Lead AI Engineer

Lead AI Engineer

London (Hybrid, 1 day per week) Up to £110,000 + 15% Bonus

This is an exciting opportunity for a Lead AI Engineer to join a business making significant investment in AI and automation. You will play a pivotal role in shaping AI strategy, leading the delivery of production-grade GenAI solutions, and driving innovation across multiple high-impact business areas. With strong executive backing and a growing pipeline of AI initiatives, this role offers genuine influence and ownership from day one.

The Company

They are a well-established, technology-driven organisation operating at scale within a highly regulated environment. As part of a wider digital transformation programme, they are investing heavily in AI, automation, and advanced data capabilities to improve customer experiences and operational efficiency.

Their AI function is expanding rapidly, with multiple GenAI and machine learning initiatives moving from concept into production. You will join a collaborative team where technical expertise is valued, decisions are made pragmatically, and innovation is closely aligned to measurable business outcomes.

The Role

As a Lead AI Engineer, you will be responsible for leading the design, development, and deployment of AI solutions that deliver real business value.

Responsibilities include:

• Owning end-to-end delivery of AI and GenAI solutions from discovery through to production.

• Leading architecture decisions and providing technical direction across multiple AI initiatives.

• Building scalable, secure, and reliable AI applications within an enterprise environment.

• Driving build versus buy evaluations and recommending appropriate technologies.

• Delivering solutions including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), agentic AI, automation, and intelligent decision-support tools.

• Working closely with engineering, security, governance, and business stakeholders.

• Navigating complex and ambiguous problem spaces to identify practical AI opportunities.

• Providing technical leadership, guidance, and mentoring within the AI engineering function.

• Contributing to the wider AI strategy and future direction of the capability.

Your Skills & Experience

• Strong commercial experience delivering GenAI solutions into production environments.

• Proven ability to lead AI projects from concept through deployment and operational management.

• Excellent software engineering fundamentals and experience building scalable applications.

• Experience making architecture and technology decisions within enterprise organisations.

• Strong knowledge of modern AI engineering practices, including LLMs, RAG, agentic workflows, and MLOps concepts.

• Experience working with cloud platforms, ideally AWS.

• Ability to balance innovation with risk, governance, and operational requirements.

• Strong stakeholder management and communication skills.

• Experience within financial services or other regulated environments would be beneficial.

• Demonstrable experience operating at Lead Engineer, Technical Lead, or equivalent level.

What They Offer

• Hybrid working model with flexibility and a strong focus on outcomes.

• Opportunity to influence AI strategy within a growing and highly visible function.

• Exposure to a broad portfolio of AI transformation initiatives.

• Career progression within an expanding AI and engineering capability.

• Autonomy, ownership, and the opportunity to deliver meaningful business impact at scale.

How to Apply

If you are a Lead AI Engineer with proven experience delivering production-ready GenAI solutions and want to play a key role in shaping the future of AI within a large-scale organisation, please apply today.