AI & Agentic Frontend Solutions Developer
Contract type: Permanent
Location: Hatfield (Hybrid working - 3 days in the office)
Working hours per week: 40 hours
Level: Associate
Application Closing Date: Tuesday 23rd June 2026
About us
Our mission is to deliver joy in every shop, through unbeatable choice, unrivalled service, and reassuringly good value. We’re also on a mission to empower our business with smart technology; we've recently launched our AI Academy, providing a tailored AI learning journey for every colleague.
We’re Ocado Retail, a market-leading joint venture between Ocado Group and M&S, and the world’s largest dedicated online supermarket, ocado.com. Not only is Ocado the only place to shop a full range of M&S food online, it’s also the home to the widest online supermarket range in the UK and champion of small, independent brands. We’re also the brains behind Zoom by Ocado, our same-day grocery delivery service.
About the team and the role
At Ocado Retail, our IT & Product Support model focuses on the in-house ownership of business-critical systems through dedicated, high-performing "Product Pods". This role sits within our newly established AI & Agentic Pod—a dynamic, highly strategic unit with a business-wide remit. The mission of this pod is to review processes across every department and identify opportunities where generative AI can be used to build, test, and deploy robust micro-applications at extreme pace, organically scaling them into a unified business operating platform.
Within this agile development pod, you will be our frontend champion. While your colleagues focus on building the robust backend infrastructure and platform backbone, your core mission is to design, craft, and polish the user-facing interfaces for our ecosystem of micro-applications. You will make AI highly interactive and easy to use. From designing sleek, responsive layouts for rapid micro-apps, to translating the Data Science team's complex multi-agent flows into delightful, intuitive graphical interfaces, you will ensure our AI products are not just powerful under the hood, but a joy to interact with.
What you’ll do
UI/UX Craftsmanship: Design and build high-performance, responsive, and visually stunning user interfaces for all internal micro-applications and tools, ensuring a consistent and premium user experience.
Component Library & Design Systems: Create a modular, reusable UI component library and custom design system tokens to enable the team to prototype and launch new micro-applications at extreme speed.
Data Science Interface Enablement: Collaborate closely with the Data Science team to translate advanced, complex multi-agent flows, vector search queries, and generative AI outputs into interactive, highly understandable visual interfaces (e.g., node visualizers, step-by-step agent tracking, or dynamic chat playgrounds).
AI Interaction Paradigms: Develop and optimise front-end patterns tailored specifically for LLM interactions, including stream rendering, rich markdown text, custom chat containers, interactive fallback widgets, and live feedback loops.
Backbone API Integration: Seamlessly consume and integrate your frontends with the pod's shared platform backbone, managing authentication, secure data transfer, state, and automated provisioning.
Rapid Prototyping: Turn napkin-sketch ideas from business teams into highly functional, interactive mockups and production-ready applications within days.
Reporting Structure: Report directly to the Engineering Lead.
Who you are
Essential
Frontend Virtuoso: Highly skilled in modern frontend development, with production-grade experience in React, TypeScript, and modern styling utilities (such as Tailwind CSS, Shadcn/ui, or Radix UI).
Visual & Logic Bridge Builder: You possess a strong aesthetic eye and solid UI/UX design sensibilities, with the ability to take complex backend agent logic and distill it into simple, elegant user journeys.
AI-Ready Developer: Familiar with frontend-specific AI patterns and tooling (such as Vercel AI SDK, stream processing, or websocket integrations) to build highly responsive, real-time AI interactions.
Rapid Builder: A "maker" who thrives on the pace of a startup-style environment, with a passion for rapid prototyping, iteration, and shipping user-ready code quickly over writing slow, over-engineered frameworks.
Integration Minded: Comfortable consuming complex REST/GraphQL APIs and working with asynchronous state management libraries to handle dense, real-time data flows.
Empathetic Collaborator: A strong communicator who genuinely loves working closely with Data Scientists, product owners, and business stakeholders to turn raw technological power into practical, daily-use tools.
Desirable
Experience with visual flow libraries (e.g., React Flow) or interactive data visualisation libraries (e.g., D3.js, Recharts).
Experience using Node.js, Python, or basic API frameworks to write quick backend mockups when needed.
Understanding of accessibility standards (WCAG) and performance optimization techniques for web applications.
What’s in it for you
By joining Ocado Retail, you’ll have the chance to experience life at the world’s largest online retailer, work with an amazing bunch of people who challenge what’s possible each day, and grow your skills and career in online retail. You'll also be part of our AI Academy, a dedicated learning journey designed to empower every colleague with the smart technology skills of the future.
If that’s not enough to tempt you, you’ll also get access to loads of great benefits to sweeten the deal. Here’s a taste of what we offer:
Health & Wellbeing: Private medical insurance with option to add your family, Digital GP appointments, market-leading family policies, mental health support, discounted gym memberships, dental insurance, and more.
Spend & Save: Annual bonus scheme split between personal and business objectives, recognition with reward platform, up to 7% matched pension contributions, 15% Ocado discount, 20% M&S discount, free breakfast every day in the office, electric vehicle leasing scheme, and free shuttle bus from Hatfield station to the office.
Never miss the moments that matter: Hybrid working, 26 days holiday plus 8 flexible bank holidays, options to buy extra holiday, 2 weeks work from anywhere, and lifestyle break opportunities.
Our Hiring Process
Lucky for us, we receive a high volume of applications and genuinely appreciate the time and effort invested by every candidate. To ensure a fair and thorough process, every application is reviewed by a member of our team. If your skills and experience are a strong match, a Talent Partner will contact you to discuss the role and guide you through the next steps of our hiring process.
Your Application and AI
In the spirit of innovation, we welcome you to use AI tools in your application, just as we use them in our own business at Ocado Retail. However, as you leverage this technology, please don't lose sight of the most important element: your unique self. Your experiences, passions, and personality are what truly set you apart. Ensure that your application still authentically conveys who you are and why you're a great fit for us.
Everyone’s welcome
We’re an equal opportunities employer, which means that we make sure all potential colleagues are treated fairly and equally. We want to ensure everyone has a fair chance to apply; if you need this job description in an alternative format (e.g., larger print, different document type, etc.), please reach out to us at [email protected] and we'll be happy to assist you, and if you require reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, please let us know on the application form.
