At a Glance
- Tasks: Shape AI-powered recommendation experiences and enhance customer journeys across digital platforms.
- Company: Join M&S, a dynamic leader in retail innovation and customer experience.
- Benefits: Enjoy 20% discount, competitive holidays, bonuses, and extensive wellbeing support.
- Other info: Be part of an inclusive team driving the future of retail.
- Why this job: Make a real impact on millions of customers with cutting-edge AI technology.
- Qualifications: Strong Python skills and experience in AI systems and recommendation technologies.
The predicted salary is between 70000 - 90000 £ per year.
We’re looking for a Senior Software Engineer to play a pivotal role in shaping and evolving M&S’s AI-powered recommendation experiences. This team provides the intelligent services that power personalised customer journeys across web and mobile, helping millions of customers discover products that are relevant, inspiring, and tailored to their needs. Your “customers” are product teams, engineers, data scientists, and ultimately millions of M&S customers and your mission is to improve the quality, relevance, and reliability of AI-driven experiences through robust engineering, intelligent evaluation frameworks, and production-ready AI systems. This is a role for an engineer who is excited by applied AI, recommendation systems, and building customer-facing products at scale. You will help drive the next phase of growth for AI Stylist, one of M&S’s flagship AI-powered experiences, as it continues to evolve and scale across our digital channels.
About the Team
Our Recommendations Engineering team is responsible for delivering personalised experiences across M&S digital platforms. We build and operate intelligent systems that help customers discover products, engage with content, and make more informed purchasing decisions. You will join the team responsible for AI Stylist, a live customer-facing product that combines conversational AI with recommendation capabilities to create highly personalised shopping experiences.
What You'll Do
- Build and evolve AI-powered services using Python, supporting highly scalable customer-facing experiences.
- Design and implement evaluation frameworks that measure and improve the quality of AI and LLM-powered systems.
- Drive continuous improvement of AI Stylist through structured evaluation, experimentation, and data-driven insights.
- Apply advanced techniques such as LLM-as-a-Judge and other evaluation methodologies to assess recommendation and response quality.
- Work with non-deterministic AI systems, identifying opportunities to improve relevance, consistency, and customer outcomes.
- Integrate AI services into broader digital platforms, APIs, and recommendation ecosystems.
Who You Are
- A strong software engineer with extensive Python experience delivering production-grade applications and services.
- Knowledge in building AI-enabled products, particularly recommendation systems, conversational AI, or customer-facing intelligent applications.
- Hands‑on experience designing and implementing evaluation frameworks for LLMs and AI systems.
- Comfortable working with probabilistic, non‑deterministic systems and using data to drive continuous improvement.
- Strong understanding of how AI systems differ from traditional software and how to measure success within those environments.
- Comfortable taking ambiguous AI challenges and translating them into practical, scalable solutions.
What’s in it for you
Being a part of M&S is exactly that – playing your part to bring the magic of M&S to our customers every day. We’re an inclusive, dynamic, exciting, and ever evolving business built on doing the right thing and bringing exceptional quality, value, service to every customer, whenever, wherever and however they want to shop with us. Here are some of the benefits we offer that make working for M&S just that little bit more special:
- After completing your probationary period, you’ll receive 20% colleague discount across all M&S products and many of our third‑party brands for you and a member of your household.
- Competitive holiday entitlement with the potential to buy extra holiday days!
- Discretionary bonus schemes awarded based on how you achieve your personal objectives and our performance as a business.
- A generous Defined Contribution Pension Scheme and Life Assurance.
- A dedicated welcome to our teams with a tailored induction and a wide range of training programmes to develop your skills.
- Amazing perks and discounts via our M&S Choices portal to maximise your financial and personal wellbeing.
- Leading parental, adoption and neonatal policies, providing support and flexibility for your family.
- Access to a fantastic range of wellbeing support for all colleagues including access to our 24/7 Virtual GP and PAM Assist to support you and your family.
- A charity volunteer day to support a charity or cause you're passionate about through a dedicated day away from work.
Everyone’s Welcome
We are ambitious about the future of retail. We’re disrupting, innovating, and leading the industry into a more conscientious, inspiring digital era. We’re transforming how we work together and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. Marks & Spencer strives to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers, and suppliers. We are committed to building diverse and representative teams, where everyone can bring their whole selves to work and be at their best. We support each other and win together. If you’d benefit from any support or reasonable adjustments during any stage of the recruitment process, please let us know when completing your application.
Senior Software Engineer - Recommendation Experiences in City of Westminster employer: Marks & Spencer Plc
At M&S, we pride ourselves on being an inclusive and dynamic employer that empowers our employees to innovate and excel in their roles. As a Senior Software Engineer, you will not only contribute to cutting-edge AI-powered recommendation systems but also enjoy a range of benefits including a generous colleague discount, competitive holiday entitlement, and comprehensive wellbeing support. Our commitment to employee growth through tailored training programmes and a supportive work culture makes M&S an exceptional place to build a rewarding career.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Senior Software Engineer - Recommendation Experiences in City of Westminster
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Marks & Spencer Plc or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
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✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
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✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
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We think you need these skills to ace Senior Software Engineer - Recommendation Experiences in City of Westminster
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Marks & Spencer Plc.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Marks & Spencer Plc and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at Marks & Spencer Plc
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Marks & Spencer Plc uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
