Head Of Software Development - Machine Learning Engineering

Tesco
London
6 months ago
Applications closed

Related Jobs

View all jobs

Software Team Manchester

Senior Software Developer

Senior Python Developer

Software Engineer (Research & Development)

Software Engineer

Full Stack Developer

About the role At Tesco, we believe in thepowerof spending more time together, face to face, than apart. So, during your working week, you can expect to spend 60% of your time in one of our office locations or local sites and the rest remotely. We also recognise that life looks a little different for each of us. Some people are at the start of their careers, some want the freedom to do the things they love. Others are going through life-changing moments like becoming a carer, nearing retirement, adapting to parenthood, or something else. That's why at Tesco, we always welcome a conversation about flexible working. So, talk to us throughout your application about how we can support. As a Head of Software Engineering for Machine Learning Engineering, you'll be a significant contributor to the delivery of products in one of Tesco's most strategic technology areas. You'll work with other engineers, data scientists, product managers, systems engineers, and analytics professionals to help deliver valuable and innovative outcomes for our customers. You'll work within and across our Engineering and Data Science teams, delivering scalable products that improve how we serve our customers and run our operations. As Head of Software Development at Tesco you hold a senior engineering management role, and is the first level at which you manage other managers. About the Team: Within Tesco Data & Analytics, we help our customers and the communities where we operate get the most value from data. We build and run Tesco's data platforms, we architect and engineer data onto these platforms, provide capabilities and tools to the analytics community across Tesco, and develop data products at scale. Our Data Science teams are involved in a broad range of projects, spanning across supply chain, logistics, store and online. These include projects in the areas of Operations Optimisations, Commercial Decision Support (e.g. Forecasting and Range Optimisation), Online (e.g. Search and Recommendation) and Intelligent Edge (e.g. Computer Vision). Our Machine Learning Engineers work alongside our data scientists, helping with everything from development of tools and platforms, code optimisations through to deployment of solutions on the edge, cloud and big-data environments. You will be responsible for Accountability for delivering impact across teams of teams within a directorate, as well as for effecting and leading change across the wider Technology organisation. Responsibility to lead your team with a clear sense of purpose & vision. Working with Data Scientists, Engineers and Product teams across the software lifecycle. Hire, retain, and engage engineering managers and senior engineering talent. Promoting a culture of inclusion, autonomy, mastery and delivery through directing, mentoring, coaching and facilitation aligned to the broader technology organisation and Tesco values. Ensure all colleagues are supported in their careers, with personal/professional development objectives and through continuous feedback and training. Developing an environment that enables your teams to succeed in delivering and operating quality software, empowering teams to own technical decisions Sharing knowledge with the wider engineering community. Building an effective execution process to ensure my teams have awareness of overarching strategy, enabling them to be responsive during planning, development, and operational issues. Working with key stakeholders to ensure my teams deliver business value. Acting decisively when required and am comfortable with managing ambiguity. Driving continuous improvement of engineering practises, efficiency of development and foster innovation. Empowering your team of engineers to own technical decisions whilst providing guidance and am responsible for best practices, striving to reduce waste, iterate quickly, and fail fast and forward. Take responsibility to build industry leading and extensible software in my area of ownership. Lead and drive teams towards the right designs, architectural and programming principles, aligning to Tesco Technology's agreed standards. Evaluate the design and architectural decisions/choices of technical teams, advising on improvements to optimise systems and solutions. Working with key stakeholders, ensuring teams deliver the right value. Contributing to budget planning and forecasting for the Data Science domain You will need An Engineeringbackground withstrong knowledge of the Data Science Toolkit (Programming, Machine Learning, MLOps etc) and bringing data science solutions into production. Key Requirements Include: Experience building and leading engineering teams within a Data Science setting. A higher degree in engineering, computer science, maths or science. Customer focus with the right balance between outcome delivery and technical excellence. The ability to apply technical skills and know-how to solving real world business problems. Demonstratable experience of building scalable and resilient systems. Commercial experience contributing to the success of high impact Data Science projects within complex organisations. Awareness of emerging MLOps practices and tooling would be an advantage e.g. feature stores and model lifecycle management. An analytical mind set and the ability to tackle specific business problems . Experience with different programming languages and a good grasp of at least one language. The ideal candidate is fluent in Python. Use of version control (Git) and related software lifecycle tooling. Understanding of common data structures and algorithms. Experience working with open-source Data-Science environments. Knowledge of open source big-data technologies such as Apache Spark. Experience building solutions that run in the cloud, ideally Azure. Experience with software development methodologies including Scrum & Kanban. A background or strong understanding of the retail sector, logistics and/or ecommerce would be advantageous but is not required. Practical experience with search technologies and recommender systems would be a plus. What's in it for you We're all about the little helps. That's why we make sure our Tesco colleague benefits package takes care of you - both in and out of work. Click Here to find out more Annual bonus scheme of up to 45% of base salary Car Cash Allowance Holiday starting at 25 days plus a personal day (plus Bank holidays) Private medical insurance Retirement savings plan - save between 6% - 10% and Tesco will contribute 1.5 times this amount 26 weeks maternity and adoption leave (after 1 years' service) at full pay, followed by 13 weeks of Statutory Maternity Pay or Statutory Adoption Pay, we also offer 4 weeks fully paid paternity leave About us Our vision at Tesco is to become every customer's favourite way to shop, whether they are at home or out on the move. Our core purpose is 'Serving our customers, communities and planet a little better every day'. Serving means more than a transactional relationship with our customers. It means acting as a responsible and sustainable business for all stakeholders, for the communities we are part of and for the planet. Diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) at Tesco means that whoever you are and whatever your background, we always want you to feel represented and that you can be yourself at work. In short, we're a place where Everyone's Welcome .We're proud to have been accredited Disability Confident Leader and we're committed to providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process. For further information on the accessibility support we can offer, please click here . We're a big business and we can offer a range of diverse full-time & part-time working patterns across our many business areas, which means that we can find something that works for you. We work in a more blended pattern -combining office and remote working. Our offices will continue to be where we connect, collaborate and innovate.

