AI-Driven Systems Engineering Lead

Cloud Direct; Bath; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fitness Cash Contribution

Pension Contribution

Employee Assistance Programme

Enhanced Maternity & Paternity Leave

Life Assurance, Critical Illness, and

Job summary

Cloud Direct is seeking a Systems Engineering Lead to oversee the Systems Engineering team, driving design, delivery and evolution of our platforms with a focus on AI, automation and emerging tech. You will translate architectural direction into engineering outcomes while mentoring engineers and maintaining high standards of security and reliability.

The role combines hands-on software engineering with strategic leadership, reporting to the Head of Business Systems.

Qualifications

• 5+ years commercial software engineering experience.
• 3+ years leading engineering teams, technical programmes or senior initiatives.
• Proven experience designing and delivering complex software solutions.
• Strong experience with Microsoft Azure platforms and cloud-native development.
• Experience delivering AI-enabled applications or automation solutions.
• Experience with Azure OpenAI, AI Foundry or equivalent AI platforms.

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership and direction for the Systems Engineering team.
• Lead solution design and key engineering decisions with the Principal Architect.
• Establish and maintain engineering standards and development practices through automation, testing, CI/CD, and observability.
• Lead delivery of systems, platforms, integrations and AI-enabled solutions.
• Remain hands-on in design, development and deployment of software where required.
• Ensure solutions are secure, scalable and maintainable.
• Line manage and develop software engineers across experience levels.
• Foster engineering excellence and continuous improvement.

Skills

Technical leadership

Stakeholder management

CI/CD

Software architecture

Mentoring

Tools

Azure DevOps

Git

Docker

Cosmos DB

Job description

Cloud Direct is seeking a Systems Engineering Lead to oversee the Systems Engineering team, driving design, delivery and evolution of our platforms with a focus on AI, automation and emerging tech. You will translate architectural direction into engineering outcomes while mentoring engineers and maintaining high standards of security and reliability.

The role combines hands-on software engineering with strategic leadership, reporting to the Head of Business Systems.