AI Engineer

Dentons Canada; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Dentons is seeking a senior AI Engineer (FDE) in a hybrid role within the Helix team of the Business Technology division. You will deliver end-to-end AI-enabled solutions, working across legal practice, clients and business services to turn workflows into scalable products.

Reporting to the IT Development Manager, you will apply expertise in LLMs, agentic systems and cloud tooling, while collaborating with front-end and software engineers to productionise key capabilities and raise the

Qualifications

• Substantial, demonstrable experience delivering AI/software/data products in complex environments.
• Strong practical experience with modern LLM app development and agentic systems.
• Strong Python engineering skills including API development, testing and maintainable code; SQL, Docker, cloud services and CI/CD experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead discovery and solution design with lawyers, practice groups, clients and business-services teams.
• Design and implement reliable agentic workflows with guardrails and observability.
• Build production-minded back-end services, APIs, data flows and cloud deployments using Python.
• Collaborate with front-end engineers, platform teams and architecture colleagues to move validated work into supported services.
• Mentor colleagues; create reusable patterns and contribute to recruitment and capability-building.
• Help build AI fluency across the function through mentoring and workshops.

Skills

LLM apps

Python engineering

APIs

Cloud platforms

Consulting skills

Security & governance

Education

CS/Engineering/Math/Data Science degree

Tools

Docker

SQL

Azure

CI/CD

OpenAI APIs

Job description

Department/Division: Business Technology

Duration: Permanent

Reports to:IT Development Manger

Type of Role: Hybrid

Budget Responsibilities: No

Reference number: 10740

The Role

Reporting to the IT Development Manager, with a dotted line to the Director of Helix, you will be a senior, experienced AI Engineer (FDE) embedded within the Helix team. You will work at the point where legal practice, client needs and advanced AI meet: independently discovering high-value problems, shaping practical solutions, building them and helping take them safely into use.

This is a hands-on senior individual-contributor role, combining consulting-style engagement skills with strong engineering judgement. You will turn legal and business workflows into secure, usable AI-enabled products and prototypes, while feeding lessons from delivery into Helix, Business Technology and the wider innovation roadmap.

The role is not a pure data-science or research position, and it is not primarily a front-end role. You should be comfortable building end-to-end working solutions and integrations; where a polished production interface or shared platform component is needed, you will partner with dedicated front-end and software engineers.

Key Responsibilities

• Forward deployment and solution delivery: Lead discovery and solution design with lawyers, practice groups, clients and business-services teams. Translate ambiguous legal and operational problems into small, testable delivery plans; build, iterate and demonstrate usable AI-enabled solutions; and make clear decisions about what should remain an experiment, be productised or be retired.
• Agentic AI and LLM engineering: Design and implement reliable agentic workflows, including tool use, retrieval, evaluation, orchestration, guardrails, human-in-the-loop controls and observability. Apply LLMOps practices to evaluate, monitor and improve LLM-based systems, with particular attention to legal accuracy, confidentiality, security, provenance and responsible use.
• Platforms and technical delivery: Use approved OpenAI capabilities, including relevant API, Skills and Work capabilities, alongside FleetAI and other approved platforms where they best meet the use case and governance requirements. Build production-minded back-end services, APIs, data flows and cloud deployments using Python and appropriate modern engineering practices.
• Collaboration: Work with Helix Managers on discovery, prioritisation, user outcomes and product direction. Collaborate with front-end engineers, software engineers, platform teams, data governance, information security and architecture colleagues across Innovation and IT to move validated work into supported services.
• Technical leadership: Act as a technical leader without an initial people-management remit: communicate technical choices, trade-offs, risks and progress clearly; mentor colleagues; create reusable patterns and playbooks; and contribute to recruitment and capability-building as the team grows.
• Training and support: Help build AI fluency across the function through mentoring, workshops and accessible technical guidance. Stay current with legal AI, foundation models, agentic systems and cloud tooling, translating emerging capability into practical opportunities for the firm.

Experience and Qualifications

• Substantial, demonstrable experience delivering AI, software or data products in complex, client-facing or regulated environments. We expect a senior practitioner who can operate independently and credibly with stakeholders.
• Strong practical experience with modern LLM application development and agentic systems. This must include building or operating LLM-enabled applications rather than only consuming off-the-shelf tools.
• Strong Python engineering skills, including API development, integration patterns, testing and maintainable code. Experience with SQL, Docker, cloud services and CI/CD is expected.
• Experience deploying solutions on a cloud platform, ideally Microsoft Azure, with a sound understanding of identity, security, data protection and operational reliability.
• Experience with RAG, embeddings, evaluation frameworks, prompt and version management, model safety controls and observability. Familiarity with OpenAI APIs and enterprise AI platforms is highly desirable.
• Excellent consulting, communication and facilitation skills: able to build trust, frame problems, make progress amid ambiguity and explain complex matters simply.
• A relevant degree or equivalent professional experience in computer science, engineering, mathematics, data science or a related discipline. Certifications are welcome but not essential.

What Success Looks Like

• Trusted partnerships with legal and business teams, leading to a focused pipeline of valuable, feasible AI opportunities.
• Working solutions that demonstrably improve legal or business workflows and meet agreed security, quality and adoption standards.
• A clear path from prototype to supported product or platform, with ownership and support expectations understood.
• Reusable technical patterns and stronger internal capability, reducing the time needed to safely deliver the next AI use case.

Firm Profile

Across more than 80 countries, Dentons helps you grow, protect, operate and finance your organisation by providing uniquely global and deeply local legal solutions. Polycentric, purpose-driven and committed to inclusion, diversity, equity and sustainability, we focus on what matters most to you. www.dentons.com

Inclusion and Diversity

We are committed to building an inclusive culture here at Dentons where our people can thrive, regardless of their background or circumstance. As well as being the right thing to do, it makes good business sense too. A richness of backgrounds, experiences and perspectives helps us best serve our clients and the communities in which we operate. You can find out more about inclusion and diversity at Dentons here: Inclusion and Diversity

Dentons is committed to providing equal opportunities for all. We welcome applications from everyone including of any age, ethnicity, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, nationality, neurotype, disability, or with parental or caring responsibilities. We are also “Happy to Talk Flexible Working” and welcome conversations about flexible working arrangements.

Dentons is a Disability Confident employer. Candidates with a disability may choose to apply under the Disability Confident Scheme. We will offer an interview to disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the role. Where application volumes are high, we may offer interviews to those who best meet the minimum criteria, consistent with our approach for all candidates.

During the application process, all applicants have the opportunity to tell us about any adjustments or support they require so they are able to perform at their best. Any information you share with us during the application process is treated in confidence.