Senior AI Software Engineer

Vodafone

London, United Kingdom

About this Role

We are seeking a Senior AI Software Engineer to build, test and operate production-grade software using AI-native engineering practices. This role is ideal for an experienced software engineer who can translate technical designs, requirements and implementation plans into secure, reliable and maintainable software.

Working in a cross-functional delivery team, the role combines hands-on software engineering with the responsible use of AI coding agents, automated development tooling and modern delivery practices. The successful candidate will validate AI-generated outputs, apply sound engineering judgement and ensure software is production-ready, secure and aligned to business and technical requirements.

The Senior AI Software Engineer will take ownership of software components and services across their operational lifecycle, contributing to engineering excellence through code review, automated testing, observability, documentation, technical collaboration and continuous improvement.

What you will do

Build, test and maintain APIs, services, integrations, customer journeys and platform capabilities.
Translate assigned requirements, specifications and technical designs into high-quality software implementations.
Use AI coding agents to support implementation activities while retaining responsibility for validation, maintainability and quality.
Review AI-generated and colleague-generated code, pull requests, tests and implementation artefacts for correctness and alignment to requirements.
Validate AI-generated code, documentation and test outputs before adoption into production codebases.
Execute testing activities, including unit testing, integration testing, contract testing and regression verification.
Contribute to CI/CD pipelines, deployment automation and production verification processes.
Support incident investigation, root-cause analysis and operational improvement activities.
Identify defects, engineering risks and recurring failure patterns, contributing practical improvements where appropriate.
Maintain clear technical documentation, reusable engineering assets and implementation knowledge.
Collaborate with Lead AI Software Engineers, Technical Leads, Architects and Product teams.
Support less experienced engineers through coaching, collaboration, pairing, peer review and knowledge sharing.
Contribute to continuous improvement of software delivery practices, developer experience and engineering productivity.
Take ownership of services and software components throughout their operational lifecycle

Who you are

Experienced in software engineering, with 5+ years of experience delivering production-grade software.
Skilled in software design, development, testing, deployment and operational support.
Confident developing cloud-native applications using Java, preferably Spring Boot, and React, or equivalent enterprise application frameworks.
Experienced in designing and implementing RESTful APIs, microservices, integrations and customer-facing digital capabilities.
Familiar with cloud-native architectures, distributed systems, containerised deployment models and event-driven integration patterns.
Experienced with CI/CD pipelines, automated testing, observability and production support.
Able to apply AI coding tools and AI-assisted development approaches responsibly within software delivery.
Skilled in reviewing both AI-generated and human-written code, identifying defects, weaknesses and improvement opportunities.
Committed to secure coding practices, software quality techniques, automated testing, operational readiness and reliability.
Able to translate requirements, specifications and technical designs into reliable, maintainable and production-ready software.
Effective in cross-functional teams, contributing positively to delivery outcomes and team capability.
Focused on continuous improvement, automation, engineering consistency and developer productivity.
Strong in debugging, troubleshooting and practical problem-solving.