At least nine Australian and New Zealand AI companies were advertising roles on their careers pages as of June 2026, ranging from a small Melbourne team building a frontier model to Auckland agtech Halter, valued at US$2 billion after its March 2026 raise.
The listings show how heavily local AI companies lean on equity to compete for talent with global technology firms. Several advertise employee share schemes as part of their pitch. Hiring changes quickly, so the roles below reflect what companies were listing at the time.
Maincode (Melbourne)
Maincode is building an Australian frontier AI model. It had a small team and around 10 open AI roles as of June 2026, making it one of the earliest stage companies on the list.
Lorikeet (Sydney)
Lorikeet builds AI customer support and was co-founded by a former Stripe executive. Its customers include Airwallex, Linktree and Eucalyptus, and its job listings describe equity as part of the offer.
Relevance AI (Sydney)
Relevance AI builds AI agents it describes as an AI workforce, used by companies including Canva, Databricks and Activision. It was named LinkedIn’s top startup in Australia, and its listings mention a meaningful equity stake.
Lyrebird Health (Melbourne)
Lyrebird Health makes an AI medical scribe used in thousands of clinics. The Series A company had a small team and was hiring engineers.
Heidi (Melbourne)
Heidi, another AI medical scribe, says it is used in 116 countries and 110 languages. It was hiring as it scaled internationally.
Harrison.ai (Sydney)
Medical imaging AI company Harrison.ai was hiring across engineering and go-to-market roles.
Tracksuit (Auckland and Sydney)
Brand tracking company Tracksuit says it has more than 1,000 customers. It had more than 14 roles open, and every employee, known internally as a “Trackstar”, receives equity through its employee share scheme.
Auror (Auckland)
Auror builds AI software to help retailers tackle crime and is used by some of the world’s largest retailers. It had more than five roles open and offers an employee share scheme.
Halter (Auckland)
Halter, which makes solar powered collars for cattle, is a later stage company scaling across New Zealand, Australia and the US. It offers a share scheme to all staff.
Jack’s take
Equity is a long game and most startups do not make it, so I would read the terms, ask exactly how the share scheme works and never take a pay cut I couldn’t afford. That said, if I were thinking about joining an AI company early, these are the places I would start looking. Roles change fast, so the careers pages are the only up to date source.