Senior AI Developer

Senior AI Developer

Permanent

Salary: Competitive (dependent on experience)

Location: Hybrid (2-3 days per week in Reading)

Hours: Monday to Friday, 37.5 hours per week (full time)

About

Exalto Consulting are assisting a leading managed IT services provider and technology consultancy, who deliver transformative solutions across cloud computing, cybersecurity, data management and Power Platform development. They are guided by their values of building relationships, customer success, and passion and dedication, with the goal to become the UK’s most trusted technology partner.

About the Role

We are looking for an experienced, hands-on Senior AI Developer who wants to be at the forefront of AI-powered software development. You will work predominantly on client projects, designing and delivering production-grade applications that integrate large language models, agentic systems and Azure AI services.

This is more than a delivery role. As a senior member of the team, you will help define and prove how AI solutions are delivered by establishing the standards, patterns, reusable components and engineering practices that the wider business will adopt.

For the first 6–12 months, you will sit within the AI and Data Innovation team to establish a mature, repeatable approach to AI-powered delivery. Once proven, you will transition into the Delivery team to embed and scale these ways of working across mainstream client engagements.

Key Responsibilities

AI Solution Delivery

• Lead the design, development and deployment of AI-integrated solutions for client engagements using modern full-stack technologies.

• Integrate Azure AI services, including Azure OpenAI, Cognitive Services, Azure Machine Learning and AI Search, into production applications.

• Architect and build LLM-powered features, agentic workflows and Model Context Protocol (MCP) integrations to a production standard.

• Work directly with clients to understand requirements, shape solutions and translate them into working software.

• Provide technical leadership across engagements, setting a high bar for code quality, engineering rigour and AI-assisted delivery.

• Contribute to technical research, prototyping and proof-of-concept development that supports client proposals and new business opportunities.

Shaping How We Work

• Define and prove a mature, repeatable delivery pattern for AI solutions that can be scaled across the Delivery team.

• Create reusable tools, accelerators and components that improve the speed and quality of AI delivery.

• Evaluate emerging AI technologies, frameworks and development approaches, bringing the strongest ideas into practice.

• Champion AI-assisted development practices, including vibe coding, AI testing and agentic development.

• Mentor and upskill other developers, building wider AI delivery capability.

• Help shape product and delivery strategy by identifying opportunities to package and position AI solutions.

What You'll Bring

• Extensive full-stack development experience across one or more of React/Node.js, .NET/C#, or Python/FastAPI.

• A proven record of delivering production software on client-facing projects, ideally within consultancy or professional services.

• Hands-on experience integrating LLMs and building AI-powered features in real-world applications.

• Experience with prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) architectures or agentic AI development at scale.

• Familiarity with AI-assisted development tools such as GitHub Copilot, Claude and Cursor.

• Strong experience with Azure cloud services and CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps.

• The ability to provide technical leadership, set standards, mentor others and define effective ways of working.

• Excellent problem-solving, communication and stakeholder-management skills, with the ability to build client confidence and explain technical concepts to non-technical audiences.

• The confidence to work autonomously and turn ambiguity into repeatable, scalable delivery.

It Would Be An Advantage If You Have

• Azure AI Engineer certification or equivalent practical experience.

• Knowledge of MCP, vector databases and evaluation or testing approaches for AI systems.

• Experience mentoring or leading small development teams.

Why Apply?

• Industry-leading training and development through an Academy, with clear opportunities to progress.

• Competitive salary and company pension scheme.

• 23 days’ holiday, increasing with length of service, plus bank holidays, your birthday off and the option to buy more leave.

• Two paid volunteering days each year to support your local community.

• Health cash plan, confidential Employee Assistance Programme and life assurance.

• Cycle-to-work, electric vehicle, home and technology schemes, plus retail discounts.

• Free on-site gyms.

• Long-service recognition, regular social events, Pizza Fridays and a relaxed dress code.

Interested?

If you are excited by AI-assisted development, LLMs and autonomous agents, and want to build production solutions with these technologies rather than simply talk about them, we would love to hear from you.