AI recruitment and executive search, for Melbourne.

Yes. Galileo Search is based in Sydney and recruits nationally, and Melbourne is our second-largest pool: 390+ AI professionals with a current CV on file. Briefs run by phone or video, and every Melbourne search is benchmarked against Melbourne salary data rather than Sydney's.

A Head of AI at a large Melbourne employer benchmarks at a median total package of $282k including super at principal level, with interim day rates around $1,490. A Chief AI Officer benchmarks at $413k (Galileo P1 salary dataset, July 2026). The full bands by level are on the Head of AI salary page.

Slightly. Across the seven AI seats on this page, Melbourne median packages sit about 3% below Sydney for the same seat and seniority (Galileo P1 salary dataset, large company, July 2026). Canberra benchmarks highest of the six capitals. A Melbourne employer hiring a leader who currently works in Sydney should price at the Sydney number.

Plan for three to five months from brief to start date for a permanent hire. US benchmarks put a well-run Chief AI Officer search at 19 to 22 weeks from kickoff to day one (MSH). Melbourne's local leadership pool is smaller than Sydney's, so we search nationally from the first week and test relocation and hybrid appetite early rather than at offer stage.

Within 48 hours for most engineering and architecture seats. Half of our Melbourne bench is AI and GenAI engineers (190+ with a current CV), screened by platform: Microsoft and Azure, AWS and Bedrock, Google, OpenAI, Anthropic, Databricks and the open-weight stack.

Yes: contract AI engineers, architects, platform and governance specialists for builds of twelve weeks or more, plus interim AI leaders while a permanent search runs. Melbourne day-rate medians at large companies sit around $1,346 for a senior GenAI engineer and $1,940 for a principal AI solutions architect (Galileo P1 salary dataset, July 2026). The margin is disclosed on every brief.

Permanent search in Australia is usually charged as a fee tied to the first-year package, either on success or partly retained. We agree ours in writing on the brief, before any search starts, and it does not move afterwards. We do not publish a standard percentage because a confidential Chief AI Officer search and a senior engineer hire into an existing team are different pieces of work. Every permanent placement carries a 90-day replacement guarantee.

No. Our office is Level 36, 1 Macquarie Place, Circular Quay, Sydney, and Melbourne searches run from there. Call 1300 449 845 or brief a role online; we reply within one business day.