Senior Technical Lead (Mulgrave)

A genuinely greenfield build, inside a business that already works. We're a multi-brand print group running thousands of orders a week across digital and offset operations from sites in Victoria and New South Wales, with customers all across Australia. Over the last two years we've consolidated legacy platforms into one unified system and replaced our job management tool. The MIS foundation is solid and live. What's next is a separate, deliberately standalone engine: a modern production and workflow platform that sits alongside the MIS, talks to it via API, and orchestrates how jobs actually move from intake through to the presses themselves. We believe our unique workflows deserve a bespoke solution. That's the system you'd own. Greenfield in the way that matters (your stack, your patterns, your call on architectural decisions), but with existing work ready to go (real production volume, real integration partners, real customers from day one). The work ships to print presses & customers the week it goes live. What you'll own You'll be the primary technical owner of the new production and workflow platform: the system that manages intake, production routing, and logistics across our entire operation.
- System architecture and build. The engine talks to the MIS, the presses, third-party logistics, and external client storefronts. Choose the patterns: webhooks, REST, async messaging, event-driven, whatever fits. You'll have full access to the MIS API and full latitude on how your system consumes and contributes back to it.
- Engineering practices. Set the bar. CI/CD, code review standards, documentation, secret management, observability. You'll work alongside external consultants we engage selectively (DevOps and security), but the standards are yours to define.
- AI-native engineering. AI-assisted development is core to how we build, not a side experiment. You'll set the standards for how the team uses Claude Code, Cursor and equivalents; what gets delegated, what stays human, how review and testing adapt, how we keep code quality and security tight when generation is cheap. We expect this to be a competitive advantage, and you'll own making it one.
- Stakeholder communication. This system sits at the crossroads of operations, production, logistics partners, and the executive team. You'll be translating between them often, in writing and in conversation.
- Resilience. Zero-drop architecture that holds data integrity under traffic spikes, external outages, and the realities of a physical production environment. If the network blinks, no jobs vanish.
- Security and compliance. We're ISO 27001 certified at the business level, but software development hasn't been inside the scope before. The new engine will be the first piece that brings it in: you'll help expand the ISMS to cover it cleanly, working alongside our existing Lead Implementer. You'll report to Head of Product & Technology What we're looking for
- 5+ years of backend engineering experience, including 3+ years in a lead, principal, or staff capacity.
- A proven track record of architecting resilient backend systems.
- Deep experience with RESTful APIs, webhook handling, and asynchronous message brokering (e.g., RabbitMQ, SQS, Kafka, NATS).
- Solid relational database background, with complex data modelling experience.
- Hands-on experience standing up cloud environments on AWS or Azure (we're open) and building CI/CD pipelines from scratch.
- A genuine commitment to clean, well-documented code. You're laying foundations other engineers will build on for a decade.
- Comfortable owning stakeholder relationships with non-technical leadership and external integration partners. On language and stack: you have meaningful input here. We're language-agnostic at the role level, with a lean toward Python. Make the case for what fits the problem. Nice to have
- Experience mapping software to physical logistics, manufacturing processes, or complex N-to-N fulfillment logic.
- ISO27001 implementation experience
- Double bonus: Print-specific software experience, Print MIS platforms, or XML/JDF data flow integration. The Deal
- Salary: $180,000 to $210,000 AUD + super, depending on experience.
- Hybrid working: 2 to 3 days in our Mulgrave office, the rest from home. Core hours, not clock-watching.
- Learning and development: $4,000 per year for conferences, certifications, and courses.
- Equipment: All supplied, high end laptop plus a home setup allowance. How to apply Send your CV and a cover letter covering a backend system you've architected end-to-end, and any experience you think applies to the above. Short is fine. We'd rather read one well-chosen example than a complete career history. Apply on Kit Job: kitjobau.com/job/3r1t74