Senior Software Developer (Contractor)

Ashbury; United Kingdom; Remote; GBP 90,000 - 120,000; Full time

Job summary

Ashbury is seeking a Senior Software Developer on a contract basis to design, build, test and ship AI-assisted regulatory and artwork tools. You will transform prototypes into usable tools used by advisors, blending rules, OCR and generative AI within Azure-based pipelines.

You will work closely with regulatory specialists and the IT team to shape technical direction, ensure secure-by-design practices, and align with UK working hours while operating fully remotely from anywhere.

Qualifications

• Senior-level software engineering experience with production-grade apps.
• Hands-on C#/.NET and Azure experience, including Functions, App Service, storage and AI services.
• Experience building LLM-backed features: prompt design, evaluation, guardrails and cost control, using Azure OpenAI or similar APIs.
• Experience taking prototypes to production with controlled rollout and ongoing improvements.
• Comfortable working in a small team with non-technical specialists.

Responsibilities

• Design and build features for Ashbury's regulatory and artwork tools, moving prototypes to production in small releases.
• Choose approaches blending rules, document processing, OCR and AI to ensure reproducible, explainable outputs for regulated decisions.
• Develop LLM-backed features with structured prompting, test data, and clear accuracy/cost thresholds before release.
• Collaborate with regulatory specialists to turn retailer knowledge into testable rules and mappings.
• Write well-tested code in source control and ship via Azure DevOps pipelines with proper documentation.
• Follow secure-by-design practices and participate in code reviews.

Skills

C#/.NET

Azure

API design

LLM features

Testing & QA

Documentation

Team collaboration

Tools

Azure OpenAI

OCR

Docker

Git & Azure DevOps

TypeScript/React

Dynamics 365/Power Platform

PDF processing

Job description

The Role We are looking for a Senior Software Developer to join Ashbury on a contract basis, starting immediately, to build out our portfolio of AI-assisted regulatory and artwork tools. This is a hands-on development role: most of your week will be spent designing, writing, testing and shipping code, taking prototypes that already exist and turning them into tools our advisors use every day. Ashbury is a trusted technical and regulatory services provider to the food industry. We are developing tools that improve the speed, accuracy and consistency of specification and artwork work, including Pack Copy and final-artwork alignment, artwork version comparison, international regulatory adaptation and retailer-specific specification checks. These tools combine document processing, OCR and rules with generative AI, and you will work alongside our IT team and regulatory specialists to deliver them in small, usable releases.

Key responsibilities

• Design and build the features behind Ashbury 's regulatory and artwork tools, taking working prototypes through to production and delivering in small, frequent releases that save advisor time and reduce regulatory or artwork risk.
• Choose the right approach for each problem, blending deterministic rules, document processing, OCR and generative AI, and favouring reproducible, explainable outputs where they feed regulated decisions.
• Build LLM-backed features properly: structured prompting, evaluation against representative test data and golden outputs, and clear thresholds for accuracy, latency and cost before anything is released.
• Work directly with our regulatory specialists to turn retailer and market knowledge into testable rules, reusable components and terminology mappings.
• Write well-tested, maintainable code in source control, ship through our existing Azure DevOps pipelines and document what you build so the internal team can support and extend it.
• Follow secure-by-design practices (least privilege, secrets management, privacy controls, dependency hygiene) and take part in code reviews with the rest of the development team.
• Help shape the technical direction of the tools as they grow, including how they are hosted on Azure, working with Ashbury 's IT team rather than owning the platform alone.

Experience

• Essential Senior-level software engineering experience, including building new products, developing and maintaining existing ones in production.
• Hands-on proficiency with C#/.NET and Azure (Functions, App Service, storage and AI services), with strong API, data-processing and systems-integration skills.
• Practical experience building LLM-backed features: prompt design, evaluation, guardrails and cost control, using Azure OpenAI or similar APIs.
• Experience taking prototypes or digital products through to production launch, controlled rollout and ongoing improvement.
• Comfortable working in a small team alongside non-technical specialists, turning their knowledge into clear, testable increments.

Desirable Experience

• Desirable Experience with OCR, computer vision, PDF processing, artwork comparison, multilingual content, rules engines or document intelligence.
• Python for data-processing or AI tooling alongside the .NET stack.
• TypeScript/React, or experience with Microsoft Dynamics 365 and the Power Platform.
• Containers, Git workflows and automated testing in an Azure DevOps environment.
• Experience in FMCG, retail, regulatory technology or another controlled environment.

Working Arrangements

• Location: Fully remote, with applications welcome from around the world.
• Working hours: Must be able to work in alignment with UK working hours.
• Right to Work Checks: UK-based contractors will be required to complete a right-to-work check in accordance with applicable UK Government regulations before commencing the role. Please note that this requirement applies only to candidates based in the UK. This does not apply to candidates based outside the UK.