Data Scientist, AI

Hello. We're Virgin Australia. We're the airline that's always done things a little different. Our way. The Virgin way. We're on a mission to make flying better than 'nice'. And to do that, it takes a team of talented people who are passionate about customer experience, doing the right thing always, with a focus on safety - in the air, on the ground and in our workplaces. A team who values real diversity and inclusion, in a big brand with big ambitions.

What you'll be doing

As a Data Scientist (AI), you'll join a growing AI team that is helping shape the future of Virgin Australia.

This is an exciting opportunity to work on greenfield AI initiatives that are strategically aligned to the business and focused on taking AI solutions from concept through to production. You'll sit at the intersection of data science, software engineering and AI, applying cutting edge techniques to solve real business problems across customer experience, operational efficiency and employee productivity.

We're looking for an engineer scientist hybrid who is passionate about generative AI and enjoys turning emerging technologies into practical, scalable solutions. You'll work closely with engineers, product teams and business stakeholders to design, evaluate and improve AI systems that deliver measurable outcomes.

In this role, you will:

• Design, build and optimise production AI solutions leveraging LLMs, retrieval augmented generation (RAG), agentic workflows and tool integration patterns
• Develop and maintain AI data pipelines, embeddings, knowledge stores and retrieval systems
• Create evaluation frameworks and testing approaches for non deterministic AI systems
• Improve model quality through prompt engineering, evaluation driven optimisation, retrieval tuning and other model improvement techniques
• Design and implement structured context strategies, tool selection approaches and agent workflows
• Establish feedback loops that continuously improve AI system performance based on real world outcomes
• Contribute to LLMOps and AgentOps practices, including prompt management, evaluation suites, safety testing and human in the loop controls
• Support production monitoring, observability and continuous improvement of deployed AI solutions
• Stay across emerging AI research and identify opportunities to apply new techniques within Virgin Australia

This is a hands on role where you'll have the opportunity to experiment with frontier AI technologies while delivering solutions that create real business value.

You'll be great in this role if you have

• Hands on experience with LLMs, RAG architectures, agentic systems, tool/function calling and retrieval workflows.
• Strong Python development skills and a solid foundation in software engineering practices.
• Experience designing evaluation frameworks for AI systems and measuring solution quality.
• Knowledge of embeddings, vector search, agent planning and retrieval optimisation techniques.
• Experience working with AI orchestration frameworks such as Strands, OpenAI Agents SDK or similar.
• Excellent communication skills and the ability to work across technical and business stakeholders

Desirable

• Experience with Databricks, MLflow, AWS and modern data ecosystems.
• Experience with vector databases and search technologies such as pgvector, OpenSearch or equivalent.
• Exposure to observability, monitoring and evaluation tooling for AI systems.
• Knowledge of LLMOps, AgentOps and MLOps practices.
• Experience with API integrations, scheduled pipelines and production deployments.
• Understanding of security, privacy and responsible AI principles.
• Open source contributions or formal study in generative AI, NLP or machine learning.

Why join us?

You'll be joining Virgin Australia at a pivotal point in our AI journey, working on some of the organisation's most strategically important initiatives.

This is an opportunity to be part of a growing AI team that is building production ready AI solutions at scale. You'll have the freedom to explore emerging technologies, contribute to technical direction and help shape how AI is adopted across one of Australia's most recognised brands.

We're committed to looking after you, with some of the best benefits and conditions in the industry - including (but not limited to):

• Discounted flights for you and your loved ones (including $1000 worth of travel credits per year)
• A flexible, hybrid work style. Work from home or the office, adapt your location to suit your style and needs
• One of Brisbane's most admired head office locations, with South Bank train station, a supermarket, pharmacy, and lunch options downstairs plus a 5 minute walk to the Busway, a rooftop restaurant and onsite gym (with a low membership fee) and South Bank Parklands just across the road
• Discounts on travel insurance, lounge membership, car hire, accommodation, and experiences worldwide
• Cheaper hospitality, retail, technology, beauty and wellness services
• Free counselling and access to a well being app to support your physical, mental, social and financial health
• 'Dress for Your Day' - enjoy the freedom to wear whatever makes you feel great for the type of work you do and the day you have ahead of you

When everyone is included, everyone wins

We're all individuals. And we love that. That's why we encourage applications from Indigenous Australians, people with disability, those from diverse cultural backgrounds, our friends in the LGBTQIA+ community, and anyone else who wants to join our family.

Ready to apply?

We're ready to hear from you. Apply now.