Data | Australian Signals Directorate

Data professional roles within ASD ensure that ASD analysts have access to the data and tools they require to meet ASD and ADF mission requirements. We do this through the delivery of data platforms, ensuring our data is fit for purpose, delivering bespoke mission tools and applications and providing complex analytic support, including Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence capability.

As part of your job, ASD will support you and provide opportunities to stay up-to-date with the latest trends and technologies to develop new ways to collect information and solve intelligence problems

Data Engineer

The Data Engineer is responsible for designing, developing and maintaining software architectures to collect and analyse large data sets.

Staff are required to have knowledge of, and compliance to relevant legislative frameworks, government decision-making and Australian Signals Directorate’s mission and policy requirements.

Required skills

Data engineering, integration and interoperability for on-premise and cloud
Identifying data sources, data processing concepts and methods
Developing, testing and configuring databases and processing systems
Using programming languages and tools to improve data quality
Strong interpersonal skills for building and maintaining professional stakeholder relationships

Below is a non-exhaustive list of examples of some of the different roles and tasks in which data specialists can apply their expertise and other skills – the role may include just one task on these lists, or may involve aspects of several.

Data Analyst

The Data Analyst is responsible for interpreting data and analytic outputs, using their domain knowledge to draw conclusions and support data driven decision making.

Staff are required to have knowledge of, and compliance to relevant legislative frameworks, government decision-making and Australian Signals Directorate’s mission and policy requirements.

Required skills

Attention to detail
Ability to research, gather and analyse complex data sets
Ability to understand and utilise analytical tradecraft tools
Strong interpersonal skills for building and maintaining professional stakeholder relationships
Problem solving and critical thinking
Experience in managing and leading a team (Executive Level roles only)

Below is a non-exhaustive list of examples of some of the different roles and tasks in which data specialists can apply their expertise and other skills – the role may include just one task on these lists, or may involve aspects of several.

Data Officer

The data officer is responsible for the management and the day-to-day operations of an organisation's data systems ensuring accuracy, quality and compliance with policy.

Staff are required to have knowledge of, and compliance to relevant legislative frameworks, government decision-making and Australian Signals Directorate’s mission and policy requirements.

Required skills

Managing data and information in all its forms
Analysing information structures
Ensuring data is appropriately stored and archived, in line with relevant legislation
Implementing data management practices for cloud-based services
Applying ethical principles when handling data

Below is a non-exhaustive list of examples of some of the different roles and tasks in which data specialists can apply their expertise and other skills – the role may include just one task on these lists, or may involve aspects of several.

Data Scientist

The Data Scientist is responsible for extracting insights from large sets of data utilising their knowledge of data mining techniques (statistics, machine learning, AI), programming skills and business knowledge.

Staff are required to have knowledge of, and compliance to relevant legislative frameworks, government decision-making and Australian Signals Directorate’s mission and policy requirements.

Required skills

Developing forward-looking, predictive, real-time, model-based insights to create value and drive effective decision-making
Evaluating trained models for their performance, robustness and bias
Interpreting and analysing data, comparative analysis, benchmarking, trend analysis
Integrating methods from mathematics, statistics and probability modelling using specialised programming languages, tools and techniques
Developing hypotheses and exploring data using models and analytics sandboxes

Below is a non-exhaustive list of examples of some of the different roles and tasks in which data specialists can apply their expertise and other skills – the role may include just one task on these lists, or may involve aspects of several.