AI Engineer in Belfast

This isn’t a typical engineering role. As an AI Software Engineer, you’ll work across product, engineering, and architecture. You’ll use AI tools to quickly design, build, and deploy software. Instead of only writing code, you’ll also utilise AI models to create secure and scalable applications — taking ideas from high‐level concept all the way to production. You will act as an AI Advocate, guiding teams on how to adopt AI effectively, sharing best practices, educating stakeholders and driving a culture that embraces AI‐powered ways of working.

Define how Aflac uses AI across the entire organization

• Be at the forefront of AI adoption and innovation
• Shape engineering culture and future ways of working
• Help development teams embrace AI responsibly and effectively
• Build something from the ground up and leave a lasting impact

The Team

The newly formed AI Services team will help to transform how Aflac uses AI at scale where it matters. Taking priority use cases from concept to production, proving what works early, and packaging the results so other teams can repeat them. This team leads Aflac's compound engineering methodology to equip engineers with AI‐driven workflows and setting SDLC standards that make AI available, safe, and scalable.

What you’ll be doing

You will act as an internal influencer, creative problem solver, and AI advocate helping teams to maximise the value they derive from AI development tools from early exploration through to scalable deployment. We are looking for someone with a technical background who is energised by facilitation, communication, and driving change across a large organisation.

Serving as a technical owner, this role leverages AI as a force multiplier and human amplifier to achieve a level of velocity and productivity far exceeding traditional development methodologies.

AI Facilitation & Methodology Development

• Partner with engineering and business teams to help them understand and use AI tools effectively.
• Develop, evolve, and maintain Aflac's AI usage methodology, including best practices, processes, and repeatable frameworks.
• Translate emerging AI capabilities into practical, accessible guidance that teams can put into action.
• Provide hands‐on guidance in prompt design, workflow structuring, and AI‐supported engineering practices.

Innovation & Enablement

• Bring ideas to life in a scalable, enterprise‐ready manner that is user focused.
• Champion the responsible use of AI tools and practices across engineering teams.
• Lead internal workshops, demos, and training sessions to build AI fluency and confidence.
• Influence engineering culture by promoting responsible, efficient, and innovative AI usage.

Scaled Application Building

• Use AI to generate, refine, and optimise high‐quality code across front‐end, back‐end, data and middleware layers.
• Prompt AI to generate comprehensive test suites (unit, integration, end‐to‐end).
• Configure and manage CI/CD pipelines using AI‐generated scripts and infrastructure‐as‐code.
• Generate accurate and complete documentation (API references, system diagrams, feature guides) by prompting AI to analyse codebases and architecture.
• Define scalable, secure, and resilient architectures using AI‐generated infrastructure templates and security policies.
• Ensure compliance with enterprise standards and regulatory requirements.
• Leverage AI‐powered monitoring and diagnostics to detect, troubleshoot, and resolve production issues.

Skills and Experience

Below is an overview of the skills and experience we are looking for, but remember, don’t rule yourself out if you don’t have everything on the list – it’s your intellect and your attitude we are really after.

Essential Criteria

• Bachelor's degree in computer science, Software Engineering, or related field, or previous commercial experience
• 6+ years of industry experience in software engineering or application development
• Experience with AI‐driven engineering tools and techniques e.g. Kiro (Amazon Q developer), Github Copilot, Claude Code, Cursor, Compound Engineering
• Experience with agentic AI workflows and steering techniques for reliable automation
• Ensure alignment with architectural patterns, coding standards, and performance
• Strong object‐oriented programming skills (e.g., Java, Python, C#)
• Experience with CI/CD pipelines and DevOps practices
• Knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Strong problem‐solving skills
• Excellent communication skills
• Candidates must be based in Northern Ireland with the relevant right to work visa

Desirable Criteria

• AWS certification or equivalent in cloud services
• Familiarity with RAG architectures, embeddings, and context management strategies
• Experience with containerization and orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Proven experience with full‐stack development (front‐end, back‐end, APIs, databases)
• Familiarity with security best practices and compliance standards
• Familiarity with automated testing frameworks and QA processes

Thanks for taking the time to read this far! We look forward to hearing from you if you fancy joining an innovative tech company that runs locally but is supported by a well‐established, highly recognised Fortune 500 company in the US. Aflac Northern Ireland is an equal opportunities employer.