Lead Data Engineer

Department: Engineering

Location: Sydney, Melbourne

Employment Type: FullTime

Imagine having the power to stress-test an entire power grid against a hurricane or thunderstorm before the clouds even gather. That is the reality we are creating at Neara.

We use advanced machine learning to create engineering-grade, physics enabled digital twins of electricity grids across four continents, this helps asset owners understand their biggest challenges and bring the most viable solutions to life across millions of kilometres of infrastructure.

By simulating extreme weather and structural stress at a network-wide scale, we empower the world’s largest utilities to pinpoint risks, optimise investments and build a more resilient global energy future.

Our team is a collection of brilliant minds who are fanatical about making a tangible difference in the real world, utilising AI and machine learning to accelerate everything from data classification to complex scenario analysis. We have built a special culture where innovation thrives because everyone owns the mission and we need smart, creative people to help us scale this impact to every corner of the globe.

We’re looking for a Lead Data Engineer to work primarily on building out Neara’s nascent data & integration platforms to power our digital twin use-cases.

There will be extensive, hands-on collaboration with our cross-disciplinary team of delivery, engineering, and product teams to power critical client needs. This role requires a good T-shaped cross-disciplinary skillset across software engineering, data engineering and data science.

As one of our first data engineering hires, you will be venturing into greenfield projects and have great autonomy, and end-to-end ownership of our data & integration platforms. We expect you to drive data engineering excellence, be able to navigate ambiguities and rapidly evolving landscapes well and develop a solid understanding of the problem contexts this role is addressing with plenty of help from our stellar cross-disciplinary team.

At Neara, you will be part of a team that values your ideas, supports your development, and celebrates your successes.

What You Will Do:

• Develop, maintain and own data integration pipelines ingesting and transforming rich geospatial and tabular datasets from upstream client systems into the Neara Platform.

• Help define the common data standard which will serve as a starting point for GIS digitisation and various use cases such as risk, value & optimisation.

• Help define what our underlying data platforms should look like for excellency and scale

• Provide input to and implement our data governance framework

• Working with our infrastructure team to integrate greenfield data systems with existing systems

• Build internal data systems that capture and measure key business processes such as customer health, digitisation efficacy and project effort forecasting

Who You Are:

• Working within a Lead, Principal or Staff Engineer role, preferably 6+ years of experience in a data engineering capacity

• Excellent capabilities in Python and SQL

• Familiar with data warehouse platforms such as Snowflake, BigQuery, Redshift

• Familiar with data engineering tooling such as dbt, workflow orchestrators such as Airflow/Prefect and docker

• Have previously maintained data systems at scale, especially on AWS/GCP

• Demonstrated excellency working with cross-disciplinary teams

• Experience working with geospatial data, or GIS tooling such as QGIS or ArcGIS a big plus

• Experience working with utility company data a big plus

What we offer:

• Competitive salary & meaningful ESOP

• Fully flexible working arrangements with a well-stocked office in Redfern

• Regular office events

• The real benefit is working on a genuinely complex, innovative and industry-leading product, making a genuine difference in the world around us.

Neara values diversity, belonging and equal employment opportunities. We encourage individuals from all backgrounds to apply.

Please note that you will require current and unrestricted working rights to be considered for the role. Unfortunately, we are not in a position to offer visa sponsorship at this time.

No agencies or third-party service providers, please.