Chief AI Engineer

Description

The posting closes on Friday 6 November 2026.

This senior role sits in the Conversational AI team at a UK bank, where you will help shape how millions of customers interact with the company.

The work covers several products and a roadmap that must fit the company's platform strategy, architecture principles and responsible AI commitments.

Responsibilities

• Set the technical direction across several products so they match platform strategy, enterprise architecture, engineering standards and responsible AI commitments.
• Design and deliver scalable, reusable architectures that handle high volumes of customer engagement and use the latest AI advances.
• Act as the top technical authority on complex AI engineering problems, guiding architecture choices, reviewing designs and shaping how several teams build.
• Turn priorities from senior business, design and technology leaders into an ambitious Conversational AI roadmap that shows what is possible.
• Coach and grow a high-performing group of AI engineers drawn from engineering, data science and architecture.
• Lead the build of reusable AI capabilities and platforms for use across the group.
• Run applied research, experiments and prototypes to test new technologies, find high-potential use cases and keep the company at the leading edge of Conversational AI.

Requirements

• Proven expertise in generative AI and agentic AI, including creating new solutions to real problems and getting AI systems into production.
• Strong hands-on experience with NLP technologies such as generative AI, AI agents, chatbots, language models, transformers, vector stores and search algorithms.
• Experience building and extending a full conversational AI architecture, from the front end through AI services to back end system integrations.
• Experience understanding and applying ethical AI standards.
• Ability to explain technical concepts simply to senior leaders and partner teams.
• Experience working in a regulated environment and managing reliability, security, safety and explainability risks.
• Line management experience coaching technical staff at various levels.
• A strong drive to keep learning about AI and its applications at scale.
• Relevant experience gained in other ways counts, since skills are built in many different routes.

Conditions

Full-time.

Salary of £137,848 to £172,310.

Hybrid working: at least two days per week, or 40% of your time, at one of the office sites.

Flexible working options include hybrid working and job share.

Workplace adjustments, including hybrid working expectations, are available for colleagues with disabilities under the Flexibility Works policy.

As a Disability Confident Leader, the company guarantees interviews for applicants with a disability, long-term health or neurodivergent condition who meet the minimum criteria, and provides adjustments throughout recruitment.

Benefits

• Pension contribution of up to 15%.
• Annual performance-related bonus.
• Share schemes, including free shares.
• Lifestyle benefits you can adapt, such as discounted shopping.
• 30 days' holiday, with bank holidays on top.
• A range of wellbeing initiatives and generous parental leave policies.