Join our eCommerce Developments team and play a pivotal role in driving AI innovation and operational efficiency across one of the UK's largest fashion retailers. This position is based at our Head Office in Leicestershire offering a competitive salary and great benefits
About the Role:
As the Site Ops AI & Automation Engineer, you will be at the forefront of transforming our daily operations by integrating cutting-edge automation and AI into our workflows. You will focus on streamlining repetitive tasks, enhancing accuracy, and accelerating decision-making by building smart, practical solutions that reduce manual effort. By partnering closely with stakeholders, you will map existing processes and identify pain points to co-create Python-based scripts and AI-enabled workflows that empower our teams to work more effectively.
Your responsibilities extend to developing and maintaining robust automation frameworks to validate platform functionality and performance. You will proactively identify opportunities for automation in regression testing and operational reporting, while introducing AI-assisted validation to increase efficiency and coverage. Beyond the technical implementation, you will act as a champion for an automation-first culture, upskilling colleagues and sharing knowledge to ensure we are constantly evolving our technical capabilities.
By building reusable frameworks and monitoring the impact of your solutions—such as capacity freed or outcomes improved—you will contribute directly to our wider digital strategy. You will also leverage your expertise in engineered prompts and emerging technologies to aid implementation tasks, ensuring our eCommerce platform remains resilient and scalable. This is a unique opportunity to use tools like Python and Google Cloud ecosystem components to create a more productive, AI-augmented future for NEXT.
About you:
* Proven ability to design, implement, and scale efficient automation scripts and workflows, primarily using Python, to enhance efficiency and minimize errors.
* Experienced in process mapping and stakeholder collaboration to integrate AI/ML services that augment human decision-making.
* Comfortable developing scripts using frameworks such as Selenium or Playwright for content validation and cross-browser/device compatibility.
* Strong analytical skills combining Python and SQL with BI tools (like Power BI or Tableau) to deliver automated insights.
* Hands-on experience consuming and interpreting APIs, with a solid working knowledge of web technologies including HTML, CSS, and JavaScript.
* Excellent communication skills, with the ability to translate technical automation impacts (such as time saved) into clear, business-focused insights.
* A strong collaborator with an inquisitive mindset for emerging technologies and a passion for building AI-aided systems.
* Experience with Vertex AI, data vectorisation, or the Google ecosystem (BigQuery, Cloud Run) is highly desirable.
* A background in eCommerce is beneficial but not essential.
#LI-JT1 #LI-Hybrid
You know Next, but did you know we're a FTSE-100 retail company employing over 35,000 people across the UK and Ireland. We're the UK's 2nd largest fashion retailer and for Kidswear we're the market leader. At the last count we have over 500 stores, plus the Next Online and it's now possible to buy on-line from over 70 countries around the world So we've gone global
* 25% off most NEXT, MADE*, Lipsy*, Gap* and Victoria's Secret* products (*when purchased through NEXT)
* Company performance based bonus
* Sharesave scheme
* On-site Nursery available; OFSTED outstanding in all areas
* 10% off most partner brands & up to 15% off Branded Beauty
* Early VIP access to sale stock
* Access to fantastic discounts at our Staff Shops
* Restaurants with great food at amazing prices
* Access a digital GP and other free health and wellbeing services
* Free on-site parking
* Financial Wellbeing - Save, track and enhance your financial wellbeing
* Apprenticeship - Grow and develop on the job whilst gaining a qualification
* Direct to Work - Discount online and instore, collect your items the next day for free from your place of work or local store
* Support Networks - Access to Network Groups to empower and celebrate each other
* Wellhub - Discounted flexible monthly gym memberships, with apps, PT sessions and more
Conditions apply to all benefits. These benefits are discretionary and subject to change.
We aim to support all candidates during the application process and are happy to provide workplace adjustments when necessary. Should you need support with your application due to a disability or long-term condition, feel free to get in touch with us by email (please include 'Workplace Adjustments' in the subject line), or call us on and leave a voicemail.