Data Engineering Manager – ML Engineering

At Sainsbury’s, AI & Machine Learning are at the heart of making better decisions across the business. We work in cross-functional teams – bringing together Engineering, Data Science, Product and Architecture – to build automated decisioning systems that have real impact.

We are hiring an ML Engineering Manager to lead our Digital & Retail team. Reporting to the Head of ML Engineering, you will build & run systems that impact millions of customers online and tens of thousands of colleagues in our stores.

What you'll do

• Lead, coach, and grow a high-performing team of ML engineers.
• Architect, build, scale and run critical ML applications – from data sourcing & feature engineering to training, deployment, real-time serving and monitoring.
• Partner with data scientists to develop & productionise models, ensuring scalability, reliability, and maintainability.
• Drive innovation, automation in collaboration with other ML Engineering teams.
• Own end-to-end delivery and operations, balancing feature development with sustainability.
• Manage delivery timelines, prioritising work and removing blockers to keep projects on track.
• Champion agile/lean delivery, oversee budgets, and DORA metrics.
• Contribute to technical strategy, roadmap planning, and hiring.

Who you are

• Proven experience in managing or leading ML engineering teams, ideally in a large-scale organisation.
• A people-first leader who can hire, develop, and retain top talent while fostering an inclusive and high-performing culture.
• Strong hands-on background in deploying machine learning models at scale, using technologies such as Pytorch, MLflow, Airflow, and Docker.
• Deep understanding of ML lifecycle challenges: feature stores, model deployment, monitoring, data drift, and retraining.
• Familiarity with cloud platforms (ideally Azure), infrastructure as code (ideally Terraform) and containerisation.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to bridge technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• A champion of modern engineering practices, bringing cutting-edge tools and methodologies to improve team efficiency and innovation.
• A results-driven problem solver with strong business acumen, ensuring investments deliver maximum value.

We are proud supporters of Women in Data®.  Connect, engage and belong to the largest free female data community in the UK – visit: www.womenindata.co.uk to join our community.

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APPLY HERE: Data Engineering Manager - ML Engineering