Principal Engineer - Hawthorn East

We’ve been proudly serving Australian communities since 1914 and have grown to become a top 30-listed company on the ASX with a portfolio of iconic homegrown brands. At the heart of our continued success is over 115,000 team members working across the country, all contributing to bringing our customers smiles. You’ll not only get to see your work make a difference, you’ll be part of a team working together to help Australians eat and live better every day.

About the team

As the way Australians shop continues to evolve, our Data and AI Team keep Coles at the forefront of modern retail. We combine data, artificial intelligence, and applied engineering to reimagine how our stores, supply chain, and digital channels operate — creating smarter, more connected, and seamless experiences for our customers and team members.

Operating as a centralised development and enablement function within Coles Technology, the team unites product, engineering, and platform capabilities to deliver the intelligence layer of the enterprise. We serve every part of Coles — from computer vision applications that enhance in-store experiences and reduce loss, to forecasting, optimisation, and decision-support solutions that drive efficiency, accuracy, and agility across our supply chain, retail operations, and corporate functions.

The scale and impact of this work are significant. Coles serves millions of customers each week across more than a thousand stores nationwide, and our AI and data capabilities provide the intelligence that underpins how we plan, move, sell, and serve. By combining deep data capability with applied AI and modern engineering, we’re enabling Coles to become a truly AI-enabled enterprise, transforming how we operate and how Australia shops every day.

About the role

We are currently recruiting for a Principal Engineer who will sit within the Data & AI Technology Hub and leads the design and build of enterprise measurement, experimentation, and causal inference solutions deployed across Coles’ business domains. Working in a hub-and-spoke model, the role partners with domain teams including Retail Media, Performance Marketing, Promo Effectiveness, and other commercial, digital, and operational functions to improve how Coles designs experiments, quantifies incremental impact, and makes investment decisions.

Key responsibilities will include:

• Define the frameworks, standards, and roadmap to establish Coles measurement capability, and work with teams in Data & AI to apply the measurement capability and reduce fragmentation in how teams design, run, and interpret experiments.
• Provide enterprise thought leadership on design, methodology, and decision quality.
• Research, evaluate, and champion adoption of modern measurement methodologies including Bayesian inference, causal modelling (DAGs, difference-in-differences, synthetic controls), advanced A/B test design, uplift modelling, and multi-touch attribution frameworks. Success in this area is defined by reusable experimentation and measurement frameworks being adopted across multiple business domains, and a measurable reduction in fragmentation in how teams design, run, and interpret experiments.
• Define and own measurement and experimentation standards and capabilities across Data & AI, including test design, power analysis, metric definition, and validation frameworks, driving improved rigor and consistency in how Coles designs experiments. Champion measurement excellence by setting the bar for analytical rigour, influencing architecture decisions for experimentation platforms, uplifting quantitative capability and participating in experiment and measurement design reviews.
• Provide deep technical knowledge and hands-on leadership across engineering squads, guiding the design of experiments, attribution models, and business case measurement approaches. Act as the go-to expert brought into projects to advise on measurement methodology, audience/cohort definition, control group design, and causal inference strategy, enabling faster, more credible ROI assessment for interventions and campaigns
• Influence and mentor data scientists, analysts, and engineers across multiple squads in measurement methodology, raising the organisation's quantitative literacy and analytical maturity
• Build and maintain strong, trusted relationships with business partners, domain leadership, and cross-domain product teams. Be recognised as the person who makes complex measurement accessible and actionable for non-technical audiences.
• Partner with marketing, commercial, and product leadership to embed rigorous measurement into campaign evaluation, use case design, and business case validation. Ensure consistent measurement methodology across Data & AI while delivering compliant, transparent, and trustworthy analytical outcomes.

