AI Technical Lead

Locations Belfast, Birmingham, Edinburgh, London, Newcastle, United Kingdom

This role is for an experienced AI Technical Lead. The role requires experience designing, developing, and delivering AI solutions for large-scale organisations. We are seeking a hands-on technical leader with strong AI engineering capabilities to lead proof-of-concept development and production implementation while providing technical leadership across the delivery lifecycle.

Responsibilities

Lead the design, development, testing, and deployment of secure, scalable, and reusable AI solutions using approved enterprise platforms and technologies.

Build and integrate LLM, RAG, and multi-agent solutions using frameworks such as Semantic Kernel, Lang Chain, or similar.

Develop and maintain AI-powered applications, APIs, and backend services.

Lead the development of proof-of-concepts and pilot solutions, validating technical feasibility and supporting the transition into production solutions.

Work with Business Analysts, SMEs, and stakeholders to translate business requirements into production-ready AI solutions that deliver measurable business value.

Collaborate with architects, data engineers, product owners, and QA teams to deliver end-to-end AI solutions.

Provide technical leadership, mentoring, code reviews, and guidance to development teams.

Assess technical feasibility, integration requirements, data readiness, and solution constraints when defining AI solutions.

Apply engineering best practices for AI deployment, monitoring, optimisation, security, and lifecycle management.

Ensure AI solutions comply with architecture, security, Dev Sec Ops , Responsible AI, and regulatory standards.

Maintain technical documentation and support knowledge sharing across delivery teams.

8+ years' experience in the application development lifecycle.

Experience leading development teams and providing technical leadership.

Proven experience designing and delivering enterprise-scale solutions.

Strong hands-on experience developing AI-powered applications and services.

Experience in backend development for AI applications and orchestration of LLMs or multi-agent systems.

Experience with Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Foundry, AWS Bedrock, Vertex AI, or similar AI platforms.

Experience in prompt engineering and working with multiple AI models.

Experience developing proof-of-concepts and successfully scaling them into production solutions.

Proficiency in Python and modern AI development frameworks.

Experience working with cloud platforms such as Azure, AWS, or GCP.

Experience integrating enterprise systems through APIs, services, and data platforms.

Strong and effective communication skills with experience engaging directly with business stakeholders.

Experience with Semantic Kernel, Lang Chain, Lang Graph, Auto Gen, CrewAI, or similar frameworks.

Experience with vector databases, RAG architectures, and enterprise search solutions.

Experience with MLOps, CI/CD, Dev Sec Ops , and model lifecycle management.

Understanding of data governance, Responsible AI, GDPR, and AI regulatory requirements.

Experience working in regulated or complex enterprise environments.

Familiarity with Agile methodologies, Scrum practices, and application lifecycle management.

Why Version 1?

At Version 1, we believe in providing our employees with a comprehensive benefits package that prioritises their wellbeing, professional growth, and financial stability.

Share in our success with our Quarterly Performance-Related Profit Share Scheme, where employees collectivelybenefitfrom a share of our company's profits

Strong Career Progression & mentorship coaching through our Strength in Balance & Leadership schemes with a dedicated quarterly Pathways Career Development programme

Flexible/remote working, Version 1 is tremendously understanding of life events and people’s individual circumstances and offer flexibility to help achieve a healthy work life balance

Financial Wellbeing initiatives including;

Pension, Private Healthcare Cover, Life Assurance, Financialadviceand an Employee Discount scheme

Employee Wellbeing schemes including Gym Discounts, Bike to Work, Fitness classes, Mindfulness Workshops, Employee Assistance Programme and much more. Generous holiday allowance, enhanced maternity/paternity leave, marriage/civil partnership leave and special leave policies

Educational assistance, incentivised certifications, and accreditations, including AWS, Microsoft, Oracle, and Red Hat

Reward schemes including…