Lead Engineer

Elanco; Hook; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

Elanco is seeking a passionate Engineering Leader in Hook, UK, to drive AI product development. You will lead a talented team, ensuring adherence to engineering standards while fostering a culture of innovation. The ideal candidate will have extensive DevOps and Agile experience, alongside expertise in Python, React, and TypeScript. This hybrid role requires three days in the office and is aimed at delivering state-of-the-art AI solutions. Join us at Elanco, where your engineering leadership can make a significant impact.

Qualifications

• Extensive experience in delivering complex software products.
• Deep practical experience with RAG, LLMs, and MLOps.
• Proven mentoring and leadership skills in a technical setting.

Responsibilities

• Lead and inspire a team towards innovation and technical excellence.
• Partner with Principal Engineers on strategic technical roadmaps.
• Mentor engineers and cultivate a high-performing organization.

Skills

Leadership in engineering

DevOps and Agile experience

Expert proficiency in Python

Expert proficiency in React

Expert proficiency in TypeScript

Cloud platform expertise (GCP/Azure)

Experience with MLOps

NLP and Prompt Engineering

Tools

Terraform

Vertex AI

Azure Data Factory

Job description

Your Responsibilities

• Lead and inspire a team of talented engineers, fostering a culture of psychological safety, curiosity, and creative problem-solving to drive continuous innovation.
• Partner with Principal Engineers to define and execute the strategic technical roadmap for our AI capabilities.
• Establish and enforce engineering standards, ensuring the platform remains stable, secure, and reliable while allowing for rapid experimentation.
• Drive technical excellence across the team by championing best practices in coding, architecture, and automated testing.
• Act as a technical consultant for product teams, helping them navigate complex integrations and architectural decisions.
• Champion the "value‑first" mentality, ensuring the team’s efforts are always aligned with delivering tangible outcomes for Elanco’s customers.
• Oversee "build and run" responsibilities for Enterprise AI products, ensuring high availability and robust support through mature incident processes.
• Provide architectural oversight and hands‑on technical guidance for the development of AI‑driven applications.
• Lead Scrum ceremonies from a technical perspective, ensuring the team delivers high‑quality increments and meets sprint goals.
• Mentor and coach Senior and Software Engineers, as well as members of our student program, to cultivate a high‑performing and connected engineering organisation.
• Drive CI/CD maturity, continually modernising software development processes to ensure efficient and high‑quality delivery.
• Resolve complex technical barriers, providing sound and scalable solutions for the most challenging issues facing the team.

What You Need to Succeed (minimum qualifications)

• Extensive experience leading the delivery and maintenance of complex software products in a DevOps and Agile environment.
• Deep practical experience with RAG, LLMs, and MLOps.
• Expert‑level understanding of NLP, Embeddings, and Prompt Engineering.
• Expert proficiency in Python, React, and TypeScript.
• Significant experience with Cloud platforms (GCP or Azure) and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform).
• Experience designing and implementing data processing and document ingestion pipelines (e.g., Vertex AI, Google Cloud Fusion, or Azure Data Factory).
• Deep understanding of the SDLC, API‑Centric Design, and Twelve‑Factor App principles.
• Proven experience mentoring engineers and leading technical teams to success.
• Deep familiarity with authentication and authorisation protocols/patterns and secure‑by‑design principles.

What will give you a competitive edge (preferred qualifications)

• A passion for AI with the ability to translate emerging research and trends into practical business solutions.
• Exceptional ability to articulate complex technical topics to both technical and non‑technical stakeholders to drive adoption and alignment.

Additional Information

Travel: 0% - Not specified

Location: UK - Hook (Hybrid - Three days per week in the office). Experience working across different time zones is required.

Don’t meet every single requirement? We are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive work environment. If you think you might be a good fit for this role but don’t necessarily meet every qualification, we encourage you to apply. You may be the right candidate for this role or other roles.

Elanco is an EEO/Affirmative Action Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status.