Software Engineer - Backend (Product Intelligence)

The Product Intelligence Platform is an AI-driven system that transforms how Tesco handles product data at scale. The platform leverages multi-agent AI systems to automate product categorization, enrichment, and matching across a vast number of products on a weekly basis. Built on event-driven architecture using Kafka, the platform processes millions of events monthly through core AI capabilities. A Software Engineer in this team will help build and maintain these AI-powered capabilities using Java/Spring Boot and Python, develop scalable event-driven microservices on Azure Kubernetes Service, and work with LLMs to solve product intelligence challenges. The role suits someone who enjoys connecting AI technology, engineering, and practical business needs, and who wants to grow while contributing to a platform that impacts millions of customer interactions weekly.

• Developing and implementing microservices for product intelligence capabilities.
• Working with technologies including: Spring Boot, Python, Apache Kafka, PostgreSQL with PGVector for embeddings
• Contributing to the development of multi-agent systems.
• Building event-driven services for high-volume data processing.
• Implementing product matching logic using: text similarity techniques, image similarity techniques
• Helping ensure system scalability and reliability to process over 1 million events per week.
• Collaborating with product managers and data scientists to translate business requirements into technical solutions.
• Contributing to infrastructure as code using Terraform on the Azure cloud platform.
• Contributing to architectural discussions as the platform's AI capabilities grow.
• Sharing knowledge with teammates and upholding engineering excellence standards.
• Integrating with various Tesco systems, including both internal and external platforms.

Mandatory Skills:

• Solid experience with Java and Spring Boot for building enterprise-grade applications.
• Basic knowledge of Python.
• Good understanding of event-driven architectures and Apache Kafka.
• Experience with cloud platforms, preferably Azure.
• Familiarity with Kubernetes for container orchestration.
• Working knowledge of databases, including PostgreSQL and NoSQL solutions.
• Experience with RESTful API design and microservices architecture.
• Understanding of software engineering best practices, including CI/CD, testing, and code review.
• Comfort working with distributed systems.

Nice-to-Have Skills:

• Experience with Large Language Models (LLMs) and prompt engineering.
• Knowledge of vector databases and embedding technologies like PGVector.
• Familiarity with machine learning frameworks and computer vision.
• Experience with Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Terraform.
• Knowledge of the retail or e-commerce domain.
• Experience with Couchbase or similar NoSQL databases.
• Understanding of data quality and governance principles.
• Previous experience building AI-powered applications.
• Experience working with multi-agent systems.

Our colleagues work with one goal in mind, helping to make every day a little better for our customers, colleagues and communities all over the world. No two customers are the same, neither are our colleagues.
At Tesco, we champion a balance that lets you thrive both in and out of work. Spend 60% of your week collaborating with colleagues at our office locations or local sites and the rest remotely. Whether you're just kicking off your career, juggling passions, or navigating big life events, we're here to support you.
Tesco is committed to celebrating diversity and everyone is welcome at Tesco. As a Disability Confident Employer, we’re committed to providing a fully inclusive and accessible recruitment process, allowing candidates the opportunity to thrive and inform us of any reasonable adjustments they may require.
Want to get to know us better? Watch our team talk about our culture – YouTube
What our colleagues like the most at Tesco:

• We develop our own products
• We make an impact; large scale of operation
• Accountability and respect are given to us
• We cooperate and support each other
• There are great colleagues who are divided into small teams here
• We can develop and learn new things

Discover how our colleagues shape Tesco’s tomorrow.