AI Engineering Lead

BOOTS; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Boots Retirement Savings Plan

Discretionary annual bonus

Generous employee discounts

Enhanced parental leave and gift cards

Flexible benefits scheme

Job summary

Boots in Nottingham is seeking an AI Engineering Lead to shape the future of AI solutions, establishing standards to ensure secure, scalable, production-ready AI applications. You will provide technical leadership across AI engineering and mentor engineers within the AI Enablement team.

Reporting to the Head of Smart Automation, you will drive the adoption of safe, scalable AI across the organisation, coordinating with Architecture, Security, Data and Platform teams to ensure robust, governed AI

Qualifications

• Proven experience in software engineering, platform engineering, or AI engineering within a large enterprise environment.
• Experience designing, developing, and deploying AI or intelligent applications.

Responsibilities

• Define AI engineering standards, patterns, and best practices.
• Evolve the AI engineering roadmap and capability maturity.
• Establish reusable frameworks, accelerators, and engineering assets.
• Lead AI DevOps, deployment, monitoring, observability, and operational practices.
• Support the design and delivery of AI solutions and AI-enabled applications.
• Collaborate with Architecture, Security, and Governance teams on guardrails.

Skills

Software Eng

Platform Eng

AI Eng

Job description

Role: AI Engineering Lead

Contract: Permanent

Location: Nottingham, Beeston

What you’ll be doing:

As the AI Engineering Lead at Boots, you will play a pivotal role in shaping the future of AI solutions within the organisation. You will provide technical leadership and establish engineering standards that ensure our AI applications are secure, scalable, and production-ready. Collaborating with various teams, you will help define how AI solutions are developed and deployed, making a significant impact on our operational efficiency and innovation.

You will be part of the AI Enablement team and play a key role in building and maturing Boots' AI engineering capability. Reporting to the Head of Smart Automation, the role will provide technical leadership across AI engineering, helping establish the standards, frameworks and practices required to enable the safe and scalable adoption of AI across the organisation.

Working closely with Architecture, Security, Data, Platform Engineering and delivery teams, the role will help define how AI solutions are developed, deployed, monitored and supported in production. The role will promote consistent engineering approaches while aligning with existing platform ownership, governance and control frameworks.

Key responsibilities:

• Define AI engineering standards, patterns, and best practices.
• Evolve the AI engineering roadmap and capability maturity.
• Establish reusable frameworks, accelerators, and engineering assets.
• Lead AI DevOps, deployment, monitoring, observability, and operational practices.
• Support the design and delivery of AI solutions, agents and AI-enabled applications.
• Collaborate with Architecture, Security, and Governance teams to develop security, governance and responsible AI guardrails.
• Mentor engineers and enhance AI engineering capability across the organisation.

What you’ll need to have (our must-haves):

• Proven experience in software engineering, platform engineering, or AI engineering within a large enterprise environment.
• Experience designing, developing, and deploying AI or intelligent application solutions.
• Strong understanding of modern engineering practices, including CI/CD and DevOps and cloud-based platforms.
• Experience defining technical standards and reusable frameworks.
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills.
• Experience working with Architecture, Security, Data, and Engineering teams for delivery and integrations.
• Understanding of AI governance, responsible AI and enterprise security controls.
• Strong problem-solving skills with the ability to balance innovation, risk and operational requirements.

It would be great if you also have:

• Experience with Microsoft AI technologies, including Copilot Studio, Azure AI Foundry and Azure OpenAI.
• Knowledge of AI DevOps, AgentOps, or MLOps practices.
• Experience developing AI agents or AI-enabled business applications.
• Relevant cloud, AI, or engineering certifications.
• Experience working in retail, healthcare or other large, complex organisations.

Where your brilliance can take you:

In this role, you will have the opportunity to lead and mentor a team of engineers, driving innovation and excellence in AI engineering at Boots. As you develop your skills and expertise, you can explore various career pathways within the organisation, potentially advancing into senior leadership roles or specialised positions in AI and technology. Your contributions will not only shape the future of Boots but also enhance your professional growth.

Rewards designed for you:

• Boots Retirement Savings Plan
• Discretionary annual bonus
• Generous employee discounts
• Enhanced maternity/paternity/adoption leave pay and gift card for anyone expecting or adopting a child
• Flexible benefits scheme including option to buy additional holiday, discounted gym membership, life assurance, activity passes and much more.
• Access to free, 24/7 counselling and support through TELUS Health, our Employee Assistance Programme.

There's lots more in our benefits and discounts, MyBoosts - there to give you that little lift in your everyday. Find out more at http://boots.jobs/rewards. Exclusions may apply; eligible roles only. Please note that any salary estimates provided on third‑party sites are not endorsed by Boots and may not be accurate.

A bit about us:

At Boots, we're proud to be an equal opportunity employer, creating a place where everyone feels welcome, supported and free to be themselves. We believe that when our people feel valued and included, they thrive, so we're committed to creating a brilliant Boots for our people so they can make a difference for our customers and colleagues every time.

Boots is a Ban the Box employer and will consider the suitability of applicants with criminal convictions on a case‑by‑case basis.