Marks and Spencer
Software Engineering Manager - AI Engineering
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Software Engineering Manager – AI Engineering Platform
M&S Platform Team
About the Role
We're reshaping how we operate by placing industry-leading innovation at the heart of everything we do. You’ll be joining Marks & Spencer (M&S), one of Britain’s most iconic brands, at one of its most exciting phases in history. Our tech teams are now more integrated and product-focused than ever before—constantly evolving, learning, and adapting to serve millions of people daily. Join us as a Software Engineering Manager in the M&S Platform team, where our mission is to streamline development for 200+ engineers across 30+ applications, including both customer-facing and colleague-facing systems.
You’ll lead the team building our AI Engineering platform, shaping the technical vision for reusable pipelines, tooling, build frameworks, and plugins that empower our apps. Your work will improve the developer experience, so our teams can focus on delivering exceptional user experiences—without being slowed down by CI/CD or engineering challenges.
Our goal: Make M&S a leader in software development, adopting cutting-edge practices and tools to unlock our engineers’ potential.
What You’ll Do
Engineering Leadership & Accountability
- Hold your teams accountable for excellence—from technical execution to operations, team behaviours, and skills growth.
- Foster self-management and team ownership through clear purpose, inclusive leadership, and talent management.
- Drive strategic technical alignment and influence the overarching technology vision across wider M&S.
Platform Ownership & Strategic Thinking
- Act as the imus (ownership and product vision) for the AI platform, delivering data-driven, customer-centric solutions that empower the digital teams we support.
- Collaborate with leadership teams to ensure deep alignment, strategic thinking, and long-term vision within the organisation.
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People Leadership & Team Development
- Line manage Staff and Senior Engineers, overseeing recruitment, retention, and growth within the team.
- Act as custodian of OKRs for your engineering hub, ensuring goals are measurable, ambitious, and aligned with business objectives.
- Support engineering communities to raise standards, offer bar-raising initiatives, and facilitate strategic collaboration—both within and across teams.
Stakeholder & Vendor Management
- Serve as the primary technical partner for third-party vendors, ensuring reliable, high-quality integration that matches the consistency of in-house capabilities.
- Represent the platform’s reliability and value as a core component of M&S’s digital ecosystem.
Core Contribution
- Ensure transparent accountability without micromanagement—leaders here exemplify servant-leadership, aiming to own problems and improve systems.
Requirements & What You Bring
Technical Expertise
- Polyglot senior software engineer with hands-on experience in AI coding tools and agentic technologies.
- Deep knowledge of system design, cloud, and rigorous software engineering standards.
- Strong belief in DevOps principles (“Built it, you run it” ethics).
- Proven expertise in:
- Testing strategies & reliability engineering
- Model evaluation & quality measurement
- Secure AI deployments (authentication, access control)
- Kubernetes (K8s/services) for cloud deployments and production operations
- Agent frameworks & workflow orchestration
- Preferred languages: TypeScript or Kotlin
Leadership & Collaboration
- Experience building, guiding, and scaling teams of high-performing engineers.
- Ability to inspire and empower senior teams toward desired outcomes without restricting their autonomy.
- Exceptional communication—adapting details for technical and non-technical stakeholders.
- Influencer: Skilled at advocating technical priorities to senior leadership.
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Our Tech Stack
- GitHub Actions, Copilot SDK, and agentic workflows
- Security-focused AI integrations (e.g., OAuth, secure identity access)
- Model evaluation frameworks
- Cloud production operations
- Frameworks & build tools in TypeScript or Kotlin
What’s in It for You
Beyond our 100-year history and innovation-driven culture, we offer a support system that empowers you to do your best work.
Perks & Benefits
- 20% colleague savings on M&S products + third-party discounts (post-probation).
- Competitive holiday entitlement + buy extra days.
- Discretionary bonus tied to individual and company performance.
- Comprehensive pension/life assurance for future security.
- Tailored training/induction to accelerate your growth.
- M&S Choices: Exclusive rewards, savings, and special offers.
- Family-friendly policies: Parental, adoption, and neonatal leave.
- 24/7 wellbeing support: Virtual healthcare & mental health resources.
- One paid volunteer day/year to support causes you care about.
Everyone’s Welcome
At M&S, we believe innovation together requires diverse perspectives—continuously disrupting, transforming, and making change happen. Our mission is simple: Be trusted, admired, and inclusive across every team, culture, and community.
Joining M&S isn’t just changing jobs—it’s leading the way on the frontlines of Britain’s retail future.
Fair process matters: If you need accommodations during recruitment or require discussions around any needs (e.g., adjustments for interviews/assessments), share them openly—we’re here to focus on your potential.
Apply now and help us build the future, together.
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