Application Developer

Contract type: Permanent 
Location: London
Working style: Hybrid 50% home/office based 

We are seeking a talented and motivated individual to join our Development Team working in the AI Squad. This role is ideal for graduates or early‑career developers with strong programming fundamentals, a genuine enthusiasm for AI, and a curiosity to explore how AI can be applied to solve real‑world problems.

We’re particularly keen to hear from interested in candidates who demonstrate strong foundational engineering capabilities, alongside evidence of self-driven learning, experimentation, and intellectual curiosity. This may include internships, hackathons, personal or academic projects, or other practical experience that goes beyond academic coursework, or showing clear evidence of self‑learning and experimentation with modern technologies.

In this role, you’ll collaborate closely with experienced software engineers, data scientists, and data engineers to develop impactful solutions, tackle complex challenges, and support the delivery of AI initiatives across RLAM. You will be supported to learn and grow in a fast-moving, collaborative environment that values curiosity, adaptability, and continuous improvement.

About the role 

• Work on real RLAM software products — designing, building, and testing features while applying solid engineering practices, including object-oriented design, clean code principles, and structured application development

• Build production-quality software, focusing on well-structured, maintainable applications and services

• Design and integrate with external systems and services, developing an understanding of how modern applications interact and operate

• Get hands-on with AI and Generative AI, exploring how these techniques can enhance and extend software solutions within real-world applications

• Collaborate with engineers and data specialists to integrate AI into live systems, working across data pipelines, APIs, and cloud platforms

• Develop an understanding of how AI solutions are built, evaluated, and monitored within production environments

• Learn and apply principles of responsible AI, including fairness, explainability, and governance

• Operate within agile delivery teams — contributing to sprint goals, breaking down work, documenting solutions, and sharing knowledge

• Work effectively in iterative delivery environments, adapting to evolving technologies and requirements within a rapidly advancing AI landscape

• Work on real RLAM software products — designing, developing, and testing features while learning solid engineering practices, APIs, and cloud‑based integration. 

• Get hands‑on with AI and Generative AI, from building models to experimenting with prompt engineering, fine‑tuning, safety alignment, and early agentic AI concepts. 

• Learn how to build responsible AI by applying fairness, explainability, and governance principles, and by monitoring models to make sure they stay accurate and robust. 

• Collaborate with experienced engineers and data specialists to integrate AI into live systems, helping with data preparation and understanding how cloud and platform services fit together. 

• Work in agile sprints, break down tasks, contribute to documentation, share knowledge, and keep building your skills as you stay up to date with the latest AI and ML developments. 

About you 

Qualification 

• A First-Class/2:1 degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Engineering, Mathematics, or a related field 

• We encourage all students to apply, from recent graduates through to MSc/PhD 

Technical Skills 

• Solid Strong foundation in software engineering, particularly object‑oriented programming (e.g. Python or C#), alongside an understanding of core software engineering concepts such as data structures, algorithms, and SOLID principles. 

• Demonstrable ability to build structured software applications (e.g. use of classes, modular design)

• Strong grounding in core programming concepts, including data structures, algorithms, and software design principles (e.g. SOLID)

• Confident working with SQL to query, manipulate, and analyse structured data, plus familiarity with REST APIs and OpenAPI standards for building and consuming modern services. 

• Exposure to data science and machine learning tools such as PyTorch, scikit‑learn, NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, Seaborn, XGBoost, or NLTK, with an interest in applying them to real‑world problems. 

• Growing understanding of modern AI approaches, including LLMs and Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG), and how these models are designed, evaluated, and integrated into applications. 

• Experience (or willingness to learn) unit testing frameworks like PyTest, XUnit, or NUnit to ensure code quality and build good engineering habits early on. 

• Exposure to data science and machine learning tools such as PyTorch, scikit‑learn, NumPy, Pandas, Matplotlib, Seaborn, XGBoost, or NLTK, with an interest in applying them to real‑world problems. 

Desirable

• Prior internship or work experience in software development, Ddata sScience or AI

• Experience with AI development tools and platforms (e.g., Azure, Snowflake, AWS, GCP) 

• Awareness Knowledge of CI/CD concepts

• Exposure to emerging concepts such as Knowledge of Agentic AI 

• Exposure to Git/ and version control practices basics (branching, merging, conflict resolution) 

• Knowledge of CI/CD 

• Evidence of self-learning (projects, GitHub, coursework, hackathons)

About Royal London Asset Management

Royal London Asset Management (RLAM), part of the Royal London Group, is one of the UK's leading fund management companies working with a wide range of clients across the globe to achieve their investment goals. Our long-term, client-driven focus means that we have a long-standing commitment to responsible investment. We act as responsible stewards of our clients’ capital, exercising their rights and influencing positive change. 

Our People Promise to our colleagues is that we will all work somewhere inclusive, responsible, enjoyable and fulfilling. This is underpinned by our Spirit of Royal London values; Empowered, Trustworthy, Collaborate, Achieve.  

We've always been proud to reward employees by offering great workplace benefits such as 28 days annual leave in addition to bank holidays, an up to 14% employer matching pension scheme and private medical insurance. 

Inclusion, diversity and belonging 

We’re an Inclusive employer. We celebrate and value different backgrounds and cultures across Royal London. Our diverse people and perspectives give us a range of skills which are recognised and respected – whatever their background.  

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