About you and your skills

• Experience working effectively in a dynamic, high-pressure environment
• Experience operating as a senior measurement specialist in a fast-paced, complex environment, balancing deep-focus project work with, research and ad-hoc advisory across multiple teams
• Experience collaborating with cross-functional teams (e.g. marketing, product, commercial, finance) to design and deliver measurement solutions that directly inform investment decisions and strategic priorities.
• Proven ability to bring together diverse stakeholders (marketing, commercial, product, engineering) and align them on measurement approach, success criteria, and interpretation of results, including experience coaching analysts, data scientists, and business partners to think critically about measurement, ask the right questions, and interpret quantitative evidence correctly
• Demonstrated ownership of end-to-end measurement delivery: from problem framing and experiment design through execution, analysis, and presentation of findings to senior leadership.
• Track record of delivering production grade analytical systems, through individual framework development to full solution design and implementation
• Proven experience designing and scaling advanced measurement systems: A/B and multivariate testing platforms, causal inference pipelines, attribution models, and business case validation frameworks that balance statistical rigour with practical delivery timelines
• Expertise with modern data science and engineering toolsets including CI/CD (through DevOps/MLOps/DataOps), experimentation platforms, automated testing, and infrastructure-as-code.
• Demonstrated experience of influencing solution design to enable robust and reliable insight generation, evaluation and experimentation.

Qualifications

• Postgraduate qualification in a quantitative field such as Statistics, Econometrics, Bioinformatics or a related measurement science discipline. Post-doctoral or equivalent industry experience in applied measurement/causal inference highly regarded.
• Ability to set measurement strategy in the context of Coles' broader direction, anticipating where the organisation needs measurement capability and proactively building the frameworks, tools, and knowledge to get there. Ability to balance statistical perfectionism with commercial pragmatism: knowing when a quick directional read is sufficient vs. when full causal rigour is required.
• Expert-level knowledge of experimental design (A/B, multivariate, switchback, geo-experiments), causal inference (propensity scores, instrumental variables, regression discontinuity, difference-in-differences), Bayesian modelling, and Marketing Mixture Models (MMM).
• Highly experienced in Python and/or R for statistical computing, with deep proficiency in causal inference libraries (eg DoWhy, CausalImpact, EconML), Bayesian frameworks (eg PyMC, Stan, NumPyro), and experiment analysis tooling
• Familiarity with machine learning frameworks (PyTorch, scikit-learn), feature-flag systems (LaunchDarkly, Optimizely) and analytics platforms (Adobe, Google Analytics)
• Strong architectural thinking for measurement systems: able to design scalable experimentation platforms, metric stores, and attribution pipelines
• Ability to translate new research into practical business applications within the Coles context
• Strong understanding of data privacy and protection principles as they apply to experimentation (e.g. PII in test/control groups, consent, data retention).
• Outstanding communicator and storyteller: able to present measurement findings, methodology rationale, and strategic recommendations to audiences ranging from data scientists to the executive leadership team.

What’s in it for you?

• Flexible working options: We know that work is only one part of your life, so we actively encourage a positive work-life balance and provide hybrid working options to help you achieve it.
• Office perks: Take advantage of our gym facility and fitness classes, free parking, BBQ area, mini-Coles supermarket, fooderie hub where you can sample new products before they hit the shelves, school holiday program and so much more when you come in.
• Discounts: Eligible team members receive 5% discount all year round on your Supermarket and Liquor online and in-store purchases. We also offer additional periods of double discount (10%) at various times throughout the year. As well as hotdeals exclusive to team members that translate into additional savings.
• Reward through recognition: Give and receive recognition, linked to our Coles values, through our digital recognition platform ‘mythanks’. You can accumulate points to redeem in the online shop for exciting gifts and electronic gift cards from an extensive range of retailers.
• Opportunities for learning and development: No matter where you start within our diverse business, you’ll have experiences, exposure, and education to satisfy you. Discover and explore a variety of career development programs and job-specific training.
• Paid parental leave: We understand how important your life outside work is and offer permanent team members paid parental leave to support you in balancing work and family.
• Investment in your future: Our annual team member share plan offer allows eligible team members to make regular pre-tax salary sacrifice deductions to purchase Coles Group shares.

About the recruitment process

We’re continuing to build a gender equitable team, and a culture that is just as diverse, inclusive and welcoming as the communities we serve. We are committed to creating a workplace that is safe and respectful for our team. We encourage applications from people of all ages, cultures (including Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples), abilities, sexual orientation and gender identities.

We’re happy to adjust our recruitment process to support candidates with disability. For further information and additional contact details visit the ‘Our Recruitment Process’ section of our careers site or email inclusionrecruitment@coles.com.au

Job ID: 166056

Employment Type: Full time