AI Staff Platform Engineer

Marks and Spencer; Manchester; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

20% colleague discount

Discretionary bonus schemes

Pension scheme

Wellbeing support

Training programmes

Job summary

Marks & Spencer is seeking an experienced Staff Platform Engineer - AI to lead the design and build of scalable, secure platform capabilities for AI across the organisation. The role focuses on deep technical design and hands-on engineering, creating reusable platform services and enabling technologies on Azure to accelerate AI delivery.

You will collaborate with architecture, AI engineering, and product teams to translate business needs into robust, platform-first solutions, drive consistency

Qualifications

• Experience designing scalable platform solutions on Azure.
• Hands-on engineering with API gateways, integrations and model serving.
• Strong technical leadership and ability to communicate with stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Design and build scalable platform capabilities across Azure for AI use cases.
• Produce high-quality designs and guide implementation.
• Develop reusable platform-first components to drive consistency and accelerate delivery.
• Optimize performance, scalability and cost of AI workloads.
• Collaborate with architecture, engineering and product teams to evolve platform capabilities.

Skills

Azure platform engineering

APIM/API gateways

Databricks

Model serving

Cloud-native services

Technical leadership

Clear communication

Tools

Azure

Databricks

APIM

Job description

Summary

We are seeking an experienced Staff Platform Engineer - AI to lead the design and build of scalable, secure platform capabilities that enable AI, Generative AI, and agentic use cases across the organisation.

This role is focused on deep technical design and hands‑on engineering, building reusable platform services and enabling technologies across Azure (e.g. APIM, Azure AI Foundry, Databricks, MCP) that accelerate delivery of AI solutions such as Agents, RAG, and LLM-powered applications.

You will work closely with architecture, AI engineering, and product teams to translate business needs into robust, platform‑first solutions, ensuring alignment with enterprise standards and driving consistency, scalability, and performance across all AI workloads.

All the details

Who You Are

• A highly analytical and detail‑oriented engineer, able to decompose complex problems and design scalable, platform‑centric solutions.
• Deeply experienced in platform engineering across Azure, including APIs, API gateways (e.g. APIM), integrations, lakehouse architectures (e.g. Databricks), model serving, and cloud‑native services.
• A strong technical leader, producing clear, high‑quality designs and setting standards for engineering excellence and best practice.
• An effective communicator, able to translate complex technical concepts into clear outcomes for both technical and non‑technical stakeholders.
• Ownership‑driven, delivering end‑to‑end solutions while promoting reusability, automation, and codified engineering practices.

What You Will Do

• Design and build scalable platform capabilities across Azure to support AI use cases (Agents, Agentic workflows, RAG, LLMs), including APIs, integrations, and model serving layers.
• Produce high‑quality technical designs and guide implementation, ensuring solutions are secure, maintainable, and aligned to architectural standards.
• Develop reusable, platform‑first components (e.g. AI gateways, orchestration services, shared APIs) to drive consistency and accelerate delivery.
• Optimise performance, scalability, and cost across AI workloads, leveraging automation, policy‑driven controls, and engineering best practices.
• Collaborate across architecture, engineering, and product teams to evolve platform capabilities, improve ways of working, and enable faster adoption of AI at scale

What's in it for you

Being a part of M&S is exactly that - playing your part to bring the magic of M&S to our customers every day. We're an inclusive, dynamic, exciting, and ever evolving business built on doing the right thing and bringing exceptional quality, value, service to every customer, whenever, wherever and however they want to shop with us.

Here are some of the benefits we offer that make working for M&S just that little bit more special

• After completing your probationary period, you'll receive 20% colleague discount across all M&S products and many of our third‑party brands for you and a member of your household.
• Competitive holiday entitlement with the potential to buy extra holiday days!
• Discretionary bonus schemes awarded based on how you achieve your personal objectives and our performance as a business.
• A generous Defined Contribution Pension Scheme and Life Assurance.
• A dedicated welcome to our teams with a tailored induction and a wide range of training programmes to develop your skills.
• Amazing perks and discounts via our M&S Choices portal to maximise your financial and personal wellbeing.
• Industry‑leading parental, adoption and neonatal policies, providing support and flexibility for your family.
• Access to a fantastic range of wellbeing support for all colleagues including access to our 24/7 Virtual GP and PAM Assist to support you and your family.
• A charity volunteer day to support a charity or cause you're passionate about through a dedicated day away from work.

Everyone's welcome

We are ambitious about the future of retail. We're disrupting, innovating and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We're transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make change happen.

We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and work together to win together.

If you feel you'd benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please don't hesitate to let us know when completing your application. This information will be picked up by our team, so we can try and put steps in place to help you be at your best through this process.

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