Job Opportunities API

There are Adelaide roles, and then there are Adelaide roles. This one will not ask you to commute across town during school pickup, explain “what AI is” to a committee of 14 people, or pretend that innovation means putting ChatGPT in a PowerPoint and calling it strategy. You’re welcome. First Focus is one of Australia’s leading Managed Service Providers, with 330+ people across Australia, New Zealand, and the Philippines. We help businesses get better outcomes from technology, which sounds very grown-up, because it is. Mostly. Our AI, Automation & Adoption team is a small internal innovation team with a big remit: build practical AI, automation, tooling, agents, integrations, and internal platforms that actually get used. Not innovation theatre. Not a sandbox that gathers dust. Real things, in production, helping real people do real work with slightly fewer spreadsheets. Humanity may survive after all. We’re looking for a Lead Software Engineer, AI & Automation to become the engineering backbone of the team. You’ll take prototypes, AI concepts, and promising ideas from “this might work” to “this is secure, supportable, documented, and nobody is quietly crying in six months”. A noble cause. Why this role is worth your attention You’ll build AI and automation products that actually get used. You’ll have real technical ownership, not fake ownership with six approval layers and a steering committee named after a weather event. You’ll help shape engineering standards for a small, fast-moving team. You’ll work with modern AI-assisted development tools. You’ll balance greenfield builds with proper sustaining engineering. You’ll be joining a team that cares about outcomes over optics. What you’ll be doing Designing, building, testing, deploying, and supporting production-grade AI and software solutions. Taking prototypes and proof-of-concepts into stable operational systems. Building internal tools, AI agents, automation platforms, integrations, and supporting services. Owning the systems the team builds after launch, including maintenance, bug fixes, enhancements, performance, security, stability, and documentation. Helping define practical engineering standards across code quality, testing, secure development, documentation, deployment, source control, code review, and AI-assisted development workflows. Reducing technical debt before it becomes a haunted house. Working closely with the AI, Automation & Adoption Manager and business stakeholders to turn ideas into useful, deliverable solutions. Providing technical leadership across architecture, planning, and delivery. Requirements What you’ll bring Strong commercial software engineering experience across modern application stacks. Experience delivering and supporting production-grade applications or services. Solid understanding of secure development, CI/CD, testing, source control, deployment, code review, and operational readiness. Practical experience using AI-assisted development tools and workflows. Strong problem-solving skills and a systems-thinking mindset. The ability to work autonomously in fast-moving and sometimes ambiguous environments. Good communication skills with technical and non-technical stakeholders. Enough judgement to know when “move fast” is useful, and when it is just a polite way to create future rubble. Nice to have Experience building AI agents or LLM-powered systems. Experience with Claude Code, Codex, Lovable, or similar tools. Proficiency with Python, TypeScript, React, APIs, cloud-native development, or automation tooling. Experience turning experimental systems into production platforms. Experience defining lightweight engineering governance. Exposure to Microsoft 365, Azure, or MSP environments. No, we do not expect one person to be world-class in all of that. That would be silly, and probabl