Senior Software Engineer / Senior AI Engineer

Elsevier; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 125,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Pension Plan

Vacation + Sabbatical

Family Care Leave

Personal Budget

Employee Networks

Discounts

Recruitment rewards

Employee Assistance Program (global)

Job summary

Elsevier is seeking a Senior AI Engineer to build AI-powered features within an Innovation Squad, delivering production-grade AI capabilities and integration with enterprise systems.

You will focus on retrieval pipelines, agent workflows, evaluation, observability, and ensuring code quality while collaborating with host-function stakeholders.

This role emphasizes autonomy, problem-solving, and delivering tangible outcomes in short cycles, with a culture of innovation and enterprise impact.

Qualifications

• 3+ years in software engineering building production AI/LLM-enabled systems.
• BS in Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent.

Responsibilities

• Build prototypes and ship AI-powered features to production standards.
• Implement and test tool use, retrieval pipelines, and agent workflows.
• Contribute to evaluation, observability, and guardrails for agentic systems.
• Integrate AI capabilities into enterprise workflows and systems.
• Maintain high code quality and documentation for reuse.
• Flag technical risks and blockers early.
• Collaborate with technical peers to finalise requirements and fix bugs.
• Develop reusable patterns, reference implementations and starter kits.
• Instrument solutions to capture outcome data against baselines.
• Ensure builds fit real workflows and handover-capability post-squad movement.
• Stay updated with new technology developments.

Skills

Python

Java

TypeScript/JavaScript

SQL

LLM-powered apps

AI SDKs

CI/CD

Cloud platforms

Education

BS in Engineering or Computer Science

Tools

AWS

Azure

GCP

APIs

Job description

Senior AI Engineer

Are you excited about building intelligent systems powered by cutting-edge AI technologies?
Do you enjoy designing models that turn complex data into impactful solutions?

About the team:

Embedded Innovation Teams are cross-functional squads embedded within our segments to rapidly turn internal AI experimentation into validated, reusable solutions, building the capabilities we need to deliver customer value and growth. We work problem-first rather than tool-first, directly inside segment and function teams, improving the internal workflows that help our people deliver better outcomes for customers, faster.

About the role:

As a Senior AI Engineer, you will build and ship AI-powered features as part of a cross-functional Innovation Squad, working inside a business function. You will deliver the set technical direction to production standard, working autonomously within a defined problem, building and testing tool use, retrieval pipelines, and agent workflows, integrating AI capabilities into enterprise systems, and contributing to evaluation, observability, and guardrails.

You will hold a high bar on code quality, flag risks and blockers early, and work alongside host-function stakeholders to make sure what you build fits real workflows, not assumed ones. You’ll also support handover and capability-building so the solution is owned and operable after the squad moves on.

Key Responsibilities:

• Build prototypes and proofs of concept and ship agentic AI solutions to production standards within a defined technical approach.

• Implement and test tool use, retrieval pipelines, and agent workflows.

• Contribute to evaluation, observability, and guardrails for agentic systems.

• Integrate AI capabilities into existing enterprise workflows and systems.

• Maintain high code quality and documentation so patterns can be reused.

• Flag technical risks and blockers early.

• Interface with technical peers to finalise requirements and complete moderately complex bug fixes.

• Build solutions for reuse, contributing to patterns, reference implementations and starter kits so work done in one function can be picked up by another.

• Instrument solutions to capture outcome data against baselines.

• Work alongside host-function stakeholders to ensure the build fits real workflows, not assumed ones.

• Support handover and capability-building in the host function so the solution is owned and operable after the squad moves on.

• Keep abreast of new technology developments.

• Take on related responsibilities as the squad’s needs evolve.

Requirements:

• Engineering experience: 3+ years in software engineering, with hands-on experience building LLM-powered applications in production (RAG, tool-augmented agents, or agentic workflows).

• Education: BS in Engineering, Computer Science, or equivalent.

• Ways of working: Comfortable working autonomously within a defined problem and pushing back when something doesn’t make sense, and delivering in short, time-boxed cycles where validated outcomes matter more than perfect solutions.

• Agentic AI / LLMs: Building RAG pipelines, tool-augmented agents, and agentic workflows; familiar with prompt engineering, context management, evaluation, and observability.

• Agent fundamentals: Understands how agents use memory, tools, and retrieval to complete multi-step tasks.

• Enterprise integration: Integrating AI into existing systems via APIs and data pipelines.

• Cloud: AWS, Azure or GCP.

• Delivery: CI/CD, modern SDLC, TDD and code review.

• Data: Working with relational, columnar and vector stores, grounded in sound data-modelling principles.

• Languages: Python, Java, TypeScript/JavaScript, SQL and relevant AI SDKs.

• Communication: Clear written and verbal communication with technical peers and stakeholders.

• Measurement: Instrumenting solutions to capture usage, productivity and quality metrics against established baselines.

Why Join Us?

Join our team and contribute to a culture of innovation, collaboration, and excellence. If you are ready to advance your career and make a significant impact, we encourage you to apply.

Work in a way that works for you

We promote a healthy work/life balance across the organization. We offer an appealing working prospect for our people. With numerous wellbeing initiatives, shared parental leave, study assistance and sabbaticals, we will help you meet your immediate responsibilities and your long-term goals.

• Working flexible hours - flexing the times when you work in the day to help you fit everything in and work when you are the most productive.

Working for you

We know that your well-being and happiness are key to a long and successful career. These are some of the benefits we are delighted to offer:

• Comprehensive Pension Plan

• Generous vacation entitlement and option for sabbatical leave

• Maternity, Paternity, Adoption and Family Care leave

• Personal Choice budget

• Internal communities and networks

• Various employee discounts

• Recruitment introduction reward

• Employee Assistance Program (global)

About the business-

A global leader in information and analytics, we help researchers and healthcare professionals advance science and improve health outcomes for the benefit of society. Building on our publishing heritage, we combine quality information and vast data sets with analytics to support visionary science and research, health education, and interactive learning, as well as exceptional healthcare and clinical practice. At Elsevier, your work contributes to the world’s grand challenges and a more sustainable future. We harness innovative technologies to support science and healthcare to partner for a better world.

We know your well-being and happiness are key to a long and successful career. We are delighted to offer country specific benefits. Click here to access benefits specific to your location.

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