Syngenta Group, a global leader in agricultural technology and innovation, employs 60,000 people across more than 100 countries to transform agriculture through tailor-made solutions for farmers, society, and our planet. Our diverse portfolio encompasses seeds, crop protection, nutrition products, agronomic solutions, and digital services, all designed to help farmers produce healthy food, feed, fiber, and fuel while conserving natural resources and protecting the environment. Our mission is to address critical challenges such as climate change and food security through sustainable practices and cutting-edge solutions, while safeguarding the planet's resources.
Jealott's Hill International Research Centre is situated in pleasant semi-rural surroundings between Bracknell and Maidenhead and is the place of work for approximately 800 Syngenta scientists and support staff. Jealott’s Hill is one of the main global research and development sites and key activities include research into discovery of new active ingredients, new formulation technologies, product safety, technical support of our product range and seeds research.
We are seeking an exceptional Deployment Engineering Lead to join our cutting-edge Computational Agronomy Department at Syngenta.
This role offers a unique opportunity to drive innovation at the intersection of agriculture and technology, directly impacting global food production.
As the Deployment Engineering Lead, you will transform complex agronomic models into scalable, production-ready digital solutions, shape our technological roadmap, and lead a team of skilled engineers. Your responsibilities include strategic planning, people management, and cross-functional collaboration.
The ideal candidate possesses extensive experience in software engineering and deployment practices, strong leadership and communication skills. The role demands a collaborative spirit and customer-centric approach, requiring you to work closely with digital product managers, engineering teams, customer-facing teams, and diverse stakeholders.
If you're ready to lead the charge in transforming how we approach agricultural challenges through advanced technology, we invite you to apply and be part of this exciting journey.
Essential Duties & Responsibilities
- Lead and manage a cross-functional engineering team composed of backend and machine learning engineers focused on deploying digital agronomic solutions.
- Provide technical leadership and mentorship to a team of software engineers.
- Engage with stakeholders to understand business requirements and translate them into deployable software artifacts.
- Collaborate with DevOps, data scientists, and agronomists to ensure scalable, secure, and reliable solutions.
- Collaborate with remote sensing, agronomic science, and product teams to understand deployment needs and ensure seamless integration with platforms like Cropwise and the Insights Engine.
- Manage project timelines, resources, and deliverables while ensuring high-quality output.
- Proactively identify technical gaps and propose solutions to improve performance, scalability, and maintainability.
- Contribute directly to development efforts when needed, maintaining close alignment with team deliverables.
- Conduct code reviews and ensure high standards of code quality, testing, and documentation.
- Own the deployment architecture to ensure scalable, secure, and reliable solutions.
- Design, build, and maintain model-serving APIs and services used across digital platforms.
Knowledge, Experience & Capabilities
- Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related field.
- 7+ years of experience in software engineering, including significant experience in backend development using Python (e.g., FastAPI).
- Extensive hands-on experience with AWS services (e.g., Lambda, S3, ECS/EKS), Kubernetes, and containerized environments
- Proven track record in deploying and maintaining machine learning models and microservice-based architectures in production environments
- Demonstrated expertise in MLOps practices and deep understanding of the ML model lifecycle.
- Hands-on experience with SQL and NoSQL databases, monitoring tools (e.g., Datadog), and version control systems (e.g., GitHub, GitLab)
- Proven experience in designing and implementing CI/CD pipelines for complex software systems
- 3+ years of experience leading small engineering teams, including mentoring and professional development of team members.
- Strong project management skills, with the ability to balance strategic thinking and hands-on execution
- Experience in Agile methodologies and scaling engineering practices
- Excellent communication skills in English (written and verbal), with the ability to effectively engage with leadership and business stakeholders.
- Extensive benefits package including a generous pension scheme, bonus scheme, private medical & life insurance.
- Remote working within the UK.
- Flexible working, dependent on role requirements
- Up to 31.5 days annual holiday.
- We offer a position which contributes to valuable and impactful work in a stimulating and international environment.
- Learning culture (Together we Grow) and wide range of training options.
Equal Opportunity
Syngenta is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, promotion, or any other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status.