Lead AI Engineer

About hipages

hipages is Australia's leading digital platform connecting homeowners with reliable tradespeople. As an ASX-listed technology company, hipages is focused on revolutionizing the trades industry while positively impacting lives. With teams operating in Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, and Vietnam, the company fosters a unified culture with a common mission.

Recognized as a certified Great Place to Work and acknowledged by WORK180 as the top Employer for Women, hipages offers meaningful career opportunities, growth potential, and an inclusive workplace where every individual feels valued.

Role Overview

We are seeking a highly skilled Lead AI Engineer to translate cutting-edge AI models into practical, user-facing features such as AI receptionists, assisted quoting, and pricing insights. This role involves not only hands-on development and deployment of AI-driven solutions but also shaping the AI strategy and architecture for the broader engineering team.

Key Contributions

• Deliver real, customer-facing AI features in production environments that provide tangible value and are commercially viable.
• Create and maintain a unified AI platform that supports model accessibility, cost management, traceability, and safety mechanisms, simplifying the AI integration process for the entire engineering team.
• Implement rigorous evaluation procedures both offline and online for AI systems, establishing quality standards with the authority to halt releases that do not meet criteria.
• Manage the operational economics of deployed AI models, optimizing selections based on latency, cost, and observability, while enforcing safety guardrails in live systems.
• Exercise discerning judgment to choose the most effective solution, including when deterministic methods outperform agentic approaches, with the autonomy to retire underperforming features.
• Lead the setting of technical direction for AI-related projects, mentor engineering peers, and serve as the authoritative source on AI matters for engineering, product, and design teams.

Qualifications and Experience

• Over 7 years of experience in software engineering, with recent direct involvement in releasing and managing AI-powered features in production environments.
• In-depth knowledge of Large Language Model applications, including prompt and context engineering, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), tool integration, structured output formatting, Multi-Chain Processing (MCP), and agentic design, alongside the discernment to choose simpler methods when appropriate.
• Proven experience designing offline and online evaluation frameworks for AI systems and utilizing them effectively as release quality gates.
• Expertise in operating high-scale AI services with strong command of observability, tracing, latency, and cost management.
• History of creating shared AI services or developer-friendly tooling widely adopted within engineering teams.
• Familiarity with responsible AI principles including guardrails, personally identifiable information protection, hallucination mitigation, and human-in-the-loop processes.
• Broad cloud computing experience, ideally with Amazon Web Services (AWS).
• Excellent communication skills to clearly convey AI capabilities and constraints to stakeholders across product, design, and executive levels, and enthusiasm for mentoring fellow engineers.

Preferred Skills

• Experience using Amazon Bedrock for agents and guardrails or proficiency with Claude Code and similar agentic engineering methods.
• Knowledge of multi-agent orchestration patterns such as sequential, concurrent, or handoff workflows utilizing modern agent frameworks.
• Hands-on experience with observability and tracing tools for LLM systems, for example Langfuse, Arize, Honeycomb, or OpenTelemetry.
• Background in developing MCP servers and creating agent-specific capabilities.
• Strong proficiency in TypeScript, with flexibility to adapt across programming languages.

Culture and Benefits

At hipages, the workplace is more than a job—it's a place that fosters authenticity, excellent work, and career development. Valued for its inclusive and supportive environment, hipages employs agile teams, hosts hackathons, off-site events, and roadshows to promote collaboration and fun.

• Hybrid work model allowing flexibility.
• Competitive compensation package including benefits and exclusive discounts.
• Dedicated talent development team focused on personal and professional growth.
• Vibrant social atmosphere alongside healthy snacks and breakfast provided.
• Sydney CBD location near Town Hall and Gadigal stations.
• Additional leave entitlements such as birthdays and volunteer days.
• Mentoring programs, stretch projects, and coaching-led management style.

Diversity and Inclusion

hipages strongly champions diversity and inclusivity, recognizing that innovation flourishes within diverse and collaborative teams. They welcome applicants from all backgrounds and encourage those who may not meet every criterion but believe they can contribute meaningfully to apply. The company also pledges to respond to every candidate, demonstrating commitment to equitable hiring practices.