- Own the API, interoperability and AI layers behind national health services
- Lead an engineering team, staying hands-on in design and code review
- Hybrid (2 days office), easy commute - Haymarket, near Central Station
About us
At Healthdirect Australia, we help Australians access trusted health information, advice and care through our national virtual health services.
About the opportunity
We are seeking an Engineering Lead – Core Capabilities to lead the reusable platforms, APIs and AI-enabled services that are extended to Australians through our products and through integrations with government and healthcare partners.
In this role, you will own and develop the API platform that connects Healthdirect's services with external partners — adopting standards such as FHIR — and the AI enablement layer, scaling both the platform and the AI agents built on it.
Reporting to the Head of Engineering, you will lead a dedicated engineering team while staying technically engaged in solution design, integration architecture, coding practices and code review.
Key Responsibilities
- Stay hands-on in solution design, integration architecture, code review and debugging across shared platforms
- Own end-to-end delivery for in-scope systems, including the interop API platform, centralised APIs, CMS integrations and the AI MCP layer
- Own and evolve the AI Model Context Protocol (MCP) layer, and scale the AI agents built on it
- Own and evolve the interoperability API platform, adopting standards such as FHIR for internal teams and external partners
- Coach and develop engineers through hands-on technical mentoring, and help establish the new Core Capabilities team
- Lead or participate in major incident response, and manage vendor and partner relationships, including a vendor-managed CMS
- Introduce new ways of working with platform and integration technology, including GenAI and MCP-based capabilities
- Act as the senior technical escalation point for cross-system and integration issues
About You
You are an experienced platform and integration engineering leader who can coordinate a portfolio of interconnected capabilities — spanning content, information management, APIs and AI enablement — with an eye to interoperability, security, operations and compliance in a regulated healthcare environment. You lead through direct technical involvement, not just delivery oversight, and you're comfortable balancing in-house delivery with partners and vendors.
What you'll bring to the role
- 10+ years' software engineering experience, including 5+ years leading engineering teams and direct experience managing a team of 5+ software engineers
- Demonstrated experience delivering integration-heavy, platform and back-end solutions across disparate systems, including content and information management platforms
- Strong cloud platform experience in AWS, with cloud-native architectures, microservices and resilient, fault-tolerant distributed systems
- Experience designing and operating API and interoperability platforms consumed by internal teams and external partners, including government and Department of Health entities
- Working knowledge of healthcare interoperability standards such as FHIR and HL7
- Experience with modern back-end and integration technologies (Node.js / TypeScript, .NET, AWS; API gateways and messaging)
- AI-assisted software engineering tooling, and exposure to AI enablement patterns such as the Model Context Protocol (MCP) and agentic AI
- Experience managing vendors and delivery partners under a hybrid delivery model
- Strong stakeholder engagement skills, with the ability to communicate technical trade-offs to non-technical audiences
Why join Healthdirect
Your work will contribute to nationally significant virtual health services that support Australians to access trusted health advice and care. You will help shape the platforms and AI-enabled capabilities that our products, and our government and healthcare partners, build on.
We are committed to creating a culture where you can bring your whole self to work.
Our benefits include:
- Flexible work arrangements (2 days per week in office, pro-rated for part time employees);
- 14 weeks company Paid Parental Leave for both parents;
- Multi-dimensional wellbeing program that is run by our people for our people;
- Individual curated learner journeys to support you to expand your capabilities and unlock your talent.
To find out more about Healthdirect and our vision for a healthier Australia, visit about.healthdirect.gov.au.
As an Equal Opportunity Employer, we respect and seek to empower each individual and support the diverse cultures, perspectives, skills, and experiences within our workforce.
Click Apply to submit your application. Please note, you must have the right to live and work in Australia to apply for this role.
Healthdirect Australia Sydney, New South Wales, AUS Office
Sydney, Australia
