Senior Software Engineer - Data & ML

Senior Software Engineer | Autoplanner | Hybrid Working | Hatfield

Introduction:

We are Ocado Group, and we're bringing world-class automation to online grocery. Our Ocado Smart Platform (OSP) combines cutting-edge robotics, AI, and IoT within our advanced CFCs (Customer Fulfilment Centres). We've mastered the single pick, transforming online delivery for our global partners. Join us and be part of a team pushing the boundaries of retail technology.

About the Role

As a Senior Software Engineer in the Autoplanner team, you will provide the critical software engineering capability that our data science and machine learning products rely on to reach production. You will develop and maintain the robust platform, APIs, and pipelines behind our systems, ensuring our AI models are fast, scalable, and resilient as usage expands across global retailer environments.

Working as the key engineering counterpart to our data scientists, you will collaborate closely with product managers and software engineering teams across Ocado Technology to integrate applications into the wider Ocado Smart Platform. Your work will directly enhance live operational planning, helping to deliver unified plans that maximise profit and minimise lateness for our retail partners worldwide.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain the data and ML platform supporting multiple live retailer production environments.
• Package, version, serve, and monitor machine learning models in production to ensure high performance and reliability.
• Build and maintain robust APIs and clear data contracts for internal teams and data science dependencies.
• Enhance CI/CD and release pipelines to support smooth deployments across multiple environments.
• Evolve the team's mono-repo structure while actively delivering production services.
• Contribute to architectural decisions and record system designs through Architecture Decision Records (ADRs).
• Collaborate with data scientists and cross-functional engineering teams to integrate applications with the Ocado Smart Platform.
• Share in on-call and production support for mission-critical planning tools used by global partners.

What We’re Looking For

• 5+ years of software engineering experience focusing on production Python services, ideally within data or ML-backed cloud systems.
• Expertise in modern, strongly typed Python.
• Extensive experience building data-intensive applications, ideally using event-driven architectures and analytical data stores such as BigQuery.
• Hands-on experience packaging, serving, and monitoring machine learning models in production.
• Proven experience delivering production async APIs, preferably with FastAPI.
• Strong cloud platform experience with AWS and/or GCP.
• Solid background in building and maintaining CI/CD pipelines alongside a strong automated testing discipline.
• Proven software design skills, including system architecture and defining service boundaries, with a track record of close collaboration with data scientists.

Benefits

We believe in supporting our people with meaningful, flexible benefits that prioritise well-being and work-life balance. Here’s a snapshot of what you can expect:

• Time to recharge: 25 days annual leave (rising to 27 after 5 years), plus the option to buy more – and 30 days a year to work from anywhere in the world.
• Health & wellbeing: Private Medical Insurance from your first month, wellbeing support through specialist apps and EAP, plus Income Protection and Life Assurance.
• Family-first policies: 22 weeks paid maternity/primary carer leave and 6 weeks paid paternity leave
• Financial support: Pension with employer matching up to 7%, share schemes (Sharesave & BAYE), and interest-free loans for train tickets.
• Commuter perks: Cycle to Work Scheme and free shuttle buses to/from Hatfield and Welwyn Garden City stations.
• Exclusive discounts: 15% off at Ocado.com with free delivery (starting in your first month).

Be bold, be unique, be brilliant, be you. We are looking for individuality and we value diversity. We are an equal opportunities employer and we are committed to treating all applicants and employees fairly and equally. We are committed to making reasonable adjustments to provide a positive, barrier-free recruitment process and supportive work environment. If you have any support or access requirements, we encourage you to advise us at the time of application.