GenAI Lead

Our purpose is taking care of life’s essentials, but we’re also big on making a difference, not just because we should but because we care.

AMP8, our next five-year regulatory period, will see us launch our biggest and most complex investment programme of almost £13bn, of which £6bn will be delivered through our capital programme. This is more than double the size of the AMP7 capital programme and is an opportunity to drive real change.

As part of that transformation, we’re building new capabilities that will help us deliver smarter, faster and more effectively than ever before. One of the boldest is our Capital Delivery AI Transformation Team — a high-profile team created to help unlock major value across AMP8 and AMP9, with an ambition to deliver around £0.5bn of value across the programme.

This team exists to challenge how things have always been done. It brings together agile thinking, emerging technology and practical delivery to create solutions that remove waste, improve speed and unlock better outcomes across capital delivery.

Within that team, Generative AI is playing a critical role in how we reshape delivery — helping us automate repetitive tasks, improve access to knowledge, support better decision-making and create new ways of working across the gated capital process.

That’s where this role comes in. As our GenAI Lead, you’ll help shape how copilots, intelligent assistants, retrieval-based chatbots and agentic workflows are designed, built and deployed across Capital Delivery. This is your opportunity to lead the technical roadmap, define the standards, and make sure our GenAI solutions are secure, scalable, adopted and genuinely valuable.

It could be one of the biggest challenges of your career. If you want to do more because you care, we’d love to talk to you.

We are looking for a GenAI Lead to join our Capital Delivery AI Transformation Team, helping embed Generative AI into the future of delivery.

EVERYTHING YOU NEED TO KNOW

Are you excited by the practical application of Generative AI? Do you enjoy turning complex business challenges into secure, scalable technical solutions? Are you someone who can combine deep technical expertise with the ability to bring people with you?

As our GenAI Lead, you’ll be at the centre of how Generative AI is embedded into capital workflows. You’ll lead the design, build and deployment of GenAI solutions including copilots agents and retrieval-based chatbots, , helping accelerate Severn Trent’s gated capital delivery process and supporting the wider transformation agenda.

This role will own the Generative AI technical roadmap, ensuring our direction is aligned to the priorities of the AI Transformation Team and the wider business. You’ll define the reference architecture, reusable components, engineering patterns and quality standards that make our GenAI capability both robust and repeatable.

Within this role you will:

Be a key stakeholder in shaping and continuously evolving the Generative AI technical roadmap, aligned to the team’s pods and wider AI portfolio.
Define the reference architecture, standards and reusable patterns used across the team, including prompt design, RAG pipelines, evaluation frameworks and guardrails.
Make pragmatic build/buy and model-selection decisions, balancing performance, cost, scalability, security and maintainability.
Lead the hands-on design and build of GenAI products, including copilots, agentic workflows and retrieval-based chatbots.
Support the movement of prototypes into production through effective CI/CD, LLMOps, monitoring, testing and evaluation.
Embed responsible AI, data protection and human-in-the-loop controls into every solution from the start.
Establish clear quality, evaluation and assurance standards, ensuring outputs are accurate, safe, explainable and fit for purpose.
Work closely with engineers, digital teams and business stakeholders to translate real delivery challenges into practical AI-enabled solutions.
Technically lead, coach and mentor Automation Engineers and Digital Engineers, helping grow GenAI capability across the team and wider business.
Define and track the value and benefits of GenAI deployment against agreed baselines, evidencing adoption, time savings and business impact.
Help build confidence in GenAI across Capital Delivery, promoting approaches that are pragmatic, secure and grounded in operational reality.

WHAT YOU’LL BRING TO THE ROLE

Of course, it’s important that we attract the right skill sets, and those with the right experience, but we value character, positivity and a caring attitude in equal weight.

We want people who show up and roll their sleeves up. Restless spirits who are ready to be part of something bigger, who care, who really care... because when you really care, you’ll go above and beyond. When you really care you don’t just talk about it, you do more.

A degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, AI Engineering or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience.
Strong understanding of Generative AI / LLM techniques, including RAG, agents, prompt engineering and evaluation.
Knowledge of responsible AI, secure development and data protection practices.
Demonstrable experience building and deploying production-grade LLM / GenAI applications.
Strong proficiency in Python and modern AI frameworks such as LangChain, LlamaIndex, vector databases, Azure OpenAI or equivalent.
Experience deploying solutions into cloud environments such as Azure or AWS, using CI/CD and MLOps / LLMOps practices.
A track record of technical leadership, coaching and mentoring engineers.
The ability to translate complex business challenges into practical AI solutions and explain those solutions clearly to non-technical audiences.
A delivery-focused mindset, with the ability to balance speed, quality, governance and real business value.

And it would be great if you also had:

A relevant cloud or AI certification such as Azure AI Engineer.
Familiarity with NIST or secure-by-design frameworks.
Experience in engineering, construction, utilities or other capital-intensive sectors.
Familiarity with the Microsoft ecosystem, including Copilot, Power Platform and Fabric.
Experience with the Anthropic ecosystem / ClaudeCode.

We welcome people from all walks of life and celebrate individuality as we know diverse minds, experiences and backgrounds help us to learn and better serve our communities. We employ thousands of people from across our community who really care about what they do. Because that is how we do what we do.

And when it comes to inclusion, we’re making sure we keep up the progress with our wonderful working groups – LGBTQ+, Women in Operations & STEM, Disability and Ethnicity, who help us do just that.

We do more, because we care.

Working here isn’t just a job. You can build a career at Severn Trent. We’ll reward you for it, too. We have a range of benefits that recognise great work, and award-winning training to help you reach your potential. And we’ll also help you play your part in looking after the environment and the communities where we live.

With that in mind, here are just some of our favourite perks that you’ll get being part of the Severn Trent family:

28 days holiday + bank holidays (and the ability to buy/ sell up to 5 days per year)
Annual bonus scheme (of up to £2,250, which is subject to eligibility)
Leading pension scheme – we will double your contribution (up to 15% when you contribute 7.5%)
Sharesave – the chance to buy Severn Trent Plc shares at a discounted rate
Dedicated training and development with our Academy
Electric vehicle scheme and retail offers
Family friendly policies
Two paid volunteering days per year

WHAT’S NEXT?

We can’t wait to hear from you.

Before you apply, you’ll need an updated copy of your CV and about five minutes to spare.

And if your curiosity has peaked and you're wanting to find out even more, search #LifeAtSevernTrent on social media.

Ps. we’ll always let you know the outcome of your application after the closing date - so keep an eye on your phone and emails!