Lead Software Engineer - ML Platform Quality Engineering

Lead Software Engineer - AI/ML Data Platform (Test Engineering) Location: London Employment Type: 6month to 1 years contract A global financial services firm is seeking a Lead Software Engineer to join a cutting-edge initiative focused on building an enterprise-grade AI/ML Data Platform. This role is at the forefront of Test Engineering, with a mission to develop robust, intelligent validation frameworks and infrastructure that ensure the quality and reliability of machine learning and data products across the firm. This is a hands-on software engineering role embedded in platform quality and reliability initiatives. You'll architect and build tools, services, and automation to elevate assurance across large-scale distributed systems. If you're passionate about CI/CD excellence, infrastructure-as-code, and platform validation, this is a unique opportunity to have meaningful impact.

Key Responsibilities

• Design and build high-performance tools and services to validate ML data pipelines and AI infrastructure.
• Develop platform-level test automation frameworks using Python, Terraform, and cloud-native practices.
• Enhance CI/CD pipelines with integrated automated testing, resilience checks, and observability mechanisms.
• Lead initiatives promoting platform testability, resilience, and validation-as-code principles.
• Collaborate with MLOps, infrastructure, and software engineering teams to embed quality deeply into platform components.
• Build reusable components that support scalability, modularity, and self-service quality tooling.
• Mentor junior engineers and help set engineering standards across the Test Engineering program.

Required Qualifications

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related technical discipline.
• Extensive years of software development experience in backend systems or platform engineering.
• Expertise in Python , with solid understanding of OOP, testing frameworks, and automation tooling.
• Hands-on experience with CI/CD systems such as GitHub Actions or Jenkins.
• Strong familiarity with AWS services including Lambda, S3, ECS/EKS, Step Functions, and CloudWatch .
• Proficient in Infrastructure-as-Code using Terraform.
• Deep understanding of software engineering best practices: code quality, reliability, performance tuning, and observability.

Preferred Qualifications

• Exposure to machine learning workflows or data engineering platforms.
• Experience with distributed systems, event-driven architectures (e.g., Kafka), and big data frameworks (e.g., Spark, Databricks).
• Understanding of financial services, data governance, or compliance-driven development.
• Knowledge of platform security, monitoring, and resilient design patterns.

This is a high-impact opportunity to work with modern technologies at enterprise scale and help shape the future of AI/ML platforms in a highly regulated industry. If you're ready to bring engineering rigor to validation and platform quality, we'd love to hear from you. We are committed to creating an inclusive recruitment experience. If you have a disability or long-term health condition and require adjustments to the recruitment process, our Adjustment Concierge Service is here to support you. Please reach out to us at adjustments@robertwalters.com to discuss further. This position is being recruited on behalf of our client through our Outsourcing service line. Resource Solutions Limited, trading as Robert Walters, acts as an employment business and agency, partnering with top organizations to help them find the best talent. We welcome applications from all candidates and are committed to providing equal opportunities.