Marks and Spencer
Software Engineering Manager - Cloud Platform
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Software Engineering Manager - Cloud Platform
Software Engineering Manager (AI Engineering Platform) – M&S Platform Team
We're transforming how we operate, placing industry-leading innovation at the core of our technology strategy. You’ll join one of the UK’s most iconic brands during its most dynamic phase yet, contributing to a more integrated, product-focused engineering approach. Our teams—consisting of 200+ engineers across 30+ applications—shape both customer-facing and internal solutions, impact millions daily, and prioritise developer experience over bureaucratic hurdles.
About the Role
We’re searching for a Software Engineering Manager to lead M&S’s AI Engineering platform team. Your mission: enable scalable, reusable AI/ML pipelines, tooling, frameworks, and build plugins that empower our 30+ applications. You’ll:
- Drive technical direction for platforms that enhance developer productivity and solve common engineering hurdles.
- Contribute hands-on coding alongside your team to ensure world-class collaboration.
- Elevate M&S’s position as a top-tier destination for software engineers, adopting cutting-edge tools and fostering problem solving over tool-lock-in.
Responsibilities
You’ll be accountable for engineering excellence across four critical dimensions:
- Technical & Operational Leadership: Deliver reliable solutions in production whilst maintaining high standards in code quality, security, and reliability.
- Team Culture & Growth: Cultivate self-management and ownership through servant-leadership, clear purpose-setting, and tailored career development.
- Strategic Alignment: Shape—and champion—the platform strategy, connecting AI/ML tooling with broader business needs, and partnering with leadership to keep execution focused and ambitious.
- Product Thinking & Empowerment: Apply data- and user-centric platform ownership, promoting reuse, cost efficiency, and collaboration across engineering hubs.
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Collaborative Leadership:
- Flatten hierarchies where possible, influence without mandating, and collaborate with product owners, DevOps, mesh systems, and non-technical stakeholders.
- Lead calibre hiring, retention, and mentorship while reduce unnecessary bureaucracy within engineering teams.
Vendor Engagement & Reliability:
- Serve as the technical linchpin across vendor partnerships, ensuring third-party integrations match in-house standards for reliability and team satisfaction.
What You’ll Bring
Technical Expertise
- Polyglot hands-on experience: Deep expertise in AI/ML coding tools and agentic technologies (e.g., MLOps, LLMs, generative AI).
- Proven scaling expertise: At least 5+ years mastering systems, architecture, cloud platforms, and DevOps/SRE fundamentals (e.g., infrastructure automation, observability, cost governance).
- Platform ownership: Built, maintained, and grown low-touch, reusable platforms for DevX – e.g., developer portals, CI/CD frameworks, or golden deployment paths.
Leadership & Collaboration
- Technical mentor: Successfully managed teams of Staff / Senior Engineers, driving both cross-team alignment and 'think big' initiatives.
- Influence & relationship management: Bridge technical and non-technical audiences—product teams, business stakeholders, and vendor suppliers.
- Ownership mindset: Act decisively when resolving breadth-first engineering challenges (scalability, reliability, innovation).
Our Tech Stack
- Cloud & Security: Azure (identity, networking, security), Identity as Code.
- Infrastructure: Terraform, Bicep, Kubernetes clusters, and modular IaC.
- DevOps & Tooling: GitHub Actions, Pipelin, XXXa (AI plugin system), CF templating, Fastlane.
- Observability: Self-service reliability, cost tracking, and golden context access tools.
- Compliance: Access controls, both citizen integrations and vendor relations.
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Perks & Culture
Joining M&S means contributing to a fast-moving, purpose-driven organisation. Here’s what we offer:
- Commercial rewards: 20% colleague HTML discount across many financial-support brands, plus benefits like enhanced holiday entitlements, bonuses, and a generous pension for long-term planning.
- Growth: Site-wide mentorship networks and competency-based training modules partnerships with industry leaders.
- Empowerment: Wellbeing support, flexible volunteering days, and future-proofed parental policies including neonatal support.
- Retail Relevance: Lead at the intersection of design, retail science, and data-driven experiences—molding the industry’s future positively.
Community & Inclusion
M&S is committed to diversity, belonging and driving equity in tech. We welcome raw talents, novel perspectives, and candid contributions. Every colleague shapes the retail movement.
- Reasonable adjustments: If you require special support for recruitment or interviews—whether technical, physical, or mental—please let us know upon application. We’ll ensure your process reflects your strengths.
- Impact at scale: From AI agents to workforce optimisation, you’ll carve clear paths to make technology intuitive, accessible, and humane—MS’s defining legacy.
Ready to achieve more—with a world-leading brand? Apply now.
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