Lead Software Developer

Overview

WELCOME TO SITA

At SITA, we keep airports moving, airlines flying smoothly, and borders open. Our technology and communication innovations power the success of the global air travel industry.

You'll find us in 95% of international airports, working closely with over 2,500 transportation and government clients. Each partnership brings unique challenges, and we thrive on delivering fresh solutions and cutting-edge tech to keep operations running like clockwork. We don't just move the world forward-we're proud to be recognized as a Great Place to Work® by 79% of our employees and certified in most of our growing locations. Here, we feel empowered, supported, and inspired to grow.

Are you ready to love your job?

The adventure begins right here, with you, at SITA.

Purpose

To provide senior hands-on engineering ownership of the Classic platform— real-time, 24x7, mission-critical systems operating under strict availability SLAs. The role exists to sustain and evolve a mature C and Oracle code estate, to lead its through-life change and defect resolution across all supported platforms, and to build durable technical depth within the team so that ownership of these systems is not dependent on any single individual.

Role Summary

SITA’s Borders solutions delivers and supports the border management platforms used by government agencies. These are high-availability, high-volume systems where an outage has direct operational consequence at the border.

We are seeking a Senior C / Pro*C / PL-SQL Developer to take technical ownership of SITA products. This is a deep systems-engineering role centred on long-running Unix server processes and Oracle-backed middleware — you will own BAU support, change requests and defect resolution across the supported countries, and play a key engineering role in the migration and transition programmes.

You will work in a small, highly focused team with minimal supervision, and will be the recognised custodian of a code estate that has been in production for many years. We are looking for genuine depth in C and Oracle rather than breadth across modern frameworks — the ability to read unfamiliar legacy code, reason about it accurately, and change it safely is the single most important attribute for this role.

Key Responsibilities

Engineering & Development

• Design, develop and maintain scalable backend solutions in C and Oracle DB.
• Design and implement high-availability solutions that meet strict SLA requirements.
• Build and support mission-critical, high-volume, long-running Unix server processes.
• Write, optimise and maintain PL/SQL packages, procedures, functions and complex SQL, including object-oriented development using PL/SQL Objects.
• Develop and maintain Unix shell and Python scripting supporting batch processing, scheduling, file handling and system integration.
• Build and use the in-house unit and integration testing frameworks, and the in-house encrypted toolsets, that underpin the platform.
• Diagnose, troubleshoot and optimise performance and reliability issues, delivering permanent root-cause fixes rather than workarounds.

Support & Change Delivery

• Maintain and support real-time, 24x7 middleware solution systems.
• Own BAU support, change request delivery and defect resolution.
• Support the migration from Classic to Dynamic system, including data reconciliation, parallel-run validation and cutover support.
• Participate in the on-call / out-of-hours roster, and support release and deployment activity through the CI → FT → SQACE → PROD promotion pipeline.
• Prepare and execute change records through the CAB governance process, including implementation, verification and rollback plans.

Technical Leadership

• Act as the recognised technical authority for the codebases within SITA.
• Produce clear technical specifications and maintain accurate, comprehensive documentation, runbooks and knowledge-transfer artefacts.
• Reduce key-person dependency by documenting system behaviour and data flows, and by actively cross-skilling other team members.
• Review code produced by other developers and set the standard for quality, testability and defensive coding in the legacy estate.
• Contribute technical input to solution design, effort estimation and impact assessment for new change requests and country rollouts.

Ways of Working

• Work independently in a small, highly focused team with minimal supervision.
• Deliver results in fast-paced, high-responsibility environments.
• Work closely with the Senior Technical Lead, DevOps, QA/testing and architecture functions across the delivery structure.
• Ensure all work complies with the customer’s security, privacy and data-handling obligations, including secure coding practices for personal and border data.

Qualifications

Eligibility Requirements

• Must be an Australian Citizen (mandatory — no exceptions, as this role requires Australian Government security clearance).
• Must hold, or be eligible to obtain and maintain, a current Australian Government Security Clearance (Baseline as specified by the engagement).
• Willingness to undergo and pass background, character, and security vetting through the Australian Government Security Vetting Agency (AGSVA).

