Data & AI Jobs in Australia: Who's Hiring Right Now (Oct 2026)

You've got data and AI skills, you're sitting in Australia, and you're sick of scrolling job boards that recycle the same stale ads from three months ago.

Here's the real picture as of 14 October 2026. The Data & AI jobs in Australia feed on JobRise shows 14 open listings right now, which is small but every single one is live and taking applications.

Ten of those went up in the last 30 days. Seven landed in the last 7 days alone. Fresh beats big.

Who's hiring, and what they want#

Anthropic leads the slice with 3 open roles, including an Applied AI Engineer position. Alder Group follows with 2, one of which is a Data and AI Engineer.

Then it's one listing each from a spread of names. Cresta wants a Senior Forward Deployed Engineer (AI Agent). Acusensus Australia is hiring an AI Architect. Bailey Abbott has a Senior Data Engineer open.

Corto Pty Ltd needs an Application Support Specialist for AI apps. Rmkble is looking for an AI Technical Lead on the JourneyOne work. Okta wants a Lead AI Engineer. Intercom and Intelligen Group round out the list.

Some of these names are recruiters or staffing firms, not end employers, and Alder Group and Bailey Abbott look like that kind of operation. Fine either way. Just know the difference before you picture your future desk.

The roles skew senior and hands-on. Architects, leads, forward deployed engineers. Nobody here wants someone who "has a passion for data".

Where the jobs are#

Sydney dominates with 8 of the 14 listings. The rest are scattered singles: Helensvale, Brisbane, Ingleburn, Unley. One Gold Coast-area role, one Brisbane role, two in Sydney's west and south.

If you're not in Sydney, remote won't rescue you in this feed. Every listing is Full-time. All 14 of them. No contract, no part-time, no casual anywhere in this slice.

Employers committing to full-time headcount in October means they've got budget locked for the financial year, and they're not testing the waters with short-term contractors. That's a good sign if you want stability.

What the mix tells you about the market#

Three kinds of employer show up here, and each one hires differently.

Big tech and product companies: Anthropic, Okta, Intercom, Cresta. These run tight processes, usually a recruiter screen then a technical loop, and they move fast once they like you. Anthropic alone carries 3 listings, which is the biggest single bet in this slice.

Agencies and staffing firms: Alder Group, Bailey Abbott, Intelligen Group. They place you with a client, so ask early who the client is and what the contract length looks like. Sometimes it converts to permanent. Sometimes it doesn't.

Local specialist firms: Acusensus Australia, Corto Pty Ltd, Rmkble. Smaller teams, so you'll talk to the person you'd actually work for. Acusensus does road safety AI and camera enforcement work. Titles like "AI Technical Lead (JourneyOne)" suggest project-based work with a named client.

Public sector? Zero in this slice. If you want government data work, this isn't the feed for it this month.

The salary question#

No listing in this slice shows a salary. Not one of the 14. That's normal for senior Australian data and AI roles, and it's still annoying.

For senior data and AI engineering roles in Australia, reported ranges commonly sit somewhere in the low six figures up to the high hundreds of thousands, but they swing hard depending on scope, city, and company type. Verify against current official sources before you anchor on any number.

Ask for the band in your first reply. It saves everyone a week.

How to apply this week#

Apply direct wherever you can. If the listing comes from a staffing firm, apply anyway, but also hunt down the end employer and hit that door too. Two doors, same job.

Mirror the listing's keywords in your resume and your LinkedIn headline. If the ad says "AI Agent", "forward deployed", and "LLM", those exact words belong in your top third. The recruiter skims for 6 seconds.

Make those seconds count.

Run your resume through a free ATS resume checker before you send it, because a chunk of rejections in this market come down to a parsing tool choking on your fancy layout. Boring formatting wins.

Your 7-step plan#

• Pick your top 3 listings from the 14 open now, and rank them by how close your skills match the first 5 requirements.
• Rewrite the top third of your resume for each one, mirroring the exact job title and 3 keywords from that listing.
• Check the company type first: product company, staffing firm, or local specialist. It changes how you pitch yourself.
• Find the hiring manager or recruiter on LinkedIn and send a 2-line note mentioning the role title and one thing you've shipped.
• Ask for the salary band in your first message. If they dodge twice, move on.
• Track everything in a spreadsheet: company, role, date applied, contact name, next step. 14 listings is small enough to manage by hand.
• Follow up 5 business days after applying, once, with one new piece of evidence. Then stop.

Do all of that by Friday and you'll have touched most of this market.

The bigger picture#

14 listings is a thin slice, so don't panic about the total. For country-wide context, the JobRise Hiring Report: Australia shows 462 open listings across all categories, with 346 posted in the last 30 days.

Data and AI sits at roughly 3% of that, which tells you it's specialised work rather than a dead category. Thin, not empty.

The 7 listings posted in the last 7 days is the number I'd watch, because fresh postings mean active hiring rather than stale ads sitting in a queue. Those are the ones to hit first.

FAQ#

Which companies have the most data and AI jobs open in Australia right now?

As of 14 October 2026, Anthropic has 3 open listings and Alder Group has 2, based on the JobRise live jobs feed. Cresta, Acusensus Australia, Bailey Abbott, Corto Pty Ltd, Rmkble, Okta, Intercom, and Intelligen Group each have 1.

Are these data and AI jobs full-time or contract?

All 14 open listings in this slice are Full-time. There are no contract, part-time, or casual roles showing in the data & AI category on 14 October 2026.

Are there any entry-level or graduate data and AI roles in Australia?

No. Zero of the 14 open listings use intern, graduate, junior, trainee, or similar entry-level wording. The titles skew senior: architects, leads, and senior engineers.

Do these Australian data and AI jobs list salaries?

None of the 14 listings in this snapshot show a salary. Ask for the band in your first message to the recruiter or hiring manager, and check current official sources for typical ranges before you negotiate.

Where are most of these data and AI jobs located?

Sydney has 8 of the 14 listings. Helensvale, Brisbane, Ingleburn, and Unley have 1 each. If you're outside Sydney, expect fewer options in this specific slice this month.