Job Description

Hello. We’re Virgin Australia. We’re the airline that’s always done things a little different. Our way. The Virgin way. We’re on a mission to make flying better than ‘nice’. And to do that, it takes a team of talented people who are passionate about customer experience, doing the right thing always, with a focus on safety – in the air, on the ground and in our workplaces. A team who values real diversity and inclusion, in a big brand with big ambitions.

With millions of customer interactions across our ecosystem and a uniquely rich dataset spanning customer behaviour, travel and partner engagement, data plays a central role in how we personalise experiences and make decisions at scale.

About the role:

We’re looking for a Data Scientist to join our Advanced Analytics Centre of Excellence. In this role, you’ll build, deploy and scale machine learning and experimentation solutions that directly shape loyalty strategy, customer decisioning and personalisation, partner performance, and customer experience across the Velocity ecosystem.

You’ll work in a cross functional environment alongside Insight Analysts, Analytics Engineers and business stakeholders, owning problems end to end from framing and experiment design through to production deployment and measurable business impact, embedding models into production systems that power large scale customer and member decisioning.

You’ll report to the Manager, Personalisation Analytics and Data Science and join a team with established models in production, including recommender systems, propensity and regression models, supported by an evolving MLOps framework built on Databricks and AutoML. These models are actively used to power large scale member decisioning across the Velocity program.

As Velocity accelerates its AI transformation journey, you’ll partner closely with our AI teams to identify, develop and embed AI driven capabilities into scalable products and decisioning frameworks.

In this role you will:

• Design, build and deploy statistical and machine learning models using Python and Spark within a modern, scalable data and ML platform, including Databricks, with a focus on deploying models into production environments supporting batch and increasingly near real time decisioning
• Own the end to end lifecycle of models, from problem framing and feature engineering through to deployment, monitoring and optimisation
• Develop and enhance recommender systems, propensity models and predictive models that drive commercial outcomes
• Design and implement experiments (A/B and beyond) to inform decision making, measure causal impact and continuously optimise outcomes
• Contribute to and improve MLOps practices, including automation, reproducibility, scalable deployment pipelines and model monitoring
• Build scalable data products and reusable decisioning frameworks
• Translate complex analyses into clear, actionable insights using effective data visualisation and storytelling for both technical and non technical audiences
• Partner closely with analytics, engineering and business teams to embed data-driven decision making into workflows
• Ensure all work aligns with Virgin Australia Group’s safety, security and resilience standards

You’ll be great in this role if you have:

• A degree in a quantitative discipline such as Data Science, Statistics, Mathematics or Computer Science (PhD desirable)
• Around 3+ years of experience building and deploying machine learning models in a commercial environment
• Proficiency in Python, with solid SQL skills and experience working with large datasets (Spark desirable)
• Experience working with modern data and ML platforms such as Databricks and/or AWS
• A strong foundation in statistics, experimental design and ideally causal inference
• Experience working within or contributing to MLOps frameworks
• A track record of translating models and analysis into measurable business impact
• Strong communication and data visualisation skills, with the ability to influence stakeholders and drive data-driven decisions
• Curiosity, ownership and a drive to automate and scale solutions
• Experience in loyalty, travel or consumer products (nice to have)

Why this role is interesting:

• Work on production grade machine learning systems that power decisioning at scale
• Build on an existing ML and MLOps ecosystem with modern tooling (Databricks, AutoML)
• Help shape how experimentation, personalisation and AI driven decisioning are scaled across Velocity

Candidates must be Sydney based, or willing to relocate.

What you’ll get from us

We’re committed to looking after you, with some of the best benefits and conditions in the industry – including (but not limited to):

• Discounted flights for you and your loved ones (plus $1000 travel credits per year)
• Flexible and hybrid working, with a mix of working from home and the office
• ‘Dress for Your Day’ – wear whatever makes you feel great for the type of work you do and the day you have ahead of you
• Discounts on travel insurance, lounge membership, car hire, accommodation, and experiences worldwide
• Cheaper hospitality, retail, technology, beauty and wellness services
• Free counselling and online tools to support your physical, mental, social and financial health.

When everyone is included, everyone wins

We’re all individuals. And we love that. That’s why we encourage applications from Indigenous Australians, people with disability, those from diverse cultural backgrounds, our friends in the LGBTIQ+ community, and anyone else who wants to join us.

Ready to apply?

Working at Virgin Australia isn't just a job. It's a passion that becomes part of you. Are you ready to join us? Get ready for a rewarding experience. Apply today!