Staff Software Engineer - Personalisation

Team: Digital & Tech
Store: London Support Office
Location: London, Greater London
Contract type: Permanent
Position type: Full Time
Salary: Competitive + Benefits; Closing date: 31st March 2025

How We Hire

Everyone is welcome at M&S. No exceptions. It’s your background, abilities and differences that make you, uniquely you. And when you’re part of M&S, that individuality has the potential to make waves.

About the role

This section tells you all you need to know about the position and its responsibilities, outlining everything we hope to see in a successful candidate.

Summary

This opportunity lies in a key strategic area for M&S to lead our digital innovation and improve upon personalisation of campaigns for our customers, which drives growth across all our digital channels using customer data, AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML capabilities and journey orchestrators. We aim to become global leaders in personalisation.

All the details

Summary

• Build and drive tech strategy to scale platforms to personalise customer journeys across various channels (web, app, email, notifications and in-store).

• Enabling collaboration and ML Ops practices in designing data pipelines with Data Science team members.

• Scaling Client and Server-side experimentation using A/B testing platforms across our digital channels experience.

• Driving and automating campaigns through campaign management tools and personalizing user journeys.

To stay close to customers, our support teams are in the office three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected.

What you’ll do

Your key accountabilities will include:

Design and drive important, high-visibility initiatives that boost the platform's resilience and scalability across multiple teams.
Lead and guide others through architectural decisions for new and existing distributed, high-throughput, real-time systems.
Spot potential system risks and trends in reliability and produce solutions to tackle them and solve problems collaboratively, communicating decisions through tech talks and white-boarding sessions.
Coach, mentor and develop less experienced engineers.
Promote a high-performance culture, technical excellence, M&S values, trust, collaboration, and improved ways of working within the team and the wider software engineering community

Who you are

Your skills and experience will include:

Proficient experience building highly scalable service applications with Python and experience in one of Typescript, Java, Kotlin.
Experience with DevSecOps: you build it, secure it and run it
Expertise Microservices Architectures and a DDD (Domain Driven Design) mindset and experience with containerisation tooling such as Kubernetes and Docker
Advocate and experience in Continuous Integration and Continuous Delivery with a solid understanding of event-driven architecture and technology. Strong understanding of cloud infrastructure platforms and services. Experience with monitoring and observability platforms such as New Relic and Dynatrace
Should have worked in a dynamic and agile environment

What’s in it for you

Being a part of M&S is exactly that – becoming a part and playing your part. We’re an inclusive, dynamic, exciting, and always evolving business built on core values.

Here are some of the benefits we offer that make working for M&S just that little bit more special…

20% Colleague discount on most things from furniture, fashion and food.
A first-class welcome to M&S with a tailored induction and a wide range of training schemes to help with your learning and development. Having options to progress is something we’re proud of at M&S.
Attractive annual bonus, based on company performance and personal objectives.
Competitive holiday entitlement with the potential to buy extra holiday days!
Amazing perks and discounts via our M&S Choices website. Including GymSave – that offers up to 25% off Gym Memberships and the option to become an M&S Shareholder using our ShareSave & ShareBuy Schemes
Charity Volunteer Day – A paid day away from work to support your chosen charity.
A very generous Defined Contribution Pension Scheme and Life Assurance
Every colleague at M&S has access to a fantastic range of wellbeing support – this includes access to our 24/7 Virtual GP, PAM Assist to support you & your family as well as many other schemes

Everyone’s welcome

M&S is ready to push boundaries to lead the retail industry into a greener, speedier, more inspiring digital era. That’s why we’re revolutionising how we work and offering our most exciting opportunities yet. There’s never been a better time to be part of our team. Marks & Spencer aims to be an inclusive organisation, trusted and admired by our colleagues, customers and suppliers. Join us and make an immediate impact.

We’re an in-person business and have core collaboration days in our Support Centre each week. For most teams, this is 3 working days where we come together to collaborate, innovate, and serve our customers brilliantly.

We are committed to an active Inclusion, Diversity and Equal Opportunities Policy, which starts with our recruitment and selection process, and we are happy to talk flexible working.

If you consider yourself to require reasonable adjustments to any part of our recruitment process, we invite you to share those requirements with us when completing your application. We will make every effort to ensure your needs are met to provide a fair and transparent process of assessment.

#LI-JE1

Meet the Team

A group of colleagues gathered around a table, smiling and discussing work with laptops open in a modern office setting.

Being an in-person business

We're at our best when we're close to customers, and for many of us at M&S, that means working in store every day.

