Data Scientist

Company Description

Fairness feels good

Make a real impact at AFCA. Where fairness drives every decision. Help us deliver world-class, independent complaints resolution for Australians. As a not-for-profit and progressive financial ombudsman, we’re championing positive change. Achieving our purpose takes progressive thinking, accountability and resilience. At AFCA, our inclusive leadership values every voice. We offer our people flexible work options, thoughtful benefits and opportunities to deepen expertise. Flourish in a diverse, caring culture. Feel the difference of belonging to an organisation intentionally designed to put people first.

Job Description

The Data Scientist role will be pivotal in ensuring the continuity and growth of AFCA’s AI services and AFCA achieving and implementing its future AI and data roadmaps. We’re looking for a Data Scientist to harness AFCA’s modern data platform and Microsoft services to uncover patterns, trends, and relationships across structured and unstructured data. You’ll build classification, prediction, and optimisation models that deliver tailored, actionable insights.

Working with internal teams and external partners, you’ll help deliver sustainable, innovative, and ethical AI solutions that support AFCA’s strategic goals. We currently have two open positions, 1 x permanent and 1 x 12 month contract.

Typically in this role, you will: 

• Design, implement, and test analytical models using tools like Azure Databricks, Synapse Analytics, and AI Foundry
• Lead experiments to compare analytical methods and refine performance
• Deploy solutions within AFCA’s change management framework and monitor performance over time
• Participate in requirements workshops and contribute to solution design
• Collaborate with report developers to communicate insights through reports and visualisations
• Act as a bridge between business needs and technical delivery
• Maintain analytics workloads and support continuity of data science services
• Respond to alerts/outages and escalate as needed
• Provide project support, including coordination with third-party providers
• Maintain high-quality documentation (requirements, evaluations, code repositories)
• Build prompt libraries and guardrails in Azure AI Foundry
• Define success metrics (accuracy, bias, hallucination rate) and run A/B tests
• Lead design and evaluation of LLM and RAG-based solutions, including fine-tuning models
  
  

Qualifications

To be successful, you will need: 

• A degree in Computer Science, Information Technology, or a Data related field,
• Proven experience of relevant experience in working with advanced analytics platforms, data science and/or data and AI projects.
• Strong knowledge and experience in data science technologies including Databricks, Python, SQL, ML, AI and/or generative AI concepts/tools.
• Experience in deploying LLM-based solutions using Azure OpenAI or similar tools.
• Knowledge of data analysis, deep learning, statistics, artificial intelligence, and knowledge of relational and dimensional data models.
• Strong interpersonal skills including oral and written communication skills.
• Strong attention to detail, initiative and the ability to work unsupervised.
• The ability to adopt a flexible/ innovative approach to problems and opportunities.
  
  

Additional Information

• BOSS Best Places to Work 2024 –credited for its culture, engagement and flexible working arrangements.
• Most Inclusive Workplace 2024 – Australian HR Institute (AHRI) Awards.
• Employer of Choice Public Sector and NFP – Australian HR Awards 2023
• Silver AWEI Accreditation 2025 – Recognised for LGBTQ+ workplace inclusion.
• Accredited Family Friendly Workplace – Supporting work-life balance and inclusivity.
• Hybrid working – Flexible arrangements with state-of-the-art offices designed for collaboration and wellbeing.
• Inclusive leave options – Flexible public holidays, 20 weeks paid parental leave, gender affirmation leave, women’s health leave, and paid time off over Christmas.
• Financial benefits – Not-for-profit salary packaging to boost take-home pay.
• Locations – A team of over 1,200 dedicated professionals based in modern Melbourne and Sydney CBD offices.
  
  

To apply

If you’re passionate about fairness and believe your skills align with this role, we encourage you to apply even if you don’t meet every single criterion.

We welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, cultures, abilities, sexual orientations, and gender identities. If you require any accessibility support during the recruitment process, please reach out to our team at [email protected].

AFCA is a 2025 Circle Back Initiative Employer - we are committed to responding to every applicant.