Senior automation and AI engineer

Job description

Flexible hybrid - one day per week in Bath or London ABOUT US Seccl is the Octopus-owned embedded investment platform that’s on a mission to helping more people to invest – and invest well. We’re B-Corp certified with an amazing product-market fit, impressive early traction and the potential to transform an outdated industry, for the better. We've been growing fast and will scale even faster over the next few years. We’re also proud to be part of Octopus, the £multi billion group that's on a mission to breathe new life into broken industries, through companies like Octopus Energy, Octopus Investments and Octopus Money. Check out the Seccl website for the latest on our products and our mission to shape the future of investments. THE ROLE We’re looking for a Senior automation engineer to join our Automation & AI Enablement team. Reporting to an Engineering manager, you’ll work closely with colleagues across engineering, product, operations and our customer-facing teams to identify complex operational problems and create simpler, faster and more scalable ways of working. The team helps Seccl make better use of automation and AI as we continue to grow. You’ll get under the skin of ambiguous processes, design improved workflows and build practical solutions using the right tool for the problem – whether that’s TypeScript, Python, an agentic system or a low-code platform such as Zapier or Microsoft Power Platform. You’ll take ownership from initial discovery through to delivery and operation, balancing speed, quality and long-term maintainability. ON A TYPICAL DAY YOU WILL BE… - Working with engineering, product, operations and customer-facing teams to uncover inefficient, manual or unclear processes - Turning ambiguous business problems into well-designed, scalable automated workflows - Choosing the right tool for each problem, from TypeScript or Python to LLMs, agentic systems and low-code platforms - Designing, building, testing and operating reliable automation and AI-enabled services - Applying appropriate quality gates, guardrails and human oversight to AI-driven workflows - Owning your solutions throughout their lifecycle, including documentation, observability, support and continuous improvement - Evaluating emerging LLM models, agentic tools and automation approaches based on their practical benefits and trade-offs - Sharing your knowledge and helping other engineers and teams adopt effective automation practices THIS ROLE’S FOR YOU IF... - You have strong commercial experience with TypeScript or Python and are willing to learn whichever language is less familiar to you – TypeScript experience is slightly preferred - You have experience writing or using agentic harnesses for software development and understand how to assess different orchestration approaches - You understand the current frontier LLM landscape, its applications in software engineering and challenges such as hallucination, prompt injection, privacy, cost and latency - You’re comfortable choosing the right tool for the job, including low-code platforms such as Zapier or Microsoft Power Platform when custom code isn’t the best answer - You have an enablement mindset and naturally seek out ambiguity, inefficient processes and opportunities to design better ways of working - You’re a hands-on builder who wants to understand a problem deeply, build the solution and remain accountable for running and improving it - You understand how to make automation and AI-enabled systems reliable through testing, observability, validation, guardrails and human-in-the-loop review - You have experience working with cloud-based systems – AWS, serverless technologies, regulated industries or financial services experience is desirable THIS ROLE ISN’T FOR YOU IF... - You rely on a lot of top-down direction. Here, you’ll have a lot of freedom and ownership of your role, and you’ll be expected to shape your own progression - You’re not comfortable working in a fast-paced environment. Our speed and scalability are what set us apart; you need to be able to act quickly and think on your feet - You struggle to follow through on ideas. We value people who do what they say they will. If you care about something, you have the freedom here to make it happen - You don’t like change. You’ll get on great here if you relish the ambiguity of rapid growth and are willing to embrace uncertainty WHAT’S IN IT FOR YOU… We offer a generous mix of benefits for the things that really matter to our people, including: 💰 A salary between £75,000 and £90,000 – dependant on experience + reviewed annually 🌴 27 days holiday + bank holidays (some can be flexible) + day off on your birthday + three days (full time) per year for Dependant leave 💙 Two volunteering days per year 🌎 Option to work abroad for up to six weeks a year 🌟 Secclbrate - our recognition programme that offers a mix of flexible rewards including extra pay, additional holiday and increased learning budget 🏅 Length of service award – one month paid sabbatical at eight years ✅ 6% employer pension contribution, and life assurance 🏥 Private medical insurance with AXA Health 👪 Enhanced Parental leave 💻 MacBook and up to £500 home office set up budget 📖 £750 per person learning budget 🌻 Health and wellbeing initiatives including free therapy via Wellness Cloud, mental health support via Headspace 🌱 Strong financial wellbeing focus including access to Octopus Money https://octopusmoney.com/, Octopus Share Incentive Plan and will writing offering via Octopus Legacy 🎁 Perkbox https://www.perkbox.com/uk – Flexi-points giving you a range of discounts and perks including free weekly coffee, gym and retail discounts 🚲 Access to initiatives like Cycle to Work and Octopus Electric Vehicle Leasing OUR CULTURE We're proud to put people first, creating a culture where we truly listen to what matters most to them. Our transparent and inclusive environment encourages diversity of thought, challenge and experimentation. Check out our Glassdoor https://www.glassdoor.co.uk/Reviews/Seccl-Reviews-E3185313.htm page for the latest reviews or our LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/11050304/admin/ for company updates and insights from the team. INTERVIEW PROCESS Interviewing is a two-way thing, and we want you to have the time and opportunity to get to know us, as much as we are getting to know you. Our interviews are conversational, so come with questions and be curious. In general, you can expect the interview process to look a bit like this, (following an initial chat with one of our Talent team): - First stage – 45 mins competencies-based interview with the hiring manager - Second stage – two-hour technical interview or assessment ⏳ We’ll only close this role once we have enough applications for the next stage. Please submit your application as soon as possible to make sure you don’t miss out and you should expect to hear back from us within one to two weeks of applying. 🌈 Our aim is to build a diverse and inclusive company of awesome people, with unique skills, passions and experiences. All applicants will be considered for employment without attention to age, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, family or parental status, national origin, or veteran, neurodiversity or disability status. If this sounds like your kind of thing, we encourage you to apply even if you don’t tick every box. We’d love to hear from you!