Lead AI Engineer

Salary: £28,000 - 51,000 per year

Requirements:

• A minimum of a 2.1 degree in Computer Science, AI, Data Science, Statistics, or in a similar quantitative field.
• Demonstrable experience of deploying modern AI/ML solutions into production, including prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), model evaluation, and monitoring using metrics (e.g. precision, recall, NDCG and drift detection).
• Strong Python skills with a grounding in software engineering best practices (CI/CD, testing, code reviews etc).
• Experience developing solutions at scale on cloud platforms (Azure & AWS), containerisation and orchestration tools such as Kubernetes and Docker.
• Expertise in data engineering for AI: handling large-scale, unstructured, and multimodal data.
• Understanding of responsible AI principles, model interpretability, and ethical considerations.
• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to lead client projects and establish requirements in non-technical language.
• Experience in managing, coaching, and developing junior members of a team and wider community.
• (Desirable) Demonstrable experience with modern deep learning frameworks (e.g. PyTorch, TensorFlow), fine-tuning or distillation of LLMs (e.g. GPT, Llama, Claude, Gemini), machine learning libraries (e.g. scikit-learn, XGBoost).
• (Desirable) Experience with data storage for AI, vector databases, semantic search, and knowledge graphs.
• (Desirable) Contributions to open-source AI projects or research publications.
• (Desirable) Familiarity with AI security, privacy, and compliance standards e.g. ISO42001.

Responsibilities:

• Architect, design, and deliver advanced AI solutions leveraging machine learning, generative and agentic AI technologies.
• Drive the adoption of modern AI frameworks, AIOps best practices, and scalable cloud-native architectures.
• Provide hands-on technical leadership and collaborate with customers to translate business challenges into trustworthy AI solutions.
• Ensure responsible AI practices are implemented throughout the project lifecycle.
• Foster a culture of innovation, continuous learning, and engineering excellence as a technical mentor.
• Manage, coach, and develop a small number of staff, focusing on employee performance and career development.
• Provide direction and leadership for the team while solving challenging problems together.

Technologies:

• AI
• AWS
• Architect
• Azure
• CI/CD
• Cloud
• Docker
• Kubernetes
• Machine Learning
• PyTorch
• Python
• Security
• TensorFlow
• Support

More:

At Kainos, we’re problem solvers, innovators, and collaborators driven by a shared mission to create real impact. Recognized as one of the UK’s leading AI and data businesses, we offer a people-first culture where your ideas are valued and your growth is supported. Our diverse and ambitious team celebrates creativity and collaboration. You’ll be a part of our 150-strong AI and Data Practice, contributing to cutting-edge AI solutions for various sectors. We’re committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion and aim to build a team that reflects the diverse world we live in. Join us and be part of something bigger.

last updated 33 week of 2026