Head of Engineering (Agentic AI Systems)

Job description

This is a rare opportunity to step into a genuinely high-impact leadership role at the forefront of AI transformation, with a particular focus on agentic AI and autonomous systems. As Head of Engineering (AI Enablement), you’ll shape how intelligent agents are designed, orchestrated, and deployed across the organisation - moving beyond traditional AI use cases into systems that can reason, act, and collaborate to drive real business outcomes. You’ll play a pivotal role in turning emerging capabilities into scalable, production-grade solutions, defining how AI agents augment teams, accelerate decision-making, and unlock entirely new ways of working. You’ll operate in a highly collaborative, stakeholder-rich environment where your influence will extend well beyond engineering. Partnering with senior leaders across engineering, product, and transformation, you’ll drive alignment on how agentic AI is embedded across key platforms and workflows. This is a role for someone who thrives on both technical depth and organisational impact - someone who can design architectures for intelligent systems, while also building the relationships and momentum needed to scale them enterprise-wide. If you’re excited by the challenge of shaping how autonomous AI systems are safely and effectively adopted at scale, this is a chance to define the future direction of AI within a complex, evolving organisation. Key Responsibilities Lead, grow, and deploy a multidisciplinary team of Forward Deployed AI Engineers across key business domains Allocate engineering capability across strategic initiatives based on business priority and impact Establish and embed best practices for agentic systems, AI workflows, LLM integrations, and AI-enabled tooling Drive a high-performance engineering culture focused on rapid iteration, reliability, and measurable business outcomes Act as the primary AI engineering partner to senior stakeholders across Product, Fashion, Supply Chain, Finance, Customer Care, Procurement, and Technology Translate complex business challenges into scalable AI solutions and prioritised delivery opportunities Shape and align AI roadmaps with domain leaders, identifying high-ROI automation and augmentation use cases Lead end-to-end delivery of agentic AI solutions, including copilots, workflow agents, decision systems, and automation platforms Ensure seamless progression from discovery through to production deployment, embedding AI-native and human-in-the-loop operating models Provide technical leadership across LLM architectures, agent orchestration, RAG patterns, and AI application design Ensure AI systems are scalable, secure, observable, and cost-efficient, with robust evaluation and reliability frameworks Partner with platform teams to align with Azure AI strategy, governance, and enterprise engineering standards, while establishing scalable delivery and operational models Partner with functional leaders to support reshaping and evoling hybrid-human agentic organizations Our strong preference is for candidates to have exposure to working in a Retail environment. Proven experience leading high-performing engineering teams delivering complex, production-grade AI or data-driven systems Strong hands-on expertise in AI/ML, LLMs, or agentic AI systems, with the ability to assess technical quality and guide solution design Track record of taking AI or advanced technology solutions from concept and prototype through to scalable production deployment Experience working at the intersection of engineering and the business—translating strategic goals into technical delivery Demonstrated ability to partner effectively with senior stakeholders and influence across multiple domains in a large, complex organisation Experience shaping roadmaps, prioritising work, and driving alignment across product, engineering, and business teams Strong stakeholder management and communication skills, with the ability to build credibility quickly and drive adoption of new capabilities Experience leading or contributing to enterprise transformation initiatives, particularly where new technologies are being introduced at scale Strong understanding of modern AI architecture patterns (e.g. LLM applications, orchestration, RAG, agentic workflows) and cloud-based delivery environments Experience working in cloud-first environments, ideally within Microsoft Azure (including Azure AI services), or equivalent platforms (AWS/GCP), with the ability to operate effectively in an Azure-aligned ecosystem Experience establishing engineering standards, delivery frameworks, and best practices within growing or evolving teams A track record of delivering measurable business impact through technology—balancing speed, quality, and commercial outcomes Experience operating in hybrid leadership roles that combine technical depth, delivery ownership, and organisational influence BeneFITS’ Employee discount (hello ASOS discount!) Employee sample sales 25 days paid annual leave + an extra celebration day for a special moment Discretionary bonus scheme Private medical care scheme Flexible benefits allowance - which you can choose to take as extra cash, or use towards other benefits Opportunity for personalised learning and in-the-moment experiences that enable you to thrive and excel in your role We're ASOS, the online retailer for fashion lovers all around the world. We exist to give our customers the confidence to be whoever they want to be, and that goes for our people too. At ASOS, you're free to be your true self without judgement, and channel your creativity into a platform used by millions. Everyone needs some help showing up as their best self. We're Disability Confident Committed - let our Talent team know if you need any reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process