Founding Lead AI Engineer
1 day ago
London
Lead AI Engineer – Next-Gen Predictive Intelligence Platform Startup / AI / Product / Financial Services Central London (2–3 days in office) | £100k-£120k base + strong equity A high-growth FinTech startup in London is building an AI-powered Predictive Intelligence Platform for corporates and financial institutions. Their technology connects market events, client data, and emerging opportunities through advanced agentic AI and RAG-based systems, helping financial institutions anticipate client needs before they arise. They have built a live MVP in record time, with enterprise client demos underway, and are now hiring a Lead AI Engineer to join as permanent hire number four in the founding technology team. This is a rare opportunity to join at the inflection point — a hands-on, high-ownership, high-impact role where you’ll shape the AI core of a company redefining predictive intelligence in finance. Role Overview Reporting directly to the CTO, you’ll lead the design and productionisation of the company’s core AI systems. You will architect, implement, evaluate, and scale RAG pipelines, agentic workflows, and LLM-based intelligence frameworks, driving real-world impact across financial markets. The role is approximately 80% hands-on and 20% strategic, covering Python engineering, system architecture, and model evaluation, while collaborating closely with product and domain experts. Key Responsibilities • Build and deploy RAG pipelines, agentic AI workflows, and LLM integration frameworks, • Own AI evaluation, guardrails, and observability systems, • Translate financial workflows into scalable AI capabilities, • Collaborate directly with the CTO and external development teams, • Help shape the AI roadmap and mentor future hires About You • Strong experience in LLM engineering, RAG systems, prompt orchestration, and agentic architectures, • Proven experience delivering ML/AI systems into production environments, • Excellent Python engineering and system design skills, • Familiarity with APIs, MLOps, and cloud deployment (AWS, GCP, or Azure), • Clear communicator, comfortable in fast-paced, early-stage environments, • STEM degree required; MSc in AI, Computer Science, or a related field preferred, • You have experience in financial services/regulated industry, • You have B2B experience What’s on Offer • £100k-£120k base salary plus meaningful equity, • Join at ground level (hire number four) with real ownership and influence, • Work with an exceptional founding team from top-tier consulting, technology, and finance backgrounds, • Hybrid working model: 2–3 days a week in Central London, • Visa sponsorship not available