Graduate Software Engineer

Some developers naturally notice the little things.

The button that doesn't quite sit right. The signin flow that feels clunky. The interface that technically works… but could definitely work better.

If that sounds like you, we might have a seriously good first dev gig on our hands.

We're teaming up again with our good friends at the Australian Access Federation (AAF), and they're looking for a Graduate Software Developer to join their engineering team in Brisbane.

This isn't a pure frontend role. And it definitely isn't a UX Designer role.

It's a genuine software engineering position with exposure across the stack — but AAF would love to find someone who brings that extra bit of frontend curiosity and an eye for how people actually experience the things they build.

So, who are the AAF?

AAF sits at the heart of Australia's research and education ecosystem, providing secure identity and authentication services to more than 1.5 million users across universities, research organisations and government.

In simple terms? They build and operate some pretty important technology.

And because their products are used by real people every day, there's an opportunity to make those experiences even better.

The GIG

You'll join an experienced engineering team and start contributing to real software from early on.

There are authentication and sign-in experiences to improve. Client-facing portals that could use some UX love. New products being developed. Existing interfaces where someone with a fresh perspective might look at them and think:

"Why does it work like that?"

That's exactly the kind of curiosity they want.

You'll work closely with AAF's design capability to help turn ideas into working software- while learning from experienced engineers and gradually spreading your wings across the broader platform.

Because frontend might be part of what gets you excited about this role, but it certainly won't be where your learning stops.

Depending on your interests, you could get exposure to full-stack development, cloud infrastructure, DevSecOps, identity and security, automated testing and AI-assisted engineering.

The wider environment includes Ruby on Rails, Java, Kotlin, AWS, Kubernetes and Terraform, so there's plenty here to sink your teeth into as you grow.

What might you actually get involved in?

• Building and improving frontend experiences across AAF's products
• Turning designs into clean, functional interfaces
• Working within established design systems and patterns
• Developing secure, production-ready application code
• Testing, reviewing and shipping your work alongside experienced engineers
• Getting exposure to AWS, infrastructure and the wider software lifecycle
• Spotting opportunities to improve UX rather than simply accepting what's already there

And over time? Where you take it is largely going to depend on what you're good at and what grabs your interest.

What are we looking for?

This is a graduate role, so we're not expecting a finished product.

You might be fresh out of uni, have completed an internship, or have up to roughly 1-1.5 years of commercial experience.

What matters more is that you've got strong technical foundations and genuinely enjoy this stuff.

Ideally, you'll bring:

• A relevant tertiary qualification
• Good foundations across HTML, CSS and JavaScript
• Exposure to another programming language
• An understanding of modern web development, Git and testing
• A genuine interest in frontend development and UX
• Strong problem-solving and critical-thinking skills
• Natural curiosity and the motivation to teach yourself new things
• The confidence to ask questions when you don’t know the answer

And personal projects absolutely count.

Built your own website? Show us.

Made something for your parents' business? Cool.

Spent your weekends building something completely unnecessary because you wanted to see if you could? We want to hear about that too.

We're much more interested in seeing evidence that you like building things than expecting a graduate CV packed with commercial experience.

Why AAF?

• A proper engineering career starter - real production software, real users and experienced engineers around you.
• Make things better -bring some frontend flair and help improve how AAF's products actually feel to use.
• Go beyond the frontend - AWS, Kubernetes, Terraform, DevSecOps, security, infrastructure and more.
• Modern engineering environment - including AI-assisted development as part of how the team works.
• Follow your curiosity - whether that eventually takes you deeper into frontend, full stack, infrastructure, security or somewhere else entirely.

If you're at the beginning of your career, know your way around the frontend and find yourself naturally noticing how software could look, feel or work better...

This could have your name all over it.

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