AI Software Engineer

Barclays; Manchester; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Barclays is seeking an AI Software Engineer to design, develop and integrate AI capabilities into enterprise systems from its Knutsford, Manchester and Glasgow offices. You will work with cross-functional teams to deliver scalable software while maintaining security and high-quality code.

You will engage in context engineering, agent workflows, and AI-assisted tooling to drive business outcomes and technology growth.

Qualifications

• Good understanding of Generative AI and Agentic AI with good judgement.
• Experience with context engineering, including RAG, grounding and memory.
• Experience building AI agents and agentic workflows with task decomposition and orchestration.
• Experience using AI-assisted development tools and ensuring quality of AI-generated code.

Responsibilities

• Design, develop and improve software using engineering methodologies.
• Collaborate with product managers, designers and engineers to define requirements.
• Contribute to code reviews and promote code quality and knowledge sharing.
• Stay informed of AI tech trends and contribute to engineering communities.
• Adhere to secure coding practices and implement unit testing.

Skills

Generative AI

Agentic AI

Context engineering

Agent workflows

AI-assisted dev

Risk & controls

Change management

Cross-functional collaboration

Tools

MCP protocol

Code generation tools

Job description

Job Description

Purpose of the role

To design, develop and improve software, utilising various engineering methodologies, that provides business, platform, and technology capabilities for our customers and colleagues.

Accountabilities

• Development and delivery of high-quality software solutions by using industry aligned programming languages, frameworks, and tools. Ensuring that code is scalable, maintainable, and optimized for performance.
• Cross-functional collaboration with product managers, designers, and other engineers to define software requirements, devise solution strategies, and ensure seamless integration and alignment with business objectives.
• Collaboration with peers, participate in code reviews, and promote a culture of code quality and knowledge sharing.
• Stay informed of industry technology trends and innovations and actively contribute to the organization’s technology communities to foster a culture of technical excellence and growth.
• Adherence to secure coding practices to mitigate vulnerabilities, protect sensitive data, and ensure secure software solutions.
• Implementation of effective unit testing practices to ensure proper code design, readability, and reliability.

Assistant Vice President Expectations

• To advise and influence decision making, contribute to policy development and take responsibility for operational effectiveness. Collaborate closely with other functions/ business divisions.
• Lead a team performing complex tasks, using well developed professional knowledge and skills to deliver on work that impacts the whole business function. Set objectives and coach employees in pursuit of those objectives, appraisal of performance relative to objectives and determination of reward outcomes
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.
• OR for an individual contributor, they will lead collaborative assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will identify new directions for assignments and/ or projects, identifying a combination of cross functional methodologies or practices to meet required outcomes.
• Consult on complex issues; providing advice to People Leaders to support the resolution of escalated issues.
• Identify ways to mitigate risk and developing new policies/procedures in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Take ownership for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work done.
• Perform work that is closely related to that of other areas, which requires understanding of how areas coordinate and contribute to the achievement of the objectives of the organisation sub-function.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategy.
• Engage in complex analysis of data from multiple sources of information, internal and external sources such as procedures and practises (in other areas, teams, companies, etc).to solve problems creatively and effectively.
• Communicate complex information. 'Complex' information could include sensitive information or information that is difficult to communicate because of its content or its audience.
• Influence or convince stakeholders to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.

Join Barclays as an AI Software Engineer and help build the next generation of intelligent applications and platforms. You will develop scalable software solutions, integrate advanced AI capabilities into enterprise systems, and collaborate with engineering teams to solve complex technical challenges that deliver meaningful business impact.

To be successful as an AI Software Engineer, you should have experience with:

• Good understanding of Generative AI and Agentic AI, including their capabilities, limitations and failure modes, with sound judgement on when deterministic software is the better solution

• Experience with context engineering, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), grounding, knowledge sources, memory, prompt design and controlled access to information.

• Experience building AI agents and agentic workflows, including task decomposition, orchestration, state management, tool integration through protocols such as MCP and human approval controls.

• Experience using AI-assisted development tools and coding agents as a core part of how you engineer, applying strong verification and taking ownership of the quality of AI-generated code

Some other highly valued skills may include

:

• Experience integrating different AI models or providers and making informed trade-offs across quality, resilience, latency, security and cost.

• Experience delivering AI-powered solutions in regulated environments, working with risk and control partners.

• Experience measuring the impact of AI on engineering productivity, quality or business outcomes.

• Experience supporting other engineers, including coaching on AI-assisted engineering and contributing to team or community engineering practices.

You may be assessed on the key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen, strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills.

This role is based in Knutsford/ Manchester/ Glasgow office.