Senior AI & Data Solution Engineer

Vodafone New Zealand Limited; New Zealand; On-site; NZD 100,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Fully subsidised health insurance

Lifestyle leave options

Discounts on products and services

Job summary

Vodafone New Zealand Limited is looking for a Senior AI & Data Solution Engineer to collaborate with stakeholders and deliver scalable AI and data solutions. You will design, build, and maintain data products and lead testing activities to ensure production readiness.

The ideal candidate has strong data engineering, AI experience, and programming skills, with a focus on delivering quality solutions. The position offers work flexibility, health insurance, and lifestyle leave options.

Qualifications

• Strong hands-on engineering capability with experience in AI and data solutions.
• Expertise in data structures, SQL, data modelling, and analytics.
• Experience in AI workflow automation and responsible AI practices.

Responsibilities

• Own the delivery of complex AI and data engineering solutions.
• Translate technical requirements into production-ready outputs.
• Lead testing and production readiness activities.

Skills

Data engineering and analysis expertise

Programming and scripting knowledge

AI and GenAI engineering experience

Systems thinking and problem-solving skills

Clear communication skills

Tools

Python

SQL

AWS

Job description

Senior AI & Data Solution Engineer

Collaborate closely with business stakeholders to understand their needs and deliver highly performant, scalable AI and data solutions that support One NZ’s business strategies. As a key member of the AI & Data Engineering team, you’ll take ownership of complex solution components from design, through to build, test, deployment and continuous improvement.

What you’ll do

• Own the delivery of complex AI and data engineering solution components across squads and delivery streams.
• Translate complex business and technical requirements into scalable, production‑ready AI, data and integration outputs.
• Design, build, maintain and improve data pipelines, data products, AI‑enabled workflows, integrations, APIs, automation, dashboards, models, prompts, agents and related solution components.
• Apply and reinforce agreed engineering frameworks, reusable patterns, coding standards, DevOps and AgentOps practices, governance requirements and production readiness criteria.
• Work with product owners, delivery leads, business SMEs, architects and senior technical stakeholders to define clear requirements, technical designs, data flows, AI workflows, process maps, integrations, implementation plans and acceptance criteria.
• Provide squad‑level technical leadership, supporting design choices, estimation, sequencing, technical decision‑making and blocker resolution.
• Champion responsible, secure and scalable delivery across responsible AI, data governance, privacy, cyber security, access control, observability, reliability, cost awareness and operational support.
• Lead testing, evaluation and production readiness activities, including unit testing, integration testing, data quality checks, AI evaluation, performance validation, monitoring, documentation, runbooks and deployment readiness.
• Mentor and uplift others through pairing, code reviews, design reviews, knowledge sharing and practical coaching across AI, data, cloud, software engineering and technical analysis disciplines.

What you’ll bring

• Strong hands‑on engineering capability with practical experience designing, building, testing, deploying and maintaining complex AI and data solution components using modern engineering practices.
• Strong data engineering and analysis expertise, including data structures, SQL, data modelling, data quality, data pipelines, reporting, analytics and business rules.
• Practical applied AI and GenAI engineering experience, including prompt engineering, retrieval‑augmented generation, AI workflow automation, evaluation, human‑in‑the‑loop design and responsible AI practices.
• Strong working knowledge of programming, scripting, APIs, CI/CD, source control, testing, observability, automation and cloud‑based delivery practices, ideally including Python, SQL, AWS and relevant data or AI platforms.
• Proven ability to take accountability for outcomes, manage technical dependencies and turn requirements and designs into working, production‑grade solutions.
• A disciplined approach to engineering quality, including clean code, testing, documentation, maintainability, security, performance, observability and production support.
• Strong systems thinking and complex problem‑solving skills, with the ability to work through ambiguity and define pragmatic, scalable solution options.
• Clear and credible communication skills, with the ability to explain design decisions, risks and trade‑offs to engineers, product owners, delivery leads, business SMEs and technical stakeholders.
• A mentoring mindset, with experience supporting others through coaching, pairing, reviews and sharing reusable patterns, lessons learned and best practices.
• Curiosity and a continuous learning mindset across AI, data, cloud, software engineering and solution architecture disciplines.
• Work‑flexible environment enabling flexibility to work from home and flex your hours as required.

Benefits: fully subsidised Southern Cross health insurance cover for you and your family; lifestyle leave offering options to purchase extra annual leave; discounts on One New Zealand products and services.

We are proudly Rainbow Tick certified and champion diversity of thought, perspective and background.