Agentic AI Specialist (Enterprise AI) in Reading

Closing date: 23rd June 2026

Location: RG7 4PR, located between Reading and Basingstoke, with free onsite parking.

Package: £61,460 - £95,000 (depending on your suitability, qualifications, and level of experience)

Working pattern: AWE operates a 9-day working fortnight. We will consider flexible working requests so that your work may fit in with your lifestyle. Just let us know your preferred working pattern on your application.

Ready to play your part? At AWE, it’s not just a job, it’s far more than that. Our shared purpose is to help keep the nation safe. Could this role be the opportunity for you to play your part?

Responsibilities to include:

• Lead AWE’s enterprise AI delivery, turning prototypes into secure, scalable AI solutions that drive innovation and efficiency across the organisation.
• Lead a cross-functional AI engineering team, providing technical and team leadership for enterprise AI development.
• Own the end-to-end AI architecture across agents, models, data flows and integrations, ensuring solutions are secure, scalable and aligned to a coherent enterprise ecosystem.
• Oversee design, build and production deployment of AI services, ensuring security, compliance, reliability and operational readiness.
• Establish the infrastructure, tooling and automated pipelines needed for efficient development, testing, deployment, monitoring and lifecycle management of AI models and agents.
• Deliver secure APIs, data pipelines and connectors so AI solutions integrate effectively with enterprise systems and business processes.
• Implement monitoring, incident management and continuous optimisation to ensure dependable, cost-efficient AI services in production.

Additional duties:

• Provide architectural leadership, uphold engineering and security standards, and mentor engineers to grow internal capability.
• Work closely with AI Adoption, AI Platform & Capability Development, Governance and business teams to move solutions from prototype to enterprise scale.
• Foster a high-performing engineering culture focused on rapid delivery, continuous improvement and realisation of AI value.
• Maintain architecture standards, service metrics and support models to ensure AI services remain accurate, efficient and sustainable.
• Operate effectively within AWE’s high-security environment, following strict safety, security and assurance protocols.

Who are we looking for? We do need you to have the following:

• Bachelor’s degree (or equivalent experience) in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science or a related STEM field.
• Substantial experience designing, building and deploying enterprise AI/ML solutions, including technical leadership on complex projects.
• Track record of delivering secure, scalable software or data systems, with experience leading a small engineering team and/or delivery partners.
• Strong leadership and communication skills, with the ability to guide technical teams and work effectively with stakeholders.
• Deep knowledge of modern AI/ML architectures, including practical experience developing or integrating machine learning models or AI agents.
• Strong software engineering capability, including Python, cloud platforms, and MLOps/DevOps practices such as CI/CD pipelines, containerisation, automated testing, and model deployment and monitoring.
• Ability to meet AWE’s security clearance requirements and work within a high-security environment.
• Experience in a highly regulated or secure industry, such as defence, government or nuclear, would be beneficial.

Work hard, be rewarded: We ask a lot and set the bar high because our work truly matters. In return we offer balance, with award winning benefits including:

• 9-day working fortnight – meaning you get every other Friday off work, in addition to 270 hours of annual leave.
• Market leading contributory pension scheme (we will pay between 9% and 13% of your pensionable pay depending on your contributions).
• Family friendly policies: Maternity Leave - 39 Weeks Full Pay and Paternity Leave - 4 Weeks Full Pay.
• Opportunities for Professional Career Development including funding for annual membership of a relevant professional body.
• Employee Assistance Programme and Occupational Health Services.
• Life Assurance (4 x annual salary).
• Discounts – access to savings on a wide range of everyday spending.
• Special Leave Policy including paid time off for volunteering, public service (including reserve forces) and caring.

Hybrid working is available for this role on an informal, non-contractual basis.

Next steps: Everyone who works at AWE brings unique skills and perspectives to the table. We recognise that great people don’t always ‘tick every box’. That’s why we focus on your potential, your fit with our values, your transferable skills as well as your experience. Even if you don’t meet every point above, but you feel that this role and AWE are a great fit for you, please go ahead and apply, we’d love to receive your application.

Important things you need to know:

• We encourage you to apply promptly to avoid disappointment if applications are high and the role therefore closes.
• You will need to obtain and maintain the necessary security clearance for the role. This will be funded by AWE.
• The nature of our work does mean you need to be a British Citizen who has been resident in the UK for the past 5 years in order to apply for SC clearance and 10 years for DV.
• We want you to feel comfortable and able to shine during our recruitment process. Please let us know on your application form if you need any adjustments/accommodations during the process.
• Our interviews typically take place over Teams and for most roles are a 1 stage process.
• Our ambition is to create workplaces where we recognise and celebrate differences, encourage diverse contributions and our employees feel able to be themselves at work. We strive to create a genuine culture of openness and inclusion and encourage diverse applicants.
• Any inclusion information you provide will be stored in accordance with GDPR and kept separate from your application form and CV, and the information will not be shared with anyone involved in interviewing or making hiring decisions.
• Please note that you must be a British Citizen to apply for a role with us.