Get the latest insights and jobs direct. Sign up for our newsletter.

By subscribing you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service.

Industry Insights

Discover insightful articles, industry insights, expert tips, and curated resources.

Contract vs Permanent Machine Learning Jobs: Which Pays Better in 2025?

Machine learning (ML) has swiftly become one of the most transformative forces in the UK technology landscape. From conversational AI and autonomous vehicles to fraud detection and personalised recommendations, ML algorithms are reshaping how organisations operate and how consumers experience products and services. In response, job opportunities in machine learning—including roles in data science, MLOps, natural language processing (NLP), computer vision, and more—have risen dramatically. Yet, as the demand for ML expertise booms, professionals face a pivotal choice about how they want to work. Some choose day‑rate contracting, leveraging short-term projects for potentially higher immediate pay. Others embrace fixed-term contract (FTC) roles for mid-range stability, or permanent positions for comprehensive benefits and a well-defined career path. In this article, we will explore these different employment models, highlighting the pros and cons of each, offering sample take‑home pay scenarios, and providing insights into which path might pay better in 2025. Whether you’re a new graduate with a machine learning degree or an experienced practitioner pivoting into an ML-heavy role, understanding these options is key to making informed career decisions.

Machine‑Learning Jobs for Non‑Technical Professionals: Where Do You Fit In?

The Model Needs More Than Math When ChatGPT went viral and London start‑ups raised seed rounds around “foundation models,” many professionals asked, “Do I need to learn PyTorch to work in machine learning?” The answer is no. According to the Turing Institute’s UK ML Industry Survey 2024, 39 % of advertised ML roles focus on strategy, compliance, product or operations rather than writing code. As models move from proof‑of‑concept to production, demand surges for specialists who translate algorithms into business value, manage risk and drive adoption. This guide reveals the fastest‑growing non‑coding ML roles, the transferable skills you may already have, real transition stories and a 90‑day action plan—no gradient descent necessary.

Quantexa Machine‑Learning Jobs in 2025: Your Complete UK Guide to Joining the Decision‑Intelligence Revolution

Money‑laundering rings, sanctioned entities, synthetic identities—complex risks hide in plain sight inside data. Quantexa, a London‑born scale‑up now valued at US $2.2 bn (Series F, August 2024), solves that problem with contextual decision‑intelligence (DI): graph analytics, entity resolution and machine learning stitched into a single platform. Banks, insurers, telecoms and governments from HSBC to HMRC use Quantexa to spot fraud, combat financial crime and optimise customer engagement. With the launch of Quantexa AI Studio in February 2025—bringing generative AI co‑pilots and large‑scale Graph Neural Networks (GNNs) to the platform—the company is hiring at record pace. The Quantexa careers portal lists 450+ open roles worldwide, over 220 in the UK across data science, software engineering, ML Ops and client delivery. Whether you are a graduate data scientist fluent in Python, a Scala veteran who loves Spark or a solutions architect who can turn messy data into knowledge graphs, this guide explains how to land a Quantexa machine‑learning job in 2025.