Data Scientist / Data Engineer

Data Scientist / Data Engineer - Fixed-Term Contract | Sydney, NSW | Hybrid | Financial Services Technology

A fast-growing financial advice technology platform is seeking a talented and driven Data Scientist / Data Engineer to join its team on a long term fixed-term basis.

This is a hands-on, high-impact role for someone who thrives in a startup-style environment, takes ownership of their work, and is excited by the challenge of turning complex financial data into actionable intelligence.

You will work across the full data lifecycle — from ingestion and engineering through to modelling, visualization, and insight delivery — with a strong emphasis on financial advice domain knowledge and commercial impact.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, build, and maintain scalable data pipelines and infrastructure to support analytical and product use cases.
• Develop and deploy machine learning models, predictive analytics, and statistical analyses to surface insights across adviser performance, consumer behavior, and market trends.
• Collaborate with product, operations, and business stakeholders to translate complex questions into data-driven solutions.
• Maintain and improve data quality frameworks, governance practices, and documentation to ensure data integrity across the platform.
• Contribute to dashboards, reporting tools, and data products used internally and by external clients.
• Explore and analyse large, complex datasets to surface meaningful patterns relating to financial advice registers, product flows, and consumer engagement

Essential Skills

• Strong understanding of the Australian financial advice ecosystem — AFSL structures, licensees, advisers, product platforms, and regulatory frameworks (FASEA, DDO, Best Interests Duty).
• Hands-on experience with ETL/ELT pipelines, SQL, cloud data platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), and workflow orchestration tools.
• Python proficiency for data processing, modelling, and analysis • Solid grounding in statistical and machine learning concepts with practical experience applying them to real-world problems.
• Ability to explain data findings clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences; comfortable working independently in a fast-moving environment

Highly Regarded

• Experience in a financial advice technology, wealth management, or fintech environment.
• Familiarity with ASIC data sources, the Financial Advisers Register, or similar regulatory datasets.
• Exposure to NLP or unstructured data analysis (e.g. adviser reviews, compliance documents, product disclosures).
• Background building or contributing to data products or analytics platforms in a commercial setting.
• Experience working in or alongside a startup or scale-up environment.

The Environment

This is a local Australian role — offshore arrangements are not being considered. You'll have high autonomy and visibility, with your work seen across the business. The culture is flat, intellectually honest, and fast-moving — it rewards ownership and initiative over hierarchy. The right person is genuinely curious, proactive, adaptable, and impact oriented.

Placed by VAT Talent

VAT Talent is a Melbourne-based specialist technology recruitment agency placing senior professionals across data and analytics, cloud and infrastructure, cyber security, software engineering, and digital transformation. With over 20 years of technology recruitment experience, we partner with high-growth fintechs, consultancies, and enterprise technology firms to connect exceptional talent with roles that matter. Interested? Connect via LinkedIn or reach out to ***email_hidden***