{"id":165446,"url":"https://alion.io/job/vodafone-group-lead-ai-software-engineer","title":"Lead AI Software Engineer","company":{"id":51587,"name":"Vodafone Group","domain":"vodafone.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/vodafone-group","size_band":"1001-5000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Eightfold","truth_index":{"grade":"C","score":59,"open_postings":502,"ghost_share":0.428,"stale_share":0.249,"repost_share":0.588,"time_to_fill_p50_days":54,"computed_at":"2026-10-20T05:45:00Z"}},"role":"AI/ML","role_family":"AI/ML","seniority":"lead","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"hybrid","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"structured","locations":["London, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":106000,"max_usd":195000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":25},"experience_years_min":7,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[{"name":"Agile","optional":false},{"name":"Angular","optional":false},{"name":"Apache Kafka","optional":false},{"name":"CI/CD","optional":false},{"name":"Java","optional":false},{"name":"Platform Engineering","optional":false},{"name":"RabbitMQ","optional":false},{"name":"Spring Boot","optional":false},{"name":"JavaScript","optional":true},{"name":"TypeScript","optional":true}],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-08-06T14:32:25Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-05","last_verified_at":"2026-10-20T06:27:45Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":74,"trust":{"level":"ghost","repost_count":4,"flags":["repost"],"days_open":74},"description":"Who we are\nVOIS (Vodafone Intelligent Solutions) is a strategic arm of Vodafone Group Plc, creating value for customers by delivering intelligent solutions through Talent, Technology & Transformation.\nAs the largest shared services organisation in the global telco industry with 30,000 FTE, our portfolio of next-generation solutions and services are designed in partnership with customers across Vodafone Group, local markets, and partner markets to simplify and drive growth. With our strategic partner Accenture, we work alongside our Vodafone customers, other Telco and tech companies to drive transformation, meet the challenges of our industry and ensure we stay relevant and resilient. This partnership is a unique, industry-first model which brings together the best of in-house and 3rd party capability.\nWe work with customers across 28 countries from 10 VOIS locations: Albania, Egypt, Hungary, India, Romania, Spain, Turkey, UK, Germany, Ireland, and with a network of teams in Czech Republic, Italy, Greece, and Portugal.\n#VOIS #BeUnrivalled #CreateTheFuture\nAbout this Role\nLocation: Newbury or Paddington (Hybrid)\nWe are seeking a Lead AI Software Engineer to lead software implementation and engineering delivery across squads, platform capabilities, or engineering domains. This is a senior hands-on role responsible for translating specifications, solution designs, and architectural direction into scalable, secure, production-ready software.\nYou will combine deep software engineering expertise with strong judgement in the use of AI-native engineering practices, ensuring AI-generated code, tests, documentation, and engineering artefacts are accurate, maintainable, secure, and aligned to business requirements. Working closely with Technical Leads, Architects, Product Owners, Platform Engineers, and delivery teams, you will drive implementation quality, testing, observability, operational readiness, and continuous improvement throughout the software development lifecycle.\nWhat you will do\nLead build execution within a squad, platform capability, or engineering domain.\nTranslate specifications, designs, and architectural intent into clear implementation plans and verifiable engineering tasks.\nDecompose solution designs into small, sequenced, testable delivery increments.\nGuide engineers and AI coding agents through implementation, validation, and release activities.\nDeliver and oversee complex, high-risk, or business-critical software components.\nReview AI-generated and engineer-written code to ensure correctness, maintainability, security, and alignment with specifications.\nDrive engineering excellence through automated testing, contract testing, regression testing, observability, and production verification.\nSupport CI/CD processes, deployment readiness, operational handover, runbooks, and service ownership.\nEnsure AI-generated outputs are explainable, traceable, secure, and compliant with engineering standards.\nEscalate architectural ambiguity, cross-domain risks, and decisions beyond agreed engineering guardrails.\nIdentify recurring engineering or AI-agent delivery issues and transform them into improved controls, guidance, and quality practices.\nCoach engineers on AI-native software engineering, implementation planning, code review, testing practices, and responsible AI usage.\nContribute to the evolution of AI-native Software Development Life Cycle practices, developer experience, automation, and engineering productivity.\nWho you are\n7+ years’ software engineering experience, including hands-on delivery of production-grade software.\nSignificant experience delivering production-grade software within complex engineering environments.\nStrong hands-on expertise inJava and Spring Boot, with experience in React or Angular.\nProven experience designing and implementing RESTful APIs, microservices, integrations, platform services, and digital applications.\nStrong understanding of cloud-native architectures, distributed systems, containerised environments, and modern integration patterns.\nExperience building event-driven solutions using technologies such as Kafka, RabbitMQ, or equivalent platforms.