern data engineering practices to support ALA products and services.
- Collaborate with product managers, scientists, and developers to deliver impactful solutions.
Your high-level duties will include:
- Creating, developing, and maintaining high quality code that meets functional and non-functional requirements.
- Working collaboratively as part of a multi-disciplinary, regionally dispersed team, to solve technical problems and deliver to customer needs and expectations.
- Undertaking best-practice data engineering practices including CI/CD, create and maintain unit, integration and functional tests and Dev-Ops practices.
Role particulars
Location: Brisbane (Dutton Park site), QLD; hybrid working options available.
Salary: AU$118k – AU$127k per annum (pro rata for part-time), plus 15.4% superannuation
Tenure & work schedule: Specified term of 6 months (until 30 June 2026)
Reference: 101713
As the successful candidate, you will bring:
- A relevant Bachelor’s degree or equivalent relevant work experience in data engineering.
- The ability to write effective and efficient code in Python
- Experience with data packing using JSON and RO-Crates, and experience of cloud storage structures.
- Experience working with genomics and biodiversity data.
- Experience in data mapping and interpreting data ontologies and taxonomies.
- Demonstrated experience in working collaboratively with others to deliver successful outcomes.
Applicants with experience in biodiversity, ecology, bioinformatics, genomics, Rust programming, agile methodologies, or working with biodiversity and genomics data will be highly regarded.
For full details about this role, and other criteria, please review the Position Description.
Not sure if you meet all the criteria?
While it is CSIRO policy that the successful candidate must meet all the essential criteria, there are many ways to demonstrate this. Don’t let the list discourage you. If you are unsure about applying, please reach out to the contact person in the Position Description.
Setting you up for success
We are committed to providing a recruitment process that is fair, equitable and accessible to everyone. We recognise that it may be helpful for us to adjust our process to make it equitable for your individual situation. Please contact Cristina O’Brien via email at [email protected] and let us know how we can support you.
Life at CSIRO and flexible work arrangements
We work flexibly at CSIRO, offering a range of options for how, when and where you work. We can discuss flexible work arrangements with you during the recruitment process. CSIRO also offers a range of leave entitlements, benefits and career development opportunities. To find out more, visit Careers at CSIRO.
Inclusion and belonging
Solving Australia's greatest challenges takes a diversity of minds and lived experiences. We know diverse teams are more effective and deliver more innovative outcomes. As an equal employment opportunity organisation, we are committed to creating diverse and inclusive teams where people feel they belong. We recognise true diversity encompasses all ages, abilities, cultures, faiths, levels of education, genders, sexualities, diversity of thought and much more. We focus on hiring people who share our values of People First, Further Together, Making it Real and Trusted.
CSIRO holds Gold Status for the Australian Workplace Equality Index for LGBTQIA+ inclusion, and a Science in Australia Gender Equity Bronze Award.
Eligibility
Applications for this position are open to Australian or New Zealand Citizens, and Australian Permanent Residents already onshore. Appointment to this role is subject to provision of a national police check and may be subject to other security/medical/character requirements.
Child safety
CSIRO is committed to the safety and wellbeing of all children and young people involved in our activities and programs. View our Child Safe Policy.
How to apply
Please apply online and submit a cover letter (maximum 2 pages) and CV that demonstrate your motivation and ability to meet the essential requirements of this role.
Applications close
Sunday 16 November 2025, 11:00pm AEST
We strongly encourage you to apply early, as we will review applications as they come in. CSIRO reserves the right to withdraw this ad prior to the closing date, if required.
