Staff Software Engineer (AIX)

Job Description

At OVO, we are on a mission to solve one of humanity's biggest challenges, the climate crisis. And we know it takes all of us to change the world. That's why we need diverse people from all abilities, gender identities, ethnicities, ages, sexual orientations, life experiences and backgrounds to join us.

Teamworking for the planet

Everything we do here spins around Plan Zero. So, naturally, the team you'll be joining plays a gigantic role in making that happen. Here's how:

As a Staff Software Engineer within the Agentic Development Team, you are more than a coder; you are the technical cornerstone for our internal developer product. You will define the roadmap and technical vision, guiding your team to build an elegant, scalable, and secure AI tooling ecosystem for all engineering teams at OVO. Your role is pivotal in shaping the architecture of our Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, security controls, and plugin ecosystem. You'll lead by example, mentoring engineers, driving best practices, and fostering an environment where innovation and excellence can thrive.

This is an opportunity to solve complex challenges, align our agentic technical strategy with broader business goals, and deliver work that truly matters to our internal developers.

This role in a nutshell

As a Staff Software Engineer, you will take technical ownership of the Agentic Development tooling layer (plugins, skills, MCP servers, observability). You will define the architectural vision, guide your team through complex challenges such as AI security and governance, and champion engineering excellence to deliver high-impact solutions that meet our business objectives. This is a key leadership role for an engineer who loves to strategise, code and mentor.

This role will involve working with multidisciplinary teams to embed agentic capabilities, so a deep understanding of LLMs, AI-based development workflows, and internal developer platforms is essential.

Your key outcomes will be

• Lead, Mentor & Develop: Lead a talented team of software engineers, fostering a collaborative and high-performance culture while supporting their career growth through mentorship, feedback, and performance reviews.
• Drive Technical Excellence: Take ownership of the team's technical direction, leading the design and architecture of scalable, high-quality software solutions and championing best practices through code reviews and automated testing. This includes overseeing the plugin registry, MCP server governance, and rollout tooling.
• Innovate & Evaluate: Continuously assess and recommend new technologies, frameworks, and tools to enhance development efficiency and keep our agentic solutions at the cutting edge.
• Collaborate & Influence: Partner closely with internal developer teams (your customers), product managers, and Infosec to align technical strategy with business objectives, acting as the key technical voice in the Claude rollout.
• Communicate with Impact: Clearly articulate complex technical concepts, challenges, and trade-offs to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Champion Improvement: Proactively identify and implement process improvements to boost team productivity and drive a culture of continuous learning and knowledge sharing.
• Build the Community: Actively contribute to our engineering Community of Practice, specifically the Agentic Development space, sharing your expertise and helping to advance our collective craft across the organisation.

You'll be a successful Role Title here at OVO if you...

• Project & Team Leadership: Have extensive professional experience in software development, with a proven track record of leading teams and successfully delivering complex projects.
• Software Architecture & Development: Possess expertise in designing and building scalable architectures using languages like TypeScript. Experience building developer tools or internal platforms is highly desirable.
• AI Tooling & Ecosystems: Have proven experience or a strong understanding of AI development tools (like Claude Code), Model Context Protocol (MCP), LLM integration, and prompt engineering.
• Cloud, DevOps & Observability: Show proficiency with cloud platforms (GCP, AWS), containerization (Docker, Kubernetes), CI/CD automation, and implementing observability pipelines (e.g., OTEL collectors).
• System Design & Security: Have strong command of software architecture, data modeling, and implementing robust security controls and governance models for AI tools.
• Mentorship & Stakeholder Management: Bring exceptional leadership and communication skills with the ability to mentor engineers, manage internal customers, and drive technical consensus.
• Strategic Thinking & Business Acumen: Are a strategic problem-solver with a strong ability to balance technical trade-offs with internal developer requirements.

Let's talk about what's in it for you

We'll pay you between ??80,000 and ??100,000, depending on your specific skills and experience.

We keep our pay ranges broad on purpose to give us, and you, flexibility to match your experience to our zero carbon mission.

You'll be eligible for an on-target bonus of 15%. We have one OVO bonus plan that focuses on the collective performance of our people to deliver our Plan Zero goal.

We also offer plenty of green benefits and progressive policies to help you feel like you belong at OVO...and there's flex pay. We'll give you 9% Flex Pay on top of your salary - 4% of this is auto enrolled into your pension, and the remaining 5% is yours to do what you like with. You can use this to buy from our extensive range of flexible benefits, including our green benefits which we've put at the heart of our offering, add to your pension or even take it as cash.

Here's a taster of what's on offer:

For starters, you'll get 34 days of holiday (including bank holidays).

For your health
With benefits like a healthcare cash plan or private medical insurance depending on your career level, critical illness cover, life assurance, health assessments, and more

For your wellbeing
With gym membership, travel insurance, workplace ISA, will writing services, dental insurance, and more

For your lifestyle
With extra holiday buying, discount dining, home & tech loans, and supporting your favourite charities with give-as-you-earn donations

For your home
Get up to ??400 towards any OVO Energy plan, plus great discounts on solar, smart thermostats and EV chargers

For your commute
Nab a great deal on ultra-low emission car leasing, plus our cycle to work scheme and public transport season ticket loans

Want to hear about our full range of flexible benefits and progressive people policies? Our People Team can tell you everything you need to know.

For your Belonging

To find better ways to support our people, we need to listen to each other's experiences and find ways to build a truly inclusive and diverse workplace. As part of this, we have 8 Belonging Networks at OVO. Led by our people, for our people - so when you join OVO, you can play a part - big or small - with any of the Networks. It's up to you.

Oh, and one last thing...

We'd be thrilled if you tick off all our boxes, yet we also believe it's just as important we tick off all of yours. And if you think you have most of what we're looking for but not every single thing, go ahead and hit apply. We'd still love to hear from you!

If you have any additional requirements, there's a space to let us know on the application form; we want to make the process as easy and comfortable for you as possible.