Founding AI Engineer

Founding AI Engineer Future Head of AI \n

Venture-Backed FinTech Start up | Equity Opportunity | Manchester

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We're partnering with an ambitious, early-stage fintech business on a mission to transform how consumers engage with and improve their financial wellbeing.

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Having achieved strong early validation and entered its next phase of growth, the company is seeking a highly capable AI Engineer to become the first dedicated AI hire and ultimately build and lead the AI function.

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This is a rare opportunity to join at a formative stage, influence product direction, and create AI capabilities that sit at the heart of the customer experience.

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For the right individual, there is a clear pathway into a future Head of AI position, alongside meaningful equity participation.

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The Role \n

This is not a traditional engineering role.

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You'll operate as a builder, architect, and strategic partner to the founders, helping shape both the AI roadmap and the wider product vision.

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The business sees AI as a core differentiator, not an add-on feature.

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You will be responsible for designing, building, and scaling intelligent systems that enhance customer engagement, personalisation, automation, and decision-making.

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Key Responsibilities \n

AI Product Development

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• Design and deploy AI-powered customer experiences
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• Build intelligent recommendation and personalisation systems
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• Create AI-driven workflows that deliver measurable user value
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• Rapidly prototype, test and launch new AI capabilities
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Agentic AI & Automation

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• Design and implement agent-based architectures
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• Build autonomous and semi-autonomous workflows
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• Develop multi-agent systems where appropriate
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• Leverage modern orchestration frameworks to improve customer outcomes
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AI Infrastructure & Architecture

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• Build scalable AI foundations and pipelines
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• Develop retrieval and knowledge-management systems
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• Implement evaluation, monitoring and governance frameworks
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• Ensure solutions are secure, reliable and production-ready
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Strategic Contribution

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• Work closely with founders on AI strategy
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• Help identify commercially valuable AI opportunities
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• Influence product direction and roadmap decisions
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• Act as the internal AI subject matter expert
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Future Leadership

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As the business scales, you will:

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• Define the AI hiring strategy
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• Recruit and mentor future AI talent
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• Establish AI standards and best practices
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• Build and lead the AI function
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What We're Looking For

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Technical Experience

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• Software engineering or machine learning engineering
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• Proven experience building production AI applications
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• Strong Python engineering capability
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• Experience deploying AI products into real-world environments
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Experience with several of:

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• LLM applications
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• Agentic AI frameworks
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• Multi-agent systems
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• RAG architectures
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• Vector databases
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• AI orchestration platforms
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• AI evaluation and observability tools
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• Model optimisation and fine-tuning
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Mindset

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We're particularly interested in individuals who:

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• Thrive in startup environments
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• Enjoy building from zero to one
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• Think commercially as well as technically
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• Are naturally curious about emerging AI capabilities
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• Move quickly and take ownership
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• Want to help build a company, not just a product
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Ideal Backgrounds

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• Senior AI Engineer
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• Lead AI Engineer
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• Founding AI Engineer
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• Applied AI Engineer
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• AI Product Engineer
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• Machine Learning Engineer (LLM Focus)
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• AI Solutions Architect
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What's on Offer \n

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• Competitive salary
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• Meaningful equity opportunity
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• Direct access to founders and strategic decision-making
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• Significant autonomy and ownership
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• Flexible working environment
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• Clear progression pathway to Head of AI
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Why This Role? \n

Few opportunities offer the chance to join at such an early stage and genuinely shape the future of a business.

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If you're excited by ownership, AI innovation, startup pace, and the opportunity to build a function from the ground up, we'd love to hear from you.

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Apply in confidence for a confidential discussion.

Founding AI Engineer Future Head of AI \n

#AI