Lead Technologist

Job description & person specification

Title: Lead Technologist

Department: Digital

Reports to: Digital Innovation Lead

As Lead Technologist, you'll own the technical direction for our innovation product portfolio, leading development of operational intelligence systems, real-time monitoring tools, decision-support platforms and customer-facing experiences. Working embedded with operational, data science, and commercial stakeholders, you'll translate complex requirements into production-ready systems that drive efficiency, safety, and service quality in a live operational environment.

• Drive technical architecture across the product pipeline - from real-time data processing and predictive analytics through to automated operations and intelligent alerting.
• Lead delivery of production ML/AI systems, working closely with data science and operational teams to deploy models that create measurable business value.
• Own integrations with operational and enterprise systems, ensuring reliable data flows and system interoperability across complex environments.
• Run technical discovery and proof-of-concept validation for new capabilities, scoping feasibility and defining delivery roadmaps with cross-functional stakeholders.
• Coach and develop internal technical capability, setting engineering standards and building a culture of quality, rigour, and continuous improvement.
• Balance rapid experimentation with production-grade engineering - shipping reliable, maintainable systems while operating in a high-stakes operational context.
• Create and pitch technical proposals, writing clear business cases that balance speed, risk, and value.
• Support recruitment and team growth, providing technical assessment, knowledge transfer, and structured onboarding.
• Manage vendor relationships and technical partnerships, ensuring integrations meet operational and security requirements.
• Contribute to delivering a great guest experience by performing your role with accuracy and efficiency. Recognising that every task whether guest facing or behind the scenes contributes to supporting the company’s overall LLA Way Strategy and service standards.
• Proactively and positively promote the LLA Way initiatives and projects with all employees and the wider airport community.

You’ll be hands-on across technical architecture, proof-of-concept development, and production deployment. Meaningful experience with a subset of these technologies is essential:

• Type Script (application development, API services)
• Python (ML/data pipelines, automation, scripting)
• SQL (data modelling, querying, optimisation)
• Azure (cloud services, serverless functions, managed services)
• Infrastructure as Code (Pulumi preferred, or similar tooling)
• Full-stack JavaScript frameworks (React, Next.js, or similar modern frameworks)
• Real-time data processing and event-driven architectures
• ML/AI deployment patterns (model serving, monitoring, retraining pipelines)
• APIs & integrations (REST, GraphQL, third-party connectivity)
• CI/CD pipelines and automated deployment

• Proven delivery track record - you’ve shipped production data/AI systems in operational, regulated, or high-stakes environments (transport, logistics, utilities, healthcare, or similar).
• Systems integration experience - comfortable working with legacy enterprise systems and managing complex data flows across multiple sources.
• Active leadership and initiative - you identify opportunities, shape strategy, and drive outcomes. You don’t wait to be told what to do. This is not just a heads-down coding role.
• Outstanding communication - you translate complex technical concepts for operational teams, present to senior…