AI & Automation Partner

Open Partners; Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Open Partners in Manchester is seeking an AI & Automation Partner to join its CoE. This technical, delivery-focused role builds data pipelines, production-grade software, and AI-enabled tooling across data, media, and reporting workflows.

You will work with the Data Planning Senior Partner to translate client needs into robust builds, while adhering to GDPR, security standards, and governance practices in a hybrid environment.

Qualifications

• Hands-on software engineering with production systems.
• Experience building and maintaining data pipelines in cloud environments.
• Familiarity with AI tools, APIs, and governance considerations.

Responsibilities

• Build, maintain, and improve data pipelines across agency platforms (BigQuery, GCP, ThoughtSpot).
• Deliver AI and automation-powered tooling across data workflows to CoE standards.
• Write clean, well-documented production-grade code and maintain existing tools.
• Integrate commercial AI platforms and APIs (OpenAI, Gemini/Vertex AI) into tooling.
• Collaborate with Data Planning Senior Partner to translate client needs into technical solutions.
• Ensure security, data handling, GDPR compliance, and App Passport registrations.
• Contribute to the CoE knowledge base and support AI upskilling across the agency.

Skills

Python

TypeScript/Node.js

Data governance

Communication

Tools

BigQuery

GCP

Secret Manager

n8n

OpenAI

Vertex AI

LangGraph

Job description

Location: Manchester & Hybrid

Type: Full-Time (37.5 hours over 5 days per week)

The Opportunity

Are you a hands-on engineer who thrives on building, maintaining, and shipping production-grade tech? Open Partners is looking for an AI & Automation Partner to join our AI & Automation Centre of Excellence (CoE). Reporting to our AI & Automation Senior Partner, you will add crucial engineering capacity to the team by building the technical pipelines, platforms, and tools that power our data and AI products. This is a technical, delivery-focused role working alongside our Data Planning Senior Partner to turn client requirements into robust, high-performing software.

Your Role & Responsibilities

Pipeline & Platform Engineering: Build, maintain, and improve data pipelines and integrations across agency platforms such as BigQuery, GCP, and ThoughtSpot.

Technical Delivery: Support the rollout of AI and automation-powered tools across data, media, and reporting workflows to standards set by CoE leadership.

Clean & Production-Grade Code: Write clean, well-documented code while maintaining and scaling existing CoE tools and pipelines.

Commercial AI Integration: Support the integration of commercial AI platforms and APIs, including OpenAI and Google Gemini/Vertex AI, into agency tooling.

Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner with the Data Planning Senior Partner to translate client-facing needs into technical builds.

Security & Governance: Adhere strictly to agency standards for security, data handling, GDPR, and governance, registering builds through the App Passport process.

Knowledge Sharing: Contribute to the CoE knowledge base and support agency-wide AI and automation upskilling.

What Success Looks Like

Roadmap Delivery: Consistently shipping build tasks against the quarterly CoE roadmap.

Unblocking Capacity: Effectively reducing delivery bottlenecks and increasing total CoE output.

Governance Compliance: Maintaining high percentages of documented, governance-compliant, and App Passport-registered builds.

System Reliability: Ensuring high uptime and performance across all pipelines and tools you maintain.

Stakeholder Satisfaction: Positive feedback from delivery leads on technical responsiveness and execution quality.

What You’ll Bring

Hands-On Engineering: Strong software engineering capabilities (e.g. Python, TypeScript/Node.js) with experience building and maintaining production systems.

Cloud & Data Experience: Practical experience with cloud infrastructure (preferably GCP: Cloud Run, BigQuery, Secret Manager) and building API-driven data pipelines.

Automation & AI Capabilities: Working knowledge of workflow automation tools like n8n, along with exposure to commercial AI platforms, APIs, or LLM applications (e.g. RAG, LangGraph).

Data Governance Discipline: Solid understanding of security, data handling, and GDPR principles in an engineering setting.

Communication & Mindset: Clear communication skills, an ability to translate technical concepts for non-technical partners, and a drive to build deep AI expertise.

Our Values & Mindset

At Open Partners, we hire mindset first. It is the single biggest factor of success in our business, and we believe you can grow that mindset in any walk of life and career background. If you do not have direct industry experience but possess a fierce growth mindset and transferable engineering skills, we want to hear from you. We hold ourselves to three simple standards:

Smarter: Aim high, train hard, embrace next.

Faster: Learn fast, adapt fast, act fast.

Better: Think, say, and do what is best.