AI Forward Deployed Software Engineer in Reading

At XPS, we don't just value the work you do – we value you. Your ambition, your ideas, your career goals and your life outside of work. Whether you're looking for your next challenge, greater flexibility, or a place where you can make a real impact, you'll find opportunities to thrive at XPS. We're built on collaboration, trust and expertise, giving our people the freedom to work their way, shape their path and be themselves. If you're looking for a career where you can grow, belong and make a difference, we'd love to hear from you.

Location: Reading (Remote)

Employment Type: Permanent, Full Time

About XPS Group: XPS Group is a prominent and growing UK consultancy and administration firm within the pensions and insurance sectors. As a FTSE 250 company with over 2000 employees, we leverage expertise alongside advanced technology to serve over 1,400 pension schemes and their sponsors. Our goal is to foster a workplace where diverse talents thrive.

About the Role: XPS Group IT provides IT services to all XPS offices located across the UK and Ireland. This role will be remote with regular meetups at the Reading Office where our IT Hub is located. Additionally, you will have the opportunity to work at your nearest XPS office if you prefer to be fully office based. This is not a traditional SWE role. You’ll work in small teams with minimal supervision. You'll write production code, but you'll also be in client workshops, documenting and describing processes, workflows and translating what an actuary/pensions administrator/core function team needs into a shipped product.

Key Responsibilities:

• Embed with business teams to understand workflows end-to-end across all business areas
• Own end to end delivery: scope the work with team stakeholders, build it, test it against their data, and see it through to live running
• Use AI tools such as Claude Code, Open AI Codex, AI enabled IDEs to deliver solutions rapidly into the business
• Build bespoke integrations, data pipelines, and user-facing tools
• Feed learnings from the field back into our core product, shaping the roadmap with first-hand evidence

Your Profile:

Essential:

• Engineering background, preferably in the Computer Science, Mathematics, Software Engineering, Physics, and Data Science fields.
• 3+ years of professional software engineering experience, with proficiency with one or more programming languages such as Python, C++, Java, Typescript/JavaScript
• Demonstrable ability and a track record of combining your skills with AI toolchains to build complete production systems
• Comfortable working solo, directly with non-technical stakeholders and translating ambiguous business problems into concrete technical work
• An eagerness to solve technical problems with data structures, storage systems, cloud infrastructure, UX frameworks and tools
• A comprehensive understanding of the current AI landscape, both open source and proprietary
• Willingness to travel to XPS sites across the UK
• Must have the right to work in the UK

Desirable:

• Prior exposure to UK pensions, or to another heavily regulated industry (insurance, banking, healthcare, utilities)
• Exposure to Azure in a regulated-industry context, including familiarity with data residency and security controls
• Demonstrable AI related self-built projects / GitHub use and commit history

What We Offer:

Enjoy a competitive salary, annual discretionary bonus, and 25 days’ holiday with buy/sell flexibility. Benefits include pension matching, healthcare plans, life assurance, and retailer discounts. We support our team with a flexible benefits scheme, employee assistance, and digital GP service. Participating in volunteering events is encouraged with paid volunteer days available. Referral bonuses are offered for introducing suitable candidates to XPS.

Equal Opportunities Statement:

XPS Group is committed to diversity and equal opportunities. We welcome applications from all candidates, irrespective of sex, race, disability, sexual orientation, religion, or belief. As a Disability Confident employer, we ensure accessible and supportive work settings for all employees.

Eligibility:

Any employment offer made will be conditional upon you satisfying DBS Disclosure checks, Employment or educational references, Satisfactory credit checks and eligibility to work in the UK before an offer can be made. XPS Group is not able to provide sponsorship to employees.