ML / AI Platform Engineer

Why join us

At Sainsbury's, we're investing in shared AI and machine learning platforms that enable teams across the business to build, deploy and operate intelligent solutions safely, securely and at scale.

You'll help shape the engineering foundations that power machine learning, generative AI and agentic applications across the organisation. Working as part of a platform engineering team, you'll build reusable capabilities that make it easier for product teams, data scientists and engineers to deliver value while meeting our standards for security, reliability, governance and cost efficiency.

Our platforms include:

• Azure Machine Learning
• AI Gateway capabilities built on Azure API Management
• Shared patterns and tooling for agentic and generative AI solutions
• Core platform services covering identity, networking, observability, security, deployment and cost management

You don't need to be an AI or machine learning specialist. We're looking for strong engineers with cloud platform, infrastructure or DevOps experience who are excited to apply their skills to the next generation of AI-enabled products and services.

What you'll do

• Design, build and operate shared platform capabilities that enable teams to develop and deploy ML and AI solutions efficiently and securely
• Create reusable infrastructure, tooling and automation that improves the developer experience and reduces operational overhead
• Build and maintain cloud-native platform services covering deployment, networking, security, identity, monitoring and governance
• Collaborate with product teams, data scientists and ML/AI Ops engineers to understand requirements and provide scalable platform solutions
• Drive engineering excellence through automation, standardisation, observability and reliability practices
• Contribute to the evolution of our AI and ML platform strategy, ensuring solutions remain secure, resilient and cost-effective
• Troubleshoot complex technical issues across cloud services, infrastructure and applications
• Support and mentor engineers within the team, sharing knowledge and driving continuous improvement

Who you are

Essential skills and experience

• Experience building, operating or improving cloud platforms in AWS, Azure or GCP
• Strong understanding of infrastructure as code
• Strong programming skills, with experience developing production-quality solutions in Python or other modern programming languages
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines, Git-based workflows and modern software delivery practices
• Knowledge of cloud networking, identity management, security and access controls
• Experience managing containerised workloads and cloud-hosted application platforms
• Strong troubleshooting and problem-solving skills across infrastructure and application layers
• Experience building reusable platform capabilities and self-service engineering solutions
• Ability to lead technical initiatives and take ownership of delivery outcomes
• Strong collaboration and communication skills, with a willingness to coach and support others
• A growth mindset, with the ability to learn new technologies and apply sound engineering principles in unfamiliar domains

Desirable skills and experience

• Experience with Microsoft Azure platform services
• Azure Machine Learning
• Azure API Management
• Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Foundry or related AI platforms
• Platform Engineering and Developer Experience practices
• MLOps, model deployment and model lifecycle management
• Experience operating platforms in large-scale enterprise environments
• Knowledge of generative AI architectures, AI gateways, agent frameworks or agentic delivery patterns

What success looks like

• Engineers can quickly and safely build and deploy ML and AI solutions using shared platform capabilities
• Platform services are secure, reliable, observable and cost-effective
• Reusable patterns and automation reduce duplication across teams
• Platform adoption grows through a great developer experience and strong engineering partnerships
• AI and ML workloads can be operated confidently at enterprise scale

Benefits

• Generous colleague discount across Sainsbury’s, Argos, and Habitat
• Competitive holiday allowance
• Bonus scheme
• Pension plan
• Flexible / smarter working policy
• Access to special offers on gyms, restaurants, holidays, retail vouchers and more

We’d all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That’s waiting for you at Sainsbury’s. Think about the scale it takes for us to feed the nation. The level of data, transactions and variety it involves. Then you’ll realise that ours is a modern software engineering environment because it has to be. We’ve made serious investment into a Tech Academy and into setting standards and principles. We iterate, learn, experiment and push ways of working such as Agile, Scrum and XP. So you can look forward to awesome opportunities in everything from AI to reusable tech.

We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer, so you’ll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, there’s always the chance to try something new - whether that’s as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business - and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working. When you join our team, we’ll also offer you an amazing range of benefits. Here are some of them:
 
 Starting off with colleague discount, you'll be able to get 10% off at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat after 4 weeks. This increases to 15% off at Sainsbury’s every Friday and Saturday and 15% off at Argos every pay day. We've also got you covered for your future with our pensions scheme and life cover. You'll also be able to share in our success as you may be eligible for a performance-related bonus of up to 10% of salary, depending on how we perform.  
 
 Your wellbeing is important to us too. You'll receive an annual holiday allowance, and you can buy additional holiday. We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, pay advance (where you can access some of your pay before pay day) as well access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers. And if you ever need it there is also an employee assistance programme.
 
 Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks’ pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks’ pay for paternity leave. 
 
 Please see www.sainsburys.jobs for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).