AI Engineer – Retail (LH)

Wed all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. Thats waiting for you at Sainsburys. Think about the scale it takes to feed the nation. The level of data, transactions and variety involved. Then youll realise this is a modern software engineering environment, because it has to be. Weve made significant investment in the standards and principles that shape how we work. We iterate, learn, experiment and champion ways of working such as Agile, Scrum and XP. So you can look forward to exciting opportunities across everything from AI to reusable tech.Every week we move millions of products to our customers at record speeds. Brilliant customer experiences at this kind of pace, require fresh and appealing products to be available whenever and however our customers shop with us. And in this area of our business, we help to make sure that happens.By engineering innovative, smart technology, we put the tools in our colleagues hands to power a global supply chain. Whether its wine from New Zealand or milk from the local dairy farm, our tech performs. We solve problems at scale. We process billions of records, predicting and planning to make our customers lives easier. We keep ours and stores operating smoothly around the clock, because whats important to our customers, is important to us.We are looking for an AI Engineer to work within a team engaged in delivering and running multi brand AI powered telephony and chat system in Azure. The role involves ensuring the scalability, reliability, security, and efficiency of the application.About the roleHelp lead on the delivery of best in class Generative & Agentic AI services to SainsburysDeploy and configure production systems, with a particular focus on automation, scalability and security.Collaborate with other Engineers to design, implement and evolve the systemEngage in the expansion of the evaluation framework, collaborating with product owners and architects to ensure that solutions help customers and achieve the logistics business goalsMonitor new features/functionality and assess their Ops implications to continuously improve services.Discover and recommend ways to improve reliability and efficiencyMaintain an overarching service dashboard and reportingProduce and maintain documentation of support processes & resolutions to known operational issues.Participate in a 24/7 on call rota as requiredEssential Criteria:Proven Azure commercial experience in AI Foundry, ACS / Telephony, Voice Live, Azure MLProven industry experience with Python, Javascript, Typescript, React, Redux, JavaExperience with LLMs including realtime modelsExperience with Docker, Container Apps, containerised distributed systems, Terraform, Kafka, New Relic, MCP, WebsocketsExperienced in writing automated tests and maintaining CI/CD pipelinesProven experience of source and version control tools such as GitHubBe experienced working with Agile delivery teams in a fast paced, DevOps environmentBe diligent and positive about tracking (JIRA), system monitoring, security & auditingFeed your insights to continuously improve the platformBe an active contributing part of an agile development teamThe ability to engage with and influence stakeholdersDesirable:Familiarity with Genesys would be a positiveAs well as lots of on-the-job training and endless opportunities, youll get:Colleague discount across our multi-brands Sainsburys, Argos and HabitatHoliday allowanceBonus schemePension planSpecial offers on gym memberships, restaurants, holidays, retail vouchers and moreWork-life balance is important to us, so we offer our colleagues as much flexibility as possible in line with the needs of their role. We trust them to decide how, where and when they work, combining remote and collaborative working with a flexible approach to hours, giving them plenty of time and space for life outside of work whilst delivering against our business goals.We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer, so youll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, theres always the chance to try something new-whether thats as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business – and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working. When you join our team, well also offer you an amazing range of benefits. Here are some of them:Starting off with colleague discount, you’ll be able to get 10% off at Sainsbury’s, Argos, TU and Habitat after 4 weeks. This increases to 15% off at Sainsburys every Friday and Saturday and 15% off at Argos every pay day. We’ve also got you covered for your future with our pensions scheme and life cover. You’ll also be able to share in our success as you may be eligible for a performance-related bonus of up to 10% of salary, depending on how we perform.Your wellbeing is important to us too. You’ll receive an annual holiday allowance, and you can buy additional holiday. We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, pay advance (where you can access some of your pay before pay day) as well access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers. And if you ever need it there is also an employee assistance programme.Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks pay for paternity leave.Please see www.sainsburys.jobs for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply)….