Engineering Manager - Data Engineering & Platforms

Are you ready to be a big part of something big? 

At carsales, we're all about making buying and selling a great experience. For over 28 years we’ve been evolving with the new economy to help people choose how they move today and tomorrow. 

When it comes to your career, we want to provide big opportunities to help you make a big impact. But for this to be possible, we strive to feel small. Small enough to quickly change tack, small enough to learn from different departments and small enough to connect authentically with leadership. 

With a vision to be the global leader in online vehicle marketplaces. We transform how people buy and sell across the globe. We discover new ideas and make them happen. We continue to grow, and we continue to evolve – and we aren’t afraid to make big bets.

We embrace a hybrid way of working – mixing working from home with the energy and connection that comes from being together in the office. We champion flexibility and have many policies, procedures and leave options to support flexible work

Not something you’d expect from one of the country’s biggest tech companies, is it? 

A career in Data at carsales means being at the heart of decision-making, powering the insights behind every product, feature, and experience we deliver to millions of users globally. The team builds scalable data platforms, maintains trusted and high-quality data pipelines, and enables advanced analytics – empowering teams across the business to make smarter, faster, and more customer-centric decisions.

What’s on offer: 

• A place where you can move your career forward, where you’ll be continuously backed to make new ideas happen, and the chance to do work that makes real, significant impact in the world. 
• We’re proud to be recognised as one of Australia’s Best Workplaces™ by Great Place to Work®, a Family Friendly Workplace, a WORK180 endorsed employer for women.
• The support of a highly engaged, high-performing team including a leadership team that’s you’ll actually have face time with. 
• 24 weeks paid parental leave for primary caregivers, four weeks paid secondary caregivers leave, six weeks paid gender transition leave

As the Data Platform and Engineering Team Lead, this role is responsible for leading and managing a talented team of data engineers while helping shape and execute the overall Data Platform & Engineering (DPE) strategy.

What you’ll do

• Support, guide, and develop the Data Platform & Engineering team, fostering a culture of accountability, operational excellence, and continuous improvement.
• Promote collaboration, shared ownership, and transparent communication across teams to deliver outcomes that support carsales strategic and operational goals.
• Run carsales core data platforms (Snowflake, RMQ, etc) to high operational standards — ensuring scalability, reliability, and performance.
• Ensure sound engineering standards are upheld in the development and delivery of data infrastructure and pipelines.
• Advocate for strong data governance, lineage, and quality practices aligned with CAR Group’s data standards and policies.
• Drive adoption of sound engineering practices across the team, including observability, automation, version control, and CI/CD, ensuring the platform remains reliable and cost-efficient.
• Partner closely with Product, Platform, and Analytics teams to align priorities, communicate progress, and ensure the data platform delivers measurable business value.
• Oversee the health, reliability, and evolution of the carsales data ecosystem through disciplined operational management and proactive issue resolution

What are we looking for? 

• Proven experience as an Engineering Manager, Data Platform Lead, or similar role within large-scale data environments.
• Hands-on technical experience in modern data stacks — including data modelling, orchestration, and real-time/streaming architectures (e.g., Snowflake, BigQuery, Kafka/RMQ, Airflow).
• Strong understanding of cloud platforms (AWS/GCP) and data engineering best practices for performance, reliability, and scalability.
• Demonstrated FinOps experience in managing and optimizing cloud data costs.
• Track record of building and enabling high-performing data engineering teams.
• Excellent communication and decision-making skills, with the ability to simplify complexity and guide cross-functional teams.
• Effective organisational and delivery management skills management skills, ensuring structured execution across multiple priorities.

A few other things we want to let you know about...

• carsales is an equal opportunity employer who prides themselves on fostering a diverse and inclusive workplace. We encourage everyone of all ages, genders and backgrounds to apply. If you’re a candidate with a disability or you’ll need some adjustments to be at your best, let us know how we can provide you with additional support.
• We know how important keeping that balance between work/life is and have a range of flexible working options on offer, including part time. We are open to this conversation during our recruitment process if you want to know more just ask!
• We are a proud Circle Back Initiative Employer which means we are committed to responding to every job applicant.
• Successful candidates joining the carsales family are required to undergo a National Police Record check and must have full-time Australian working rights on an ongoing basis.

So come and join our team - because every role is a big role in our plans to go big.