AI & Automation Lead

AI \& Automation Lead Bolton, Hybrid (2 days a week on site) AI/LLM Engineering | GenAI | Agentic AI | Technical Leadership | Automation | n8n | Cloud We’re looking for an AI \& Automation Lead to provide hands-on technical leadership across a growing AI engineering team. This is a technical role for someone with a strong background in AI and LLM engineering who enjoys building solutions, solving complex engineering problems and supporting other engineers to deliver high-quality work. You’ll lead the technical delivery of AI solutions across a team of three AI Engineers, while remaining hands-on with coding and technically complex work yourself. The wider environment also includes workflow automation and RPA technologies including n8n and Blue Prism, so some understanding or exposure to the automation world will be useful. What you’ll be doing You’ll provide day-to-day technical leadership to the AI engineering team, helping determine how solutions are designed, built and delivered. You’ll: * Lead the technical design and delivery of AI, LLM and GenAI solutions * Remain hands-on with coding and development, particularly on technically complex or novel work * Support AI Engineers with solution design, technical challenges and engineering decisions * Set and maintain high standards around coding, model development, testing and deployment * Review technical approaches and code, identifying potential issues before they reach production * Help ensure AI solutions are scalable, secure, maintainable and production-ready * Lead and develop a team of three AI Engineers, including technical 1:1s, mentoring and removing blockers * Support the team in scoping and planning technical solutions * Develop reusable components, templates and engineering best practice * Work alongside wider internal and offshore technical teams to support successful delivery * Work across an environment that includes n8n and Blue Prism, supporting the integration of AI with existing automation workflows What we’re looking for The most important thing we’re looking for is strong, hands-on AI engineering experience. You’ll ideally have: * Hands-on experience building and deploying AI/ML solutions into production, including strong production coding experience * Strong knowledge of LLMs, Generative AI and agentic system design * Experience taking AI solutions from design through to production deployment * The technical depth to guide other engineers and make sound engineering decisions * Experience setting or working to strong engineering and development standards * Experience deploying AI/ML solutions using Azure, AWS or GCP * Experience leading, mentoring or supporting other engineers * A good understanding of data management, security and compliance within AI delivery * An understanding of, or exposure to, workflow automation/RPA technologies such as n8n or Blue Prism This is a great opportunity for an experienced AI Engineer who wants to combine hands-on engineering with technical team leadership. You’ll remain close to the technology while taking greater responsibility for technical delivery, engineering quality and the development of the AI Engineers around you. You might currently be a Senior AI Engineer, Lead AI Engineer, AI Technical Lead, AI Engineering Lead or Senior Machine Learning Engineer looking for broader technical leadership responsibility. Location: Bolton – Hybrid working (2 Days a week in Bolton) with occasional travel