Lead AI Software Engineer - AI-Native, Cloud-Driven

Vodafone; Newbury; Hybrid; GBP 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

Vodafone is seeking a Lead AI Software Engineer to drive software delivery across squads and platforms. You will translate specifications into scalable, secure, production-ready software while guiding AI coding agents and ensuring responsible AI practices.

You will lead complex components, oversee testing, observability, and deployment readiness, and collaborate with product teams, architects, and platform engineers globally. Hybrid work in the UK is available.

Qualifications

• Significant experience delivering production-grade software in complex engineering environments.
• Strong hands-on expertise in Java and Spring Boot, with React or Angular experience.
• Proven experience designing and implementing RESTful APIs, microservices, integrations, platform services, and digital apps.
• Excellent understanding of cloud-native architectures, distributed systems, containers, and modern integration patterns.
• Experience building event-driven solutions using Kafka, RabbitMQ, or equivalent.
• Leadership in software implementation within agile teams or technical domains.
• Experience with CI/CD, automated testing, observability, and production support.
• Ability to translate specifications into actionable implementation plans; strong code review.
• Experience using AI-assisted engineering tools and guiding AI coding agents.
• Understanding of responsible AI practices including validation, security, traceability, governance.

Responsibilities

• Lead build execution within a squad, platform capability, or engineering domain.
• Translate designs into clear implementation plans and verifiable tasks.
• Decompose designs into sequenced, testable increments.
• Guide engineers and AI agents through implementation and release activities.
• Review AI-generated and engineer-written code for correctness and security.
• Drive testing, observability, and production verification practices.
• Support CI/CD, deployment readiness, and runbooks.
• Ensure outputs are explainable, traceable, and compliant with standards.
• Escalate architectural risks and improve quality controls.
• Coach engineers on AI-native software engineering and governance.

Skills

Java + Spring Boot

RESTful APIs

Microservices

Cloud-native

CI/CD

AI-assisted tooling

Code review

Stakeholder engagement

Tools

Kafka

RabbitMQ

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Vodafone is seeking a Lead AI Software Engineer to drive software delivery across squads and platforms. You will translate specifications into scalable, secure, production-ready software while guiding AI coding agents and ensuring responsible AI practices.

You will lead complex components, oversee testing, observability, and deployment readiness, and collaborate with product teams, architects, and platform engineers globally. Hybrid work in the UK is available.