Contract Platform Engineer - AI Platform Scaling

Codurance is a global software professional services consultancy, helping clients continuously deliver value through the adoption of quality practices and technical excellence. Software craftsmanship is at the heart of everything we do. We build well-crafted software and help development teams get better at continuously delivering software through the application of extreme programming practices and software craftsmanship values.

Budget: £500 - £600 / per day InsideIR35 (subject to negotiation)
Contract length: 3 months
Location: Central Leeds
On-site requirement: 2 days per week

We're looking for a Contract Platform Engineer who shares our values of pragmatism, professionalism and transparency, to join a mission-driven, non-profit academic organisation scaling an AI-driven initiative.

You'll help take a promising AI platform capability and turn it into a robust, self-service tool that can be safely and confidently adopted across the organisation. This is a hands-on, cross-functional role: you'll bridge the gap between teams that currently report separately into the platform engineering lead, capturing business requirements, running gap analysis, and prioritising the features that move the platform toward production maturity.

You will be:

• Promoting and maturing the AI platform toward genuine self-service capability
• Onboarding and integrating the product into the underlying platform infrastructure
• Balancing ongoing product imperfections against the practical needs of real user deployment
• Capturing business requirements, performing gap analysis, and prioritising delivery over perfection
• Acting as a communication and negotiation bridge between separate teams reporting into the platform engineering lead
• Helping educate the wider team on AI tooling to improve day-to-day operational efficiency

You'll be responsible for bringing clarity and momentum to a platform in transition: aligning stakeholders across teams, making pragmatic calls on imperfect tooling, and helping a PhD-heavy, academically-minded culture adopt new AI capability with confidence.

Because this is a contract engagement, we need someone who can move fast and get stuck in from day one, comfortable operating in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment without a long ramp-up period.

What You'll Bring

• Strong communication and negotiation skills; this role is as much about cross-team alignment as it is technical delivery
• Solid working knowledge of Amazon Web Services (AWS)
• Platform Operations experience
• Comfort operating in a fast-moving, ambiguous environment while balancing imperfect product maturity against user needs

Desirable

• Familiarity with AI tooling such as Claude, and an interest in coaching and upskilling colleagues on its use
• Prior experience in the pharmaceutical or life sciences industry (nice to have, not mandatory)

Culture & Working Environment

Our client is a mission-driven, non-profit organisation who are passionate about what they do. On-site attendance is currently mandatory two days per week (Mondays and Thursdays); flexibility on this policy is under active discussion internally and may evolve during the recruitment process.

Why Codurance?

• Work alongside some of the best software craftspeople in the industry
• Exposure to a genuinely wide variety of clients, sectors and project types
• A culture built on transparency, craftsmanship and continuous improvement, not just delivery theatre
• Part of the team behind the London Software Craftsmanship Community, one of the largest tech communities in the world

We believe everyone should have the right to bring their whole self to work and be celebrated for who they are. Our people are hired purely on their commitment to our values and their ambition to deliver outstanding results for our clients. Codurance is proud to be an Equal Opportunities Employer, committed to fostering an inclusive workplace for all.