To stay close to customers, our support teams are in the office three days a week as we believe that skills are developed through collaboration, and that spending time together makes us more creative and connected. It also means we can solve problems as soon as they arise, learn and grow as a team, build trust, and get closer to our colleagues.

Halford Head of Technical Program Management

Being in third-party brands, working on things M&S hasn’t done before… that plays to my sweet spot. I’ve worked in many organisations throughout my career, and it’s rare to see such cause and effect in your work. The way we’re structured means you’re encouraged to solve problems and you have the autonomy to make progress quickly.

Halford (He / Him) | Head of Technical Program Management Read full story

At M&S, we have Data Scientists, Analysts, and Technical Product Managers, who all share a genuine passion for harnessing data to improve people’s lives. And we’re in a unique position where we can actually help many different kinds of people, from our customers to our colleagues in store and in our support centre.

Deepak (He / Him) | Data Scientist Read full story

I think all engineers just love solving puzzles and problems. At M&S, we’re constantly learning new things, whether it’s mastering Swift UI or understanding how customers interact with technology. But this is also a business that listens to engineers and values what we bring to the table. That’s different, believe me.

Janak (He / Him) | Staff iOS Engineer Read full story

Make Your Mark

Upcoming projects

Take part in our M&S Digital & Tech team days. Grow your digital and data skills through our BEAM Academy. Or challenge yourself at one of our business-wide hackathons. We also partner with Women in Data, Databricks and Cajigo to increase opportunities for women in digital and data.

Opportunities to be heard

Your voice and your ideas matter here. Our 8 colleague networks are places to find support, listen to each other and encourage debate. You can pitch ideas ‘Straight to Stuart’, our CEO, or get involved in our BIG (Business involvement Group).

Colleague Networks

We want you to feel supported, no matter what.

Health and Wellbeing Network

Providing a safe space for colleagues with all types of health conditions or disabilities and supporting with business initiatives to ensure our stores are truly accessible for our customers.

The Gender Equality Network

This group is focused on helping to create a workplace where gender-related challenges are addressed. They raise awareness of common barriers faced and offer support. They also challenge the business to act and empower individuals to ensure that everyone has equal access to opportunities.

Menopause Network

Initiating and encouraging open conversations about menopause by offering support and sharing experiences.

The LGBTQ+ Network

Open to all members of the LGBTQ+ community and spectrum (and their allies), we promote equality, celebrate inclusivity and diversity, and encourage everyone to be themselves - whatever their sexual or gender identity.

The Family & Carers Network

This group represents the different types of families that exist. We act as a support network and sounding board for ideas which help our colleagues as parents or carers. We also run an interactive blog, where you can write your own posts or hear about others' experiences.

Culture and Heritage Network

Raising awareness of various religions and cultures through events and comms, to educate others and better represent our M&S colleagues and customers.

Forces Community Network

Supporting colleagues connected to the Armed Forces, aiding their transition to civilian life, and ensuring that they thrive in the workplace.

The Cancer Network

This is a network driven by personal experiences, with the purpose of ensuring that anyone in the M&S family affected by Cancer feels supported and has access to the information they need.

Benefits

Wellbeing hub

Get access to resources to support your wellbeing, including a free virtual GP service.
Giving back

Support your favourite charities by donating through your pay or even volunteering for them.
Pay

Earn a competitive salary.
Colleague discount

After completing your probation period, you'll receive 20% colleague discount across all M&S products and many of our third-party brands for you and a member of your household.

Please note only contracts of more than 12 weeks are eligible for this benefit.
Time off

Competitive holiday entitlement with the potential to buy extra holiday days.
Bonus

We have discretionary bonus schemes depending on your role and our business performance.
Life assurance

Get cover for twice your salary up to age 70 (double with our Pension Plan).
Workplace savings

We’ll help you save through our Pension Savings Plan, Share Buy and Sharesave schemes.
My Choices

Save on everyday costs through discounts and offers and get access to great health benefits.
Cycle to work

Bike/accessory hire with Cycle to Work and save on tax and national insurance.
Smart tech

Buy the latest technology with interest-free financing directly from your salary.

How to Apply

Here’s what to expect at each stage of the application process. This can change depending on the role you’ve applied to. If you need any reasonable adjustments made at any stage, let us know and we can help.

Send us your application

Fill in our short application form and hit submit.

Online assessment

Depending on the role you are applying for, you may be invited to do an assessment. Your Talent Acquisition Partner will guide and inform you along the way.

Interview

We'll invite you to join us for an interview. This could be remote or in person. Here, we'll ask you some role based technical questions and examine the behaviours we're looking for.

Decision

After we’ve made our decision, we’ll be in touch. If you’ve been successful, we’ll officially invite you to join the team and let you know the next steps.