Principal Data Scientist

Principal Data Scientist

• Key leadership role in wiqLABS, reporting to the General Manager

• Permanent role

• Eveleigh, Surry Hills, & Norwest based with WFH flexibility

About wiq:

Woolworths Group is an Australian food and everyday needs retailer employing approx. 200,000 team members across Asia Pacific, serving over 20 million customers across our brands every week. With more than 1,400 stores across Woolworths Supermarkets, Woolworths New Zealand (formerly Countdown) and BIG W, a B2B business serving wholesale and export markets, and a range of fast-growing eCommerce businesses, Woolworths Group is Australia and New Zealand's largest retailer.

wiq brings together the best of Woolworths Group and Quantium, a world-class advanced analytics business, to reimagine retail by solving the most complex problems with data, AI and analytics. We work in agile squads, focused on the hardest problems for our customers and team while building our people's skills along the way.

What you'll do:

We are looking for a Principal Data Scientist: a hands-on technical leader who will shape how Woolworths uses data science and AI to improve customer and team experience and drive commercial performance. You will lead the technical design, architecture and deployment of enterprise-grade AI systems, supported by a cross functional squad including data scientists, technical product leaders, applied AI engineers and business SMEs working on our Google Cloud platform.

• Lead the design, development, and deployment of resilient, multi-agent AI workflows and pipelines in GCP.

• Establish standards for model evaluation, experimentation, observability, and responsible AI practices.

• Track developments across Google, Anthropic, and open-source models to integrate high-impact capabilities.

• Spend over half your time writing production-grade code, focusing on prompt design, tool use, and cost control.

• Mentor a team of data scientists to build a culture of technical rigor, curiosity, and continuous learning.

• Guide the team through complex architectural decisions while fostering autonomy, ownership, and hiring top talent.

• Partner with commercial leaders to translate complex business requirements into ambitious strategic roadmaps.

• Communicate ROI, security considerations, and technical trade-offs effectively to non-technical executive stakeholders.

What you'll bring

We are seeking an experienced technical lead to architect and deploy resilient, multi-agent AI systems within our GCP environment. In this role, you will spend over half your time hands-on with production-grade code, setting high standards for model evaluation, observability, prompt design, and cost efficiency. Beyond technical execution, you will mentor a squad of data scientists, championing technical rigor while guiding them through complex architectural choices. As a key partner to executive commercial leaders, you will translate strategic business needs into high-impact roadmaps and clearly communicate technical trade-offs, ROI, and security considerations to stakeholders at all levels.

• Advanced Python and SQL, and strong skills working with large, disparate datasets

• Proven ability to influence in complex, multi-stakeholder environments

• Tertiary qualifications in statistics, data science, mathematics, computer science or similar, or equivalent experience; postgraduate study is highly regarded

Highly regarded

• Hands-on experience with Google Cloud: Vertex AI, Gemini models, BigQuery, Dataflow or Dataproc, Cloud Composer

• Experience with distributed processing

• Retail, FMCG or consumer experience (desirable but not essential)

What you’ll experience

Our Team Members are at the heart of everything we do and we’re always looking for ways to support your career journey and reward great work:

• Team discounts across our range of Woolworths Group brands you know and love and a robust rewards program that celebrates and incentivises purpose-driven work.

• A global business with endless career possibilities around every corner and across every discipline – with valuable exposure to a vast and exciting business network.

• High impact role supporting our teams who enrich our communities.

• A range of programs to help you prioritise and manage your wellbeing, including 24/7 access to the Sonder app.

Endless possibilities with Woolworths Group

We’re a proud part of the Woolworths Group – 200,000+ bright minds, passionate hearts and unique perspectives working together connected by a shared Purpose – ‘to create better experiences together for a better tomorrow.’

Here you’ll be supported and empowered to explore new ideas, make brave commitments and innovate better ways to meet the food and everyday needs of more than 24 million customers every week. Backed by a culture of genuine care, a flexible approach to work and the support to grow your career and make a meaningful impact, the possibilities for what we can achieve together are endless.

Everyone belongs at Woolworths Group

Diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging are key to realising our purpose of better together for a better tomorrow. We recognise the value our team’s diversity brings to our business, customers, and communities and that teams with diverse experiences and backgrounds enrich our group and are better able to innovate and solve problems. As one of the largest employers in Australia and New Zealand, we aim to create a truly inclusive workplace where everyone feels that they belong, can be their best selves, and reach their full potential.

We encourage all candidates to apply; please let us know in your application if we can support you with any adjustments in the hiring process.