GenAI Engineering Lead & Systems Designer

We are seeking an experienced GenAI Engineering Lead & System Designer to design, build, and support enterprise-scale AI platforms, Generative AI solutions, Agentic AI systems, and intelligent automation capabilities. You will play a key role in delivering secure, scalable, resilient, and compliant AI solutions, while establishing architecture standards, governance controls, and engineering best practices across the AI landscape.

The role combines deep expertise in AI engineering, system design, cloud architecture, and AI governance, with responsibility for designing detailed component, API, integration, and sequence-level architectures that enable the successful adoption of GenAI and Agentic AI technologies. Responsible AI, governance, security and risk management are key expectations for this role.

At Nationwide we offer hybrid working wherever possible. More rewarding relationships are supported through our hybrid approach, bringing colleagues together across our UK wide estate, whilst also supporting generous access to home working. We value our time in the office to solve problems, to learn, and to feel connected.

For this role, you'll be based at your nearest regional office or hub. We value time spent together to connect with colleagues for collaboration so there will be a regular requirement to attend our Swindon site approximately once per quarter. If you are based at an office location, you'll be expected to meet our hybrid working requirement of at least two days a week, or 40% of your working time if part-time, in the office. If your application is successful, your hiring manager will provide further details on how this works.

If we receive a high volume of relevant applications, we may close the advert earlier than the advertised date, so please apply as soon as you can.

What you’ll be doing

This role involves designing and documenting both High-Level Designs (HLDs) and Low-Level Designs (LLDs) for business banking solutions. You will be responsible for creating enterprise-grade business banking platforms that leverage AI technologies, including Generative AI (GenAI), AI agents, and intelligent automation services. The position also requires the development of detailed solution designs, covering components, APIs, databases, class structures, and sequence diagrams for AI-enabled products and platforms.

A key responsibility is leading architecture and design reviews to ensure solutions meet security, scalability, resilience, and compliance requirements. You will design and implement Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures, enterprise knowledge retrieval platforms, vector search solutions, and AI orchestration frameworks, helping to drive innovation and enhance business capabilities through AI.

The role includes establishing AI engineering standards, architecture patterns, reusable frameworks, and best practices across the organisation. You will also implement AI governance controls, guardrails, monitoring capabilities, explainability mechanisms, and Responsible AI principles to ensure the safe and effective deployment of AI solutions.

Working closely with engineers, architects, product owners, security teams, risk specialists, and governance stakeholders, you will define integration patterns between AI platforms, enterprise applications, data platforms, external services, and cloud ecosystems. This collaboration will help deliver strategic business outcomes while ensuring alignment with enterprise architecture standards.

In addition, you will support the ongoing evolution of AI platforms, contribute to innovation initiatives, and drive the adoption of Generative AI and Agentic AI capabilities across the organisation. You will also provide technical leadership and mentoring to engineering teams throughout the entire AI solution lifecycle, fostering best practices and supporting the successful delivery of AI-driven solutions.

About you

As a minimum requirement, you’ll have:

• Solution Architecture, Software Engineering, Platform Engineering, or AI Engineering
• Experience within Banking, Financial Services, Technology, or other regulated industries
• Hands-on experience designing and delivering enterprise-scale Generative AI solutions using GPT, Claude, Granite, Pega AI, Azure OpenAI, and similar LLM-based platforms
• Expertise in Agentic AI, AI Agents, Multi-Agent Systems, AI orchestration frameworks, prompt engineering, and autonomous workflow design
• Deep understanding of AI platform architecture, including RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), vector databases, knowledge retrieval, embeddings, semantic search, and AI workflow orchestration
• Extensive experience designing cloud-native platforms on Azure and AWS, including AI services, compute platforms, integration patterns, API management, security controls, and observability solutions
• Software engineering and system design skills, including microservices, distributed systems, event-driven architectures, REST APIs, and performance engineering
• Experience defining enterprise AI security controls, governance frameworks, AI guardrails, monitoring, risk assessments, compliance controls, and Responsible AI practices
• Stakeholder management experience, working with Engineers, Architects, Product Owners, Security, Risk, Governance, and Business teams
   

Our customer first behaviours put customers and members at the heart of how we work together. They are the set of behaviours that every colleague needs to display, in every role:

• Feel what customers feel - We step into our customers’ shoes, using their feedback and insights to empathise with them and to understand their needs, so that every decision we make starts and finishes with our customers in mind

• Say it straight - We are brave in speaking out and saying what we think – we’re honest and direct with good intent, openly sharing diverse perspectives to reach the best conclusions and using language everyone can understand

• Push for better - We don’t settle for mediocrity, we challenge the status quo, taking responsibility for continuous improvement and personal development

• Get it done - We prioritise what will have the greatest impact, we are decisive, and we take accountability for delivering brilliant customer outcomes

You can strengthen your application by showing how our customer first behaviours resonate with you, and where you may have already demonstrated these.

The extras you’ll get

There are all sorts of employee benefits available at Nationwide, including:

• 25 days holiday, pro rata

• Private medical insurance

• A highly competitive pension to help you build a strong foundation for retirement

• Access to an annual performance-related bonus

• Training and development to help you progress your career

• A great selection of additional benefits through our salary sacrifice scheme

• Life assurance to provide peace of mind for you and your loved ones in the event of your death

• Wellhub – access to a range of free and paid options for health and wellness

• Up to 2 days of paid volunteering a year

Banking – but fairer, more rewarding, and for the good of society

We forge our own path at Nationwide.

As a mutual, we’re owned by our members - those customers who bank, save or have a mortgage with us. We challenge the financial sector status quo. We don’t see customers as the engine of our own profit. We share our profits with them and put their needs first. Always there when they need us. Supporting them and their lives.

If you’re inspired by fairer finances, passionate about making a meaningful impact, and truly care about our customers, you’re one of us.

At Nationwide, you are challenged to grow and rewarded for doing so. Valued. Recognised. Inspired to be your best. As a community, we want our working lives to count. As a team, we celebrate what we achieve. As a standard-setter, we work for the good of customers, communities, and broader society.

We are purpose-driven. Uncompromisingly customer. Unstoppably Nationwide.

What to do next

If this role is for you, please click the ‘Apply Now’ button. You’ll need to attach your up-to-date CV and answer a few quick questions for us. 

We respond to everyone, so we will be in contact shortly after the closing date to let you know the outcome of your application.

Keeping your data and personal information confidential is important to us. To find out more about how we use and process your data, please read our Privacy policy.

If you want to find out more about using AI in our recruitment process, please read more here.

Disability Confident 

We’re not just guided by data, we’re driven by the real experiences of our people. We’re a Disability Confident Level 3 Leader, the highest level. 

That’s why we’re constantly evolving our policies and practices to make sure everyone feels genuinely supported, valued, and empowered to champion inclusion. Whatever your needs, we’re here to support you. If you need any additional support throughout your application journey, email our team at Recruitment Support. 

Apply safely with Nationwide

Recruitment scams can look convincing, so take a moment to check the role is listed on our official careers site and read our guidance on Don’t be conned by a job scam.

Please note that should you be successful in securing this role, the job title on our internal systems will be Engineer E3.