\nDemonstrated ability to lead software implementation within agile engineering teams or technical domains.\nExperience with CI/CD, continuous delivery practices, automated testing frameworks, observability, and production support.\nAbility to convert specifications, acceptance criteria, and architectural designs into actionable implementation plans and verified software.\nStrong code review and diff-review capability, including validation of AI-generated software outputs.\nExperience using AI-assisted engineering tools and effectively steering AI coding agents.\nUnderstanding of responsible AI practices, including validation, security, traceability, governance, and quality assurance.\nExcellent stakeholder engagement, coaching, collaboration, and communication skills.\nStrong focus on software quality, resilience, operational readiness, and continuous improvement.\nNot a perfect fit?\nWorried that you don’t meet all the desired criteria exactly? At Vodafone we are passionate about empowering people and creating a workplace where everyone can thrive, whatever their personal or professional background. If you’re excited about this role but your experience doesn’t align exactly with every part of the job description, we encourage you to still apply as you may be the right candidate for this role or another opportunity.\nWhat's in it for you\nOpportunity to shape and deliver next-generation digital and technology capabilities that support Vodafone’s future growth.\nExposure to AI-native engineering practices and modern software delivery methodologies.\nOpportunity to work on cloud-native platforms, reusable services, APIs, integrations, and large-scale digital products.\nCollaboration with highly skilled engineers, architects, platform specialists, and product teams across global markets.\nInvolvement in modern engineering disciplines including automation, continuous delivery, observability, and platform engineering.\nAbility to influence engineering standards, software quality, delivery practices, and operational excellence.\nWhat skills you will learn\nAdvanced AI-native engineering and AI-agent orchestration techniques.\nLarge-scale cloud-native software architecture and distributed systems practices.\nModern software delivery frameworks, automation strategies, and developer productivity improvements.\nAdvanced observability, operational readiness, and production engineering capabilities.\nEnterprise-scale implementation planning, architecture alignment, and engineering governance.\nCoaching, mentoring, and technical leadership skills within multi-disciplinary engineering environments.\nVOIS Equal Opportunity Employer Commitment\nVodafone recognises and celebrates the value of diversity in building a workforce that reflects the customers and communities it serves. No form of discrimination is tolerated. This includes, but is not limited to, discrimination based on race, colour, age, veteran status, gender identity, gender expression, sexual orientation, pregnancy, maternity or parental status, ethnicity, disability, religion or belief, political affiliation, trade union membership, nationality, citizenship, indigenous status, medical condition, HIV status, neurodiversity, social origin, cultural background, marital or civil partnership status, or socio-economic background.\nJoin Us\nAt Vodafone, we’re working hard to build a better future. A more connected, inclusive and sustainable world. As a dynamic global community, it's our human spirit, together with technology, that empowers us to achieve this.\nWe challenge and innovate in order to connect people, businesses, and communities across the world. Delighting our customers and earning their loyalty drive us, and we experiment, learn fast and get it done, together.\nWith us, you can be truly be yourself and belong, share inspiration, embrace new opportunities, thrive, and make a real difference.\nAlert\nApply for Vodafone jobs only through the official Vodafone Careers website to avoid job scams and fraud.” #JDEnhancedByTARA\nFollow us on social media and #StayConnected\nLinkedIn: VOIS LinkedIn\nFacebook: VOIS Facebook\nInstagram: VOIS Instagram","description_format":"text","description_chars":8298,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":7,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":[],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United Kingdom","iso":"GB","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Mobile Networks","Broadband","IoT Connectivity"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-08-06T14:32:25Z"},{"event":"close","at":"2026-08-30T13:53:17Z"},{"event":"reopen","at":"2026-08-31T10:51:51Z"},{"event":"close","at":"2026-08-31T16:46:01Z"},{"event":"reopen","at":"2026-08-31T21:22:16Z"},{"event":"close","at":"2026-09-01T04:17:48Z"},{"event":"reopen","at":"2026-09-04T14:25:25Z"},{"event":"close","at":"2026-09-04T20:14:34Z"},{"event":"reopen","at":"2026-09-10T12:29:59Z"},{"event":"close","at":"2026-09-10T15:30:01Z"},{"event":"reopen","at":"2026-09-11T18:32:41Z"},{"event":"close","at":"2026-09-11T21:32:43Z"},{"event":"reopen","at":"2026-09-12T04:51:59Z"},{"event":"close","at":"2026-09-12T10:52:11Z"},{"event":"reopen","at":"2026-09-12T17:06:19Z"},{"event":"close","at":"2026-09-12T20:06:24Z"},{"event":"reopen","at":"2026-09-13T08:06:28Z"},{"event":"close","at":"2026-09-13T11:06:38Z"},{"event":"reopen","at":"2026-09-14T19:15:28Z"}],"visa":[{"country":"GB","licensed_sponsor":true,"evidence":"Licensed UK visa sponsor (Senior or Specialist Worker, Skilled Worker, Graduate Trainee)","filings_12m":null,"filings_prev_12m":null,"green_card_filings_12m":null,"median_offered_wage_usd":null,"route":"Global Business Mobility: Senior or Specialist Worker; 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