- Company Name
- TalentCo
- Job Title
- Lead AI Engineer (UK Remote)
- Job Description
-
**Job Title:** Lead AI Engineer
**Role Summary:**
Senior individual contributor responsible for architecting and engineering AI‑driven systems, building robust Python backend services, establishing data feedback loops, and providing technical leadership to a cross‑functional engineering team in a fast‑moving AI startup.
**Expectations:**
- Minimum 5 years of production‑grade backend engineering experience (Python, async frameworks).
- Proven track record designing and deploying applications that integrate foundation models/LLMs.
- Strong communication skills for mentoring engineers and translating AI concepts to non‑technical stakeholders.
- “Ship‑first” mindset with ability to balance technical debt against delivery speed.
**Key Responsibilities:**
- Design and implement scalable AI processing architectures (LLM integration, RAG pipelines, context engineering).
- Develop and maintain production‑grade APIs and services using Python (FastAPI, SQLAlchemy) on cloud platforms (GCP/AWS or comparable).
- Instrument data collection, create online evaluation metrics, and deploy lightweight ML models (e.g., logistic regression, boosted trees) for continuous optimization.
- Lead the transition from zero‑shot prototypes to data‑driven solutions.
- Mentor full‑stack engineers on AI best practices and emerging technologies.
- Advise product and leadership on AI feasibility, roadmap prioritization, and business impact.
**Required Skills:**
- Python development, async frameworks (FastAPI, Starlette, etc.).
- Backend technologies: REST/GraphQL APIs, SQL/ORM (SQLAlchemy), containerization, CI/CD.
- Cloud deployment (GCP, AWS, Railway, Render, Vercel).
- Experience with LLMs, prompt engineering, context window management, and building RAG pipelines.
- Practical ML modeling (logistic regression, gradient‑boosted trees) and evaluation.
- Data engineering basics: logging, metrics, feedback loops.
- Strong problem‑solving, code quality, scalability, and maintainability focus.
- Excellent written and verbal communication; team collaboration.
**Required Education & Certifications:**
- Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, or a related technical field (Master’s preferred).
- Relevant certifications (e.g., AWS Certified Solutions Architect, GCP Professional Cloud Architect) are a plus but not mandatory.