Experience

Essential

• Non-negotiable — Australian Citizenship, and the ability to hold or obtain an Australian Government Baseline security clearance.
• Over 10 years’ software development experience in C.
• Proven expertise in C, Pro*C, PL/SQL and Unix development.
• Familiarity with object-oriented development in Oracle PL/SQL using PL/SQL Objects.
• Extensive experience working in Linux/Unix environments — shell scripting, process management, log analysis and system-level troubleshooting.
• Strong relational database programming skills on Oracle, including performance tuning, execution-plan analysis and index strategy.
• Proven ability to work in a mission-critical, high-availability production context with formal change control and release governance.
• Experience with Agile methodologies and Scrum practices.
• General knowledge of containerisation in Docker or Podman environments.
• Comfortable working with sparsely documented legacy systems and reverse-engineering behaviour from source.

Highly Desirable

• Domain experience in border management, immigration, travel or aviation systems — API/PNR, advance passenger processing, ETA/visa systems or passenger data messaging.
• Exposure to messaging middleware (IBM MQ, Kafka) and system-to-system integration patterns.
• Experience with legacy-to-modern migration programmes, including parallel running and data migration validation.
• Familiarity with Java and with modern CI/CD tooling (Jenkins, SonarQube, Nexus, Harbor).
• Prior work in an Australian Government or other regulated / security-cleared environment.

Knowledge and Skills

• Excellent problem-solving and analytical skills.
• Effective communicator with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Proficient with Git for version control.
• Solid understanding of Agile practices and Scrum techniques.
• Ability to produce clear, precise technical documentation for a government customer audience.

Technical Environment

The successful candidate will work day to day across the following:

Operating Systems	Linux, Solaris, AIX
Languages	C, Pro*C, PL/SQL, Unix Shell Scripting, Python
Compilers & Build	GNU C Compiler, Unix Make
Databases	Oracle 19c+ — development and administration
Testing	In-house unit and integration testing frameworks
Security	In-house encrypted toolsets
Tooling	Git, JIRA, ServiceNow; Docker / Podman containerisation
Delivery Method	Agile / Scrum, with CAB-governed release management

Education and Professional Qualifications

• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Information Technology or a related discipline — or equivalent demonstrable professional experience.
• Oracle certification (Oracle Database SQL / PL-SQL Developer Certified Professional or equivalent) — desirable.
• ITIL Foundation certification or equivalent service-management experience — desirable.

WHAT WE OFFER

We're all about diversity. We operate in 200 countries and speak 60 different languages and cultures. We're really proud of our inclusive environment. Our offices are comfortable and fun places to work, and we make sure you get to work from home too. Find out what it's like to join our team and take a step closer to your best life ever.

🏡 Flex Week: Work from home up to 2 days/week (depending on your team's needs)

⏰ Flex Day: Make your workday suit your life and plans.

🌎 Flex-Location: Take up to 30 days a year to work from any location in the world.

🌿 Employee Wellbeing: We have got you covered with our Employee Assistance Program (EAP), for you and your dependents 24/7, 365 days/year. We also offer Champion Health - a personalized platform that supports a range of wellbeing needs.

🚀 Professional Development: At SITA, we believe growth fuels innovation. Our learning ecosystem offers access to world-class platforms and programs designed to help you thrive. From LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft's Enterprise Skills Initiative, and Airport Council International -available to all employees-to specialized solutions like Pluralsight for technology upskilling, Harvard Business Publishing for people leadership, Stanford for strategic development and many others, we align learning opportunities with your Development Plan and our business priorities. Your development journey is supported every step of the way.

🙌 Competitive Benefits: Competitive benefits that make sense with both your local market and employment status.

SITA is an Equal Opportunity Employer. We value a diverse workforce. In support of our Employment Equity Program, we encourage women, aboriginal people, members of visible minorities, and/or persons with disabilities to apply and self-identify in the application process.

Salary / Compensation Note

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