Staff/Principal AI Software Engineer | Generative Programming & Reliable AI
Brighton and Hove, United Kingdom
Email: [email protected] | LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nigelljones | GitHub: github.com/planetf1

Pragmatic, full-stack software engineer specializing in generative programming and agentic AI frameworks within IBM Research. With a 35-year track record of shipping enterprise production code—spanning from AIX kernel modifications and global voice response systems to post-quantum cryptography—I bridge the gap between the probabilistic nature of LLMs and the rigorous predictability required for enterprise software. I am a tenacious, deep-thinking troubleshooter who digs from the UI down to the OS to uncover root causes. My focus is singular: engineering complex, open-source AI architectures into secure, observable, and highly reliable tools that developers can trust in production.

• Languages & Data: Python, Java, C, C++, Go, Rust, JSON, YAML
• AI & LLM Ecosystem: BeeAI, Mellea, crewAI, OpenAI, Amazon Bedrock, Google Vertex AI, Grok, RAG architectures
• Infrastructure & CI/CD: Kubernetes, Docker, Helm, Tekton, GitHub Actions, DORA Metrics
• Systems & Environments: macOS (VSCode), advanced Linux/Unix debugging and system administration

Software Engineer, AI Foundations | IBM Research | 2026-01-01 – Present

• Architecting Enterprise AI: Engineering the core tools, libraries (Mellea), and frameworks required to make generative AI reliable, observable, and usable for enterprise developers.
• Generative Programming: Pioneering execution pathways that force probabilistic LLMs to adhere to rigorous, deterministic software engineering standards, directly accelerating safe AI adoption.

Software Engineer, Quantum + AI | IBM Research | 2025-01-01 – 2026-01-01

• Shipped BeeAI: Led core backend engineering for the inaugural release of the open-source BeeAI agentic framework, delivering a robust, enterprise-grade architecture for complex AI workloads.
• Cross-Domain AI Integration: Prototyped and applied experimental agentic frameworks to accelerate IBM's quantum research, establishing early AI adoption patterns across disparate deep-tech teams.
• Mentorship & RAG Architecture: Directed an international engineering cohort to successfully prototype a Graph Retrieval-Augmented Generation (Graph RAG) system, expanding the team's applied AI capabilities.

Software Engineer, IBM Quantum | IBM Research | 2023-06-01 – 2024-12-31

• Infrastructure Modernization: Architected and executed the technical migration of IBM Quantum's CI/CD pipelines to a Tekton-based Kubernetes environment, eliminating legacy bottlenecks and drastically improving backend resilience.
• Delivery Optimization: Implemented DORA metrics across global development teams to actively measure, expose, and improve software delivery performance and operational reliability.
• Open Source Leadership: Served as the Technical Steering Committee (TSC) Lead for the Post-Quantum Cryptography Alliance (PQCA), translating highly complex mathematical cryptographic standards into accessible, quantum-safe implementations for the global open-source community.

Open Source Founder & Core Maintainer (Egeria) | IBM | 2017-01-01 – 2023-06-01

• Ecosystem Creation: Co-founded and scaled the Egeria open metadata project from initial enterprise banking architectural discussions into a global standard under the LF AI & Data foundation.
• Full-Stack Scaling: Drove the end-to-end engineering of the project's infrastructure, implementing rigorous static analysis, solving supply chain security vulnerabilities, and engineering enterprise production deployment patterns using Kubernetes and Helm.

Information Solutions & Architecture Leadership | IBM | 1992-03-01 – 2016-12-31

• Data Lake & InfoSphere Architecture: Architected enterprise Data Lake solutions utilizing Apache Hadoop and Apache Atlas, establishing the foundational strategy that led to the creation of Egeria.
• Master Data Management: Architected and optimized the IBM MDM Server, focusing on performance scaling and z/OS integration.
• Core Systems Engineering: Led full-stack development for IBM Voice Response (DirectTalk). Engineered device drivers, state engines, and executed deep systems integration including AIX kernel modifications.

• Technical Steering Committee Lead: Post-Quantum Cryptography Alliance (PQCA), The Linux Foundation (2023 – 2025)
• Project Co-Founder & Maintainer: ODPi Egeria, LF AI & Data (2017 – 2023)

• Panelist: Quantum-Ready Kubernetes: How Do We Get There? – KubeCon + CloudNativeCon Europe (2025-04-01)
• Speaker: Harvest Now, Decrypt Later: Managing the Threat From Quantum Algorithms – State of Open Con (2024-02-06)
• Tutorial Lead: Building an Open Metadata Ecosystem (Egeria Dojo Series) – Linux Foundation (2022)
• Author: Designing and Operating a Data Reservoir – IBM Redbooks (2015-05-26)

BSc (Hons), Physics and Computer Science The University of Manchester (1987 – 1990)