Senior Site Reliability Engineer

At the NSW Department of Education, we educate and inspire lifelong learners – from early childhood, through schooling to vocational education and training.

• Ongoing full-time employment
• Based in Eveleigh with flexible working arrangements
• Salary ranges from $154,231 to $178,369 p.a. plus superannuation and annual leave loading

About the role

The Senior Site Reliability Engineer leads the design, operation and continuous improvement of the distributed infrastructure and observability platforms that underpin the department's digital services. The role sets and upholds reliability standards, balancing system stability against the pace of change, and applies automation and telemetry to reduce manual effort, prevent and shorten incidents, and give teams across the directorate the evidence they need to make informed decisions about the systems supporting teaching, learning and administration.

Key accountabilities

• Design and improve monitoring, alerting and reliability standards for distributed systems.
• Lead observability infrastructure across platform services, including metrics, logs and traces.
• Automate infrastructure and operational tasks using Ansible, Nomad and infrastructure-as-code tooling.
• Lead incident response, root cause analysis and remediation to improve system reliability.
• Provide technical leadership on SRE practices, platform design, capacity planning and team capability.

For further information please click here to view the role description

About you

• Extensive knowledge of distributed systems, reliability patterns and failure modes.
• Experience with observability platforms, infrastructure-as-code and orchestration tools.
• Proven expertise in incident response, root cause analysis and system reliability.
• Strong understanding of security, networking and scalable infrastructure design.
• Knowledge of and commitment to implementing the Department’s Aboriginal Education Policy and upholding the Department’s Partnership Agreement with the NSW AECG and to ensure quality outcomes for Aboriginal people.

Essential requirements of the role

• Current and valid Working with Children Check Clearance for paid employment.
• Tertiary qualifications in Computer Science, Information Technology, Engineering and/or demonstrated equivalent experience in systems engineering.
• Demonstrated understanding of and commitment to the value of public education.

Benefits

• Flexible working arrangements
• 35 hour working week
• Competitive, salary sacrificing, employer’s contribution to superannuation and annual leave loading
• Flex leave entitlements, generous holidays & leave conditions
• Opportunities for advancement and mobility across the Department to support career growth

How to apply

Attach a resume (maximum 5 pages) and a cover letter (maximum 2 pages) outlining how you meet the requirements and capabilities of this role and answer the targeted questions below:

1 Give an example of how you have used service level objectives, error budgets or other reliability standards to influence technical or delivery priorities. What was the situation, what did you do, and what was the outcome? (Maximum 300 words

2 Describe an observability platform (metrics, logs and/or traces) that you have designed or operated in production. Outline its scale and architecture, one significant design decision you made and the trade-off involved, and a failure mode you encountered and how you resolved it. (Maximum 300 words)

Applicants are encouraged to prepare their application materials independently. The selection panel values authentic and personally written responses that reflect your own experience, insights and alignment with the Department’s values and priorities.

Please refer to the Applicant’s Guide to Applying to assist you with your application.

If you are an existing Education Support Staff (corporate staff) member with the NSW Department of Education, click here for instructions on how to submit your application.

All other applicants please submit your application by clicking ‘Apply Now’.

Note: The selection process will include a range of assessment techniques to assist in determining your suitability for the role. Successful candidates will be required to undertake pre-employment screening for this role which includes a National Criminal History Check.

As a condition of employment, successful candidates not currently employed by the Department must provide a valid Working with Children Check (WWCC) clearance number. Renewal is not required after the WWCC expires, as long as you remain in a non–child-related role. Employer obligations only apply while the WWCC is valid

Candidates must have Australian work rights (citizens, permanent residents, New Zealand citizens or a valid work visa). Ongoing (permanent) roles are open to Australian citizens and permanent residents and New Zealand citizens, while temporary roles welcome applicants with a visa. 

Closing date : Sunday 8th November 2026 at 11:59 PM

For role enquiries, please contact James Varty at James.Varty@det.nsw.edu.au

We welcome applications of all ages and genders, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, culturally and linguistically diverse groups, the LGBTQIA+ community, veterans, refugees and people with disability. If we can make some adjustments to our recruitment/interview process to better enable you to shine, please contact the Diversity and Inclusion Team (youbelong@det.nsw.edu.au) or visit NSW Department of Education Diversity and Inclusion.

A recruitment pool may be created through this recruitment process. A recruitment pool is a group of applicants who have been assessed and identified as suitable for this role, and who may be considered for a range of similar roles over the next 18 months, including temporary term or ongoing roles.