Head of Artificial Intelligence

Head of AI Engineering \& Innovation Location: Hybrid - 2 days in London Salary: £110-120k basic with benefits Are you passionate about building production-grade AI solutions while shaping the future of enterprise innovation? We're looking for an experienced Head of AI Engineering \& Innovation to lead and grow a high-performing AI function. This is a unique opportunity to define AI strategy, drive technical innovation, and remain hands-on in developing cutting-edge AI products and solutions used by both internal teams and enterprise clients. You'll play a key role in influencing AI adoption, leading technical delivery, supporting business growth, and establishing best practices across AI engineering. What you'll be doing * Define and execute the organisation's AI engineering and innovation strategy. * Lead and mentor a growing AI engineering team. * Design, build and deliver AI-powered applications, platforms and internal tools. * Stay hands-on with software development, architecture and technical problem-solving. * Work closely with clients and internal stakeholders to design scalable AI solutions. * Support pre-sales activity through technical proposals, workshops and solution presentations. * Champion emerging AI technologies and promote innovation across the business. * Develop reusable frameworks, accelerators and best practices that improve delivery and scalability. What we're looking for * Proven experience leading AI engineering, AI product or innovation teams. * Strong software engineering background with experience delivering production-ready applications. * Expert Python development skills, ideally including FastAPI . * Strong experience with AWS , including services such as Bedrock, Lambda, ECS/EKS, API Gateway and S3 . * Hands-on experience with LangChain, LangGraph, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), vector databases and multi-agent systems . * Experience building APIs, AI platforms and intelligent products. * Knowledge of AI evaluation, observability and monitoring tools such as LangSmith, Promptfoo, Arize or MLflow . * Understanding of AI testing, governance, safety and security best practices. * Experience with Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD pipelines and modern DevOps practices . * Excellent communication skills with experience engaging technical and non-technical stakeholders. * Previous experience delivering solutions within regulated industries such as financial services, telecommunications or insurance is advantageous. Nice to have * Azure and Azure AI Services. * AWS AgentCore. * MLOps and AI deployment tooling. * Knowledge graphs and graph databases. * Low-code, automation or integration platforms. * Front-end development experience. * Enterprise architecture or solution design experience. * Experience creating reusable developer platforms or innovation frameworks. You'll be successful if you... * Enjoy balancing strategic leadership with hands-on engineering. * Can translate complex AI concepts into practical business solutions. * Thrive in fast-paced environments where innovation is encouraged. * Have a commercial mindset and enjoy working closely with clients. * Are passionate about building scalable, real-world AI solutions that deliver measurable value. What's on offer * Opportunity to shape and lead an AI engineering capability. * Work on enterprise-scale AI products and innovation initiatives. * Influence technical strategy and emerging technologies. * Collaborative, forward-thinking engineering culture. If you're excited by the opportunity to build impactful AI solutions while leading a growing engineering function, we'd love to hear from you.