About the role

Develop production-grade Python services for cloud-native AI and automation platforms used in network assurance and operations.
Build secure, reliable and maintainable backend services that solve real operational problems.
Design for scalability, resilience, observability and safe production operation on Kubernetes.
Help turn GenAI and agentic AI concepts into governed, production-ready platform capabilities.
Work closely with engineering, platform, product and operational stakeholders to deliver measurable outcomes.

What you’ll be doing

Design, develop and maintain backend services and REST APIs using Python and FastAPI.
Build modular, testable microservices and reusable platform components using clean-code, object-oriented and SOLID principles.
Develop asynchronous and concurrent processing for high-throughput or long-running workloads.
Design and integrate data-access layers for PostgreSQL and MySQL, including schema design, transactions, indexing and query optimisation.
Build event-driven integrations using Kafka or comparable messaging technologies.
Containerise services with Docker and deploy, configure and troubleshoot workloads on Kubernetes.
Contribute to CI/CD pipelines, automated quality checks, secure configuration and repeatable deployments.
Create unit and integration tests using Pytest and maintain high standards through peer review and engineering documentation.
Implement practical observability through structured logs, metrics, traces, health checks and actionable alerts.
Diagnose production issues, perform root-cause analysis and deliver durable fixes rather than short-term workarounds.
Collaborate on GenAI, RAG and agentic AI use cases, integrating LLM APIs safely into enterprise services where appropriate.
Participate in technical design discussions and support less-experienced engineers through constructive reviews and knowledge sharing.

Essential Skills / Experience

3–6 years of hands-on software engineering experience, with strong recent experience building production Python backend services.
Strong Python fundamentals, object-oriented programming, data structures, error handling, packaging and dependency management.
Hands-on experience with FastAPI and well-designed REST APIs, including validation, authentication, versioning and error contracts.
Solid knowledge of asynchronous programming, concurrency and background-processing patterns.
Practical experience with PostgreSQL or MySQL and sound understanding of relational data modelling and performance fundamentals.
Experience writing unit and integration tests with Pytest and applying mocking appropriately.
Working experience with Git, pull requests, code review, CI/CD and automated code-quality practices.
Hands-on experience with Docker and Kubernetes, including deployments, services, configuration, secrets, health probes and troubleshooting.

Desirable Skills / Experience

Experience integrating Generative AI or LLM APIs into production applications.
Practical understanding of Retrieval-Augmented Generation, agentic AI workflows, knowledge graphs or graph-enhanced retrieval.
Exposure to Redis, Celery, Helm, Kubernetes observability ecosystems, telecoms, network assurance or high-availability enterprise environments.

BT Group is the UK’s leading communications group and the holding company behind some of the country’s most recognised brands – including BT, EE, Openreach and Plusnet. Our purpose is as simple as it is ambitious: we connect for good. Our customers include consumers, small, medium and large businesses, public sector organisations and other communications providers.

BT Group’s role is about setting direction, unlocking value and creating the conditions for our brands and businesses to thrive.

Having come through the most capital-intensive phase of our fibre investment, our focus now is on what comes next – simplifying how we operate, using technology and AI to work smarter, and organising ourselves to serve customers better and grow sustainably. Group teams shape strategy, policy, brand, capital allocation and transformation, helping the whole organisation perform at its best.

We have a singular culture that unites all our people: we are customer-first challengers, who are committed, clear and connected. These behaviours unite us as one team to deliver for our colleagues, our customers, our stakeholders and the country. Joining BT Group means working at the heart of a business that matters to the UK, with the opportunity to shape decisions, influence outcomes and help set the future course of one of the country’s most important companies.