Pros
Well above market rates. Opportunities to work in regional cities/towns which was a plus for me. Good job to have if you don't want to do anything. I call it high paying social welfare.
Cons
Where do I start? Extremely heavy management structure that is very very risk adverse, to the point where there is absolutely no innovation, change or creative thinking. Don't even bother suggesting a business improvement, you are wasting your time. I describe management there as like a deer in the headlights, they know things are going bad but are too scared to do anything about it. The general line is that "our customer makes us do this stupid thing so that's why we cant change it" which is absolute bull dust. As for day to day work, well lets just say it is a great job to have while you are looking for another job. It pays well, but you do nothing but have to deal with bureaucracy all day. You soon learn that you can't actually do anything because it takes so long (takes at least 2 years to get a simple drawing update) that you give up and do nothing all day... every day, so you have plenty of time to look for a new job. Everyone is super unmotivated and is like living among zombies. Except for a few exceptions, I describe Thales Bendigo as the net that catches the poo, all the good engineers get the hell out of there as soon as possible (which can often take some time given the current market) and the lazy, useless engineers stay there, because they are not ambitious anyway, can't get paid anymore than what they are getting at Thales and the job is easy.