Lead AI & Automation Engineer

Phoenix Group
Birmingham, United Kingdom
Hybrid

Who this role is best for

Geared toward senior engineers comfortable with leading AI and automation solutions in a hybrid work model.

Best fit for

  • Candidates with proven leadership in AI and automation delivery across complex financial systems
    — “You will lead the technical design and delivery of solutions from discovery and prototype through to secure, supported production services”
  • Individuals experienced in building agentic and generative AI systems with cloud platforms like AWS and Azure
    — “Hands-on implementation experience with AWS (Bedrock, AgentCore) and Azure (Copilot Studio, Foundry), and with agentic frameworks such as LangGraph, Pydantic AI etc.”
  • Engineers who have developed reusable components and platforms in high-stakes production environments
    — “Create reusable components, reference implementations and automated delivery patterns, making clear engineering decisions across security, resilience, cost and maintainability”
  • Professionals who can translate ambiguous requirements into robust, maintainable AI and automation systems
    — “The ability to lead technical decisions, communicate trade-offs clearly and turn ambiguous requirements into pragmatic, maintainable solutions”

Things to consider

  • The role requires a balance between office and remote work, with potential for in-office collaboration
    — “Hybrid: at any of our UK offices Birmingham, London, Telford, Edinburgh with time spent working in the office and at home”
  • Candidates must be prepared to work with multiple departments including product, security, and risk
    — “Partner with product, architecture, security, risk, operations, the AI Centre of Excellence and enterprise AI teams”

How to stand out

  • Highlight leadership in AI and automation projects with measurable production outcomes
    — “Well-designed AI and automation solutions delivered safely from experimentation into supported production services”
  • Demonstrate your track record in embedding AI evaluation and monitoring controls in production systems
    — “Embed controls for security, data protection, testing, AI evaluation, observability, human oversight, release and operational support”
  • Demonstrate technical leadership through code reviews and complex problem-solving in past roles
    — “Provide technical leadership through design and code reviews, complex problem-solving, mentoring and knowledge sharing”
Pace · Fast PacedCollaboration · HighAutonomy · HighDecision Impact · Company

Derived from job-description analysis by Serendipath's career intelligence engine.

What success looks like

  • lead the end-to-end design and delivery of secure, scalable AI and automation solutions
  • build and integrate generative AI, agentic and automation solutions
Typical background
significant experience designing, building and operating secure, reliable AI, automation or software solutions in complex production environments

Skills & requirements

Required

Designing And Delivering AI And Automation SolutionsCloud PlatformsApisData SourcesSecurityData ProtectionTestingAI EvaluationObservabilityHuman OversightRelease And Operational Support

Preferred

Generative AIAgentic AILow-code Technologies

Stack & domain

AIAutomationCloud PlatformsApisDataAgentic AIGenerative AISecurityData ProtectionTestingAI EvaluationObservabilityHuman OversightReleaseOperational SupportLeadershipProblem-solvingMentoringKnowledge SharingPensionsSavingsFinancial Services

About the role

Original posting from Phoenix Group

Job Type:  Permanent 

Location: Hybrid: at any of our UK offices Birmingham, London, Telford, Edinburgh with time spent working in the office and at home

Flexible working: All roles are open to part-time, job-share and other types of flexibility. We will discuss what is important to you and balancing this with business requirements during the recruitment process. You can read more about flexible working here.

Closing Date: 24th October 

Salary and benefits: from £75,000 (dependant upon experience)  plus an indicative bonus range of 16–32%, private medical cover, 38 days annual leave, excellent pension, 12x salary life assurance, career breaks, income protection, 3x volunteering days and much more. 

Who are we?  

We’re Standard Life, a retirement specialist focused entirely on retirement savings and income. We champion the belief that everyone’s journey to and through retirement can be better, and for more than 200 years, we’ve been helping our customers plan and prepare for their financial futures. 

Life today is increasingly complicated, uncertain and unpredictable. People move through different careers, face unexpected moments and navigate important choices. We offer our colleagues flexibility, trust and benefits that work for whatever life brings. In return we expect curiosity, connection, accountability and high standards. We make room for what matters - so you can bring your best, every day. 

The role  

This is a senior, hands-on engineering role at the centre of our Pensions & Savings AI and automation ambition. You will lead the technical design and delivery of solutions from discovery and prototype through to secure, supported production services. Working within a multidisciplinary environment, you will set a strong example for engineering quality, create reusable patterns and platforms, resolve complex technical challenges and mentor engineers. You will help shape the reusable engineering approaches that other teams build on, developing them through your own hands-on delivery on live Pensions & Savings journeys. 

What you will do

Lead the end-to-end design and delivery of secure, scalable AI and automation solutions, from discovery and prototyping through to supported production servicesWork as a forward deployed engineer within Pensions & Savings Product and Journey teams, sitting alongside product and business colleagues to understand their problems first-hand and build solutions with themBuild and integrate generative AI, agentic and automation solutions using appropriate cloud services, APIs, data sources, and pro-code or low-code technologiesCreate reusable components, reference implementations and automated delivery patterns, making clear engineering decisions across security, resilience, cost and maintainabilityEmbed controls for security, data protection, testing, AI evaluation, observability, human oversight, release and operational supportPartner with product, architecture, security, risk, operations, the AI Centre of Excellence and enterprise AI teams to deliver responsible, governed solutionsProvide technical leadership through design and code reviews, complex problem-solving, mentoring and knowledge sharing 

What are we looking for?

Significant experience designing, building and operating secure, reliable AI, automation or software solutions in complex production environmentsStrong hands-on engineering capability across generative and agentic AI, cloud platforms, APIs, integration, data and modern software development practicesHands-on implementation experience with AWS (Bedrock, AgentCore) and Azure (Copilot Studio, Foundry), and with agentic frameworks such as LangGraph, Pydantic AI etc., covering workflow orchestration, tool integration and human oversightHands-on experience instrumenting and evaluating agentic systems with tools such as Langfuse, LangSmith, DeepEval or Promptfoo, to trace agent behaviour, evaluate outputs and monitor production performanceExperience applying MLOps, LLMOps and software lifecycle controls, including source control, CI/CD, testing, evaluation, guardrails, monitoring, resilience and cost optimisationThe ability to lead technical decisions, communicate trade-offs clearly and turn ambiguous requirements into pragmatic, maintainable solutionsA collaborative approach, with experience mentoring engineers and working across product, technology, data, architecture, security, risk and operations 

How will we measure success?

Well-designed AI and automation solutions delivered safely from experimentation into supported production servicesConsistent engineering quality, with effective testing, evaluation, security, observability and operational readinessReusable patterns and components that improve delivery speed, maintainability and developer experienceMeasurable value, adoption, reliability and risk outcomes for the services deliveredStronger engineering capability through effective technical leadership, mentoring and knowledge sharing 

We want to hire the whole version of you.

We are committed to ensuring that everyone feels accepted and welcome applicants from all backgrounds. If your experience looks different from what we’ve advertised and you believe that you can bring value to the role, we’d love to hear from you.  

If you require any adjustments to the recruitment process, please let us know so we can help you to be at your best.  

We’re reviewing applications as they come in, so apply early to avoid missing out.

To make things easier, you might want to save this advert now, it won’t be accessible after the closing date.

Find out more about working at Standard Life #LI-GJ1

Guide for Candidates: standardlifeplc.pagetiger.com/guideforcandidates

Find or get answers from our colleagues: www.standardlifeplc.com/careers/talk-to-us

Source: Phoenix Group careers

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