AI Modernization Engineer

Job Title

Job Description

Innovation Engineering (IEN) partners with Business Units and Functions to accelerate innovation and enhance quality, aligning closely with product roadmaps and priorities. We provide a focused portfolio of digital innovation and system platforms that enable our Philips Businesses to scale innovation.

About the role 

We're looking for a hands-on engineer who gets stuff done by using AI coding tools to tackle legacy systems head-on. You'll spend most of your time digging into old code (think monoliths in Java, .NET, C++, ANSI-C), figuring out what it actually does, and using AI to help refactor, break it apart, and move pieces to modern setups—without blowing up production.

The goal isn't to play with shiny AI toys; it's to make modernization faster and less painful than the old manual way. You'll need good judgment to steer the AI, catch its mistakes, and deliver quality code that can be maintained.

Main responsibilities 

• Dive into legacy codebases to map out business logic, dependencies, and pain points—using AI tools to speed up analysis and suggestions.  

• Apply incremental approaches like the Strangler Fig pattern: start small, extract one service or feature at a time, build wrappers/facades, and reroute traffic gradually.  

• Use AI assistants (Copilot, Windsurf, Claude, Codex, etc.) to generate refactored code, write tests for undocumented parts, propose microservices breakdowns, or translate old patterns to cloud-native equivalents.  

• Integrate the changes safely: handle CI/CD conflicts, versioning, security reviews, and performance checks so nothing regresses.  

• Work closely with product teams and architects to select the highest-impact areas first and review what the AI spits out.  

• Share practical tips on prompting effectively and avoiding common pitfalls so the team can level up on this too.

Must-have skills & experience

• Solid hands-on coding in at least two modern languages (Java, Python, C#, C++, Rust, Go preferred) and comfort reading/editing legacy stuff.

• You are proficient in applying SOLID principles, TDD, BDD, and design & architecture patterns.

• Real experience doing legacy modernization—strangler migrations, incremental refactors, monolith-to-microservices work (not just theory).  

• Proven track record using generative AI tools day-to-day for code tasks: explaining old code, suggesting refactors, generating tests, or automating translations.  

• Working knowledge of cloud platforms (AWS, Azure) and basics like containers, event-driven patterns, CI/CD.  

• Ability to spot when AI is hallucinating or suggesting bad ideas—and fix it.  

• Proactive attitude: you experiment with new tools but always tie it back to shipping reliable results.

Nice to have  

• Familiarity with agent-style workflows or tools for automated decomposition.  

• Background in automated testing or clean code habits in modernization projects.  

• Experience in consulting or services where you modernize client systems under real constraints.

Personal attributes

• You see the big picture—hardware, software, data—and how it all connects to solve real problems.

• You break down complex tech ideas, so anyone—no matter their background—can get it.

• You know how to make progress in groups where no one has official authority—just influence and trust.

• You keep things practical and focused on what actually works, not just theory.

• You openly share what you learn and tailor your message, so it lands with whoever’s listening.

• You’re a team player—proactive, driven by results, and always looking to lift others up.

What we offer

• Direct chance to cut through years of technical debt using tools that move the needle.  

• Room to try emerging AI capabilities on real, high-stakes code.  

• Team of engineers who are also figuring out this space—no ivory tower.  

How we work together
This position requires working onsite in the office for a minimum of three days per week.

About Philips
We are a health technology company. We built our entire company around the belief that every human matters, and we won't stop until everybody everywhere has access to the quality healthcare that we all deserve. Do the work of your life to help the lives of others.

• Learn more about our business.

• Discover our rich and exciting history.

• Learn more about our purpose.

If you’re interested in this role and have many, but not all, of the experiences needed, we encourage you to apply. You may still be the right candidate for this or other opportunities at Philips. Learn more about our culture of impact with care here.

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