Python Lead Software Engineer - (Cloud Data Platform — AWS/Databricks/Terraform)

Next Frontier Capital; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

J.P. Morgan is seeking a senior software engineering professional to drive AI-assisted development practices across the SDLC in a regulated financial services environment.

You will design, implement, and govern secure production code, lead high-impact initiatives, and collaborate with vendors and internal teams to ensure robust, scalable solutions. Applicants should demonstrate advanced programming skills, CS fundamentals, and experience delivering enterprise-grade AI-enabled tooling with strong

Qualifications

• Formal training or certification on software engineering concepts and advanced applied experience.
• Advanced in one or more programming language(s).
• Experience leading AI-assisted software development tools and setting expectations for correctness, performance, and security.
• Operating model for AI-assisted development (use cases, guidance, escalation paths).
• Validation standards for AI outputs: peer review, secure coding checks, automated tests.

Responsibilities

• Executes creative software solutions, design, development, and troubleshooting with non-routine approaches.
• Develops secure, high-quality production code and reviews others' code.
• Drives AI-assisted engineering practices to improve quality, speed, and outcomes with standardized validation.
• Establishes guardrails for AI in the SDLC and secure handling of data.
• Implements repeatable AI-assisted review workflow including PR checklists and quality gates.
• Applies SDLC toolchain knowledge to improve value from automation across planning to operations.
• Selects and standardizes tools across planning, code, build, test, security, release, and ops for end-to-end traceability.
• Designs CI/CD pipelines with measurable outcomes and uses automation to improve release reliability.
• Identifies opportunities to reduce recurring issues and improve operational stability.
• Leads evaluation sessions with vendors and teams to assess architectural fit.

Skills

Python

AI tooling

System design

CI/CD

Secure coding

Agile methodologies

Cloud native

Software development life cycle

Tools

CI/CD pipelines tools

DevSecOps tools

Job description

We have an opportunity to impact your career and provide an adventure where you can push the limits of what's possible.

Job responsibilities

• Executes creative software solutions, design, development, and technical troubleshooting with ability to think beyond routine or conventional approaches to build solutions or breakdown technical problems
• Develops secure and high-quality production code, and reviews and debugs code written by others
• Drives team adoption of enterprise-authorized AI-assisted engineering practices within the work environment to improve code quality, delivery speed, and operational outcomes (e.g., AI-assisted code review/refactoring, test strategy acceleration, incident/root-cause analysis support), while establishing consistent validation standards (secure coding, peer review, automated testing) and promoting reuse of effective patterns across the team.
• Establishes clear “where AI helps / where it must not” guardrails for the SDLC (design, coding, testing, deployment, operations), ensuring sensitive data handling and secure engineering practices are consistently applied.
• Implements a repeatable AI-assisted review workflow (PR checklist, quality gates, and approval criteria) that improves readability, reduces defects, and enforces standards for maintainability, performance, and security.
• Applies knowledge of tools within the Software Development Life Cycle toolchain, including enterprise-authorized AI-assisted development and automation capabilities, to improve the value realized by automation.
• Selects and standardizes the right tools across planning, code, build, test, security scanning, release, and operations—reducing fragmentation and improving end-to-end traceability.
• Designs CI/CD pipelines with measurable outcomes (lead time, deployment frequency, change failure rate), using automation to remove manual steps and improve release reliability.
• Identifies opportunities to eliminate or automate remediation of recurring issues to improve overall operational stability of software applications and systems
• Leads evaluation sessions with external vendors, startups, and internal teams to drive outcomes-oriented probing of architectural designs, technical credentials, and applicability for use within existing systems and information architecture

Required qualifications, capabilities, and skills

• Formal training or certification on software engineering concepts and advanced applied experience Python
  Hands-on practical experience delivering system design, application development, testing, and operational stability
• Advanced in one or more programming language(s)
• Demonstrated experience leading effective use of approved AI-assisted software development tools (e.g., for coding, code review, test acceleration, troubleshooting) with the ability to set team expectations for validating AI outputs for correctness, performance, and security.
• Defines a practical operating model for AI-assisted development (approved use cases, do/don’t guidance, and escalation paths) so teams use tools consistently and responsibly.
• Establishes validation standards for AI outputs—mandatory peer review, secure coding checks, and automated test requirements—before any AI-assisted change is merged or released.
• Strong understanding of responsible AI use in engineering workflows, including data sensitivity considerations, secure handling of inputs/outputs, and adherence to resiliency and security expectations; experience coaching engineers on safe, compliant adoption within delivery practices
• Proficient in all aspects of the Software Development Life Cycle
• Advanced understanding of agile methodologies such as CI/CD, Application Resiliency, and Security
• In-depth knowledge of the financial services industry and their IT systems
• Practical cloud native experience

Preferred qualifications, capabilities, and skills

• Advanced Apache Spark experience (PySpark/Spark SQL), including performance tuning (partitioning, shuffle optimization, caching), troubleshooting, and designing scalable batch/stream processing patterns.
• Deep lakehouse and data platform expertise (e.g., Delta Lake concepts, schema evolution, data quality frameworks, lineage/metadata, and governance patterns) applied in production environments.
• Strong DevSecOps and platform engineering capability, including CI/CD design, automated security/quality gates, observability (logs/metrics/traces), SLOs/SLAs, and incident management/RCA in regulated environments.
• Proven end-to-end delivery leadership for large, cross-functional initiatives (roadmaps, dependency management, stakeholder alignment, budgeting/capacity planning, and measurable outcomes tied to reliability, cost, and time-to-market).
• Experience driving responsible, enterprise-approved AI-assisted engineering adoption, including coaching teams on safe use, validation standards for AI outputs, and building reusable “golden path” templates/pattern libraries (Terraform modules, Databricks job templates, pipeline scaffolds).

J.P. Morgan is a global leader in financial services, providing strategic advice and products to the world’s most prominent corporations, governments, wealthy individuals and institutional investors. Our first-class business in a first-class way approach to serving clients drives everything we do. We strive to build trusted, long-term partnerships to help our clients achieve their business objectives.

We recognize that our people are our strength and the diverse talents they bring to our global workforce are directly linked to our success. We are an equal opportunity employer and place a high value on diversity and inclusion at our company. We do not discriminate on the basis of any protected attribute, including race, religion, color, national origin, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, age, marital or veteran status, pregnancy or disability, or any other basis protected under applicable law. We also make reasonable accommodations for applicants’ and employees’ religious practices and beliefs, as well as mental health or physical disability needs. Visit our FAQs for more information about requesting an accommodation.

Our professionals in our Corporate Functions cover a diverse range of areas from finance and risk to human resources and marketing. Our corporate teams are an essential part of our company, ensuring that we’re setting our businesses, clients, customers and employees up for success. Carry out critical tech solutions across multiple technical areas as an integral part of an agile team