AI Engineer

Wave Group; United Kingdom; On-site; GBP 80,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

Wave Group in the United Kingdom is building out its AI function and hiring 3 AI Engineers to join at the start of this journey.

These roles focus on applied AI engineering, integrating AI into business workflows using OpenAI, Anthropic and similar tools. We expect strong Python engineering and practical LLM experience in regulated environments with governance and auditability.

The team will operate mostly remotely with occasional Leeds office visits to align with stakeholders.

Qualifications

• Strong hands-on Python engineering background.
• Practical exposure to LLMs/agentic AI (RAG, embeddings, model context).
• Ability to communicate with non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience in regulated environments with explainability and auditability.

Responsibilities

• Integrate AI capabilities into real business workflows (document processing, knowledge retrieval).
• Evaluate existing tools vs custom builds; avoid reinventing the wheel.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders and technical leads to ship measurable AI features.
• Ship projects quickly with governance and compliance in mind.

Skills

Python

LLMs/Agentic AI

LangChain

Stakeholder comms

Tools

LangChain

Microsoft Agent Framework

Embeddings

Job description

Location: fully remote, with occasional office visits in Leeds

VISA sponsorship is NOT available

A global FS business is building out its AI function from the ground up, and hiring 3 AI Engineers to join at the very start of that journey.

These are applied AI engineering roles - not ML/data science, not model-building. We're ideally looking for BE/Full-stack Engineers who progressed into AI Engineering 1-2 years ago.

It's a highly regulated, complex business that's spent 25 years becoming very good at the unsexy stuff - governance, compliance, risk, operational scale - and has just made a huge investment into AI to become the core of how the business runs, not a side project.

You’ll be integrating AI capabilities (via OpenAI, Anthropic, and similar) into real business workflows (document processing, knowledge retrieval etc.) with a philosophy of not reinventing the wheel, but rather choosing existing tools that are right for the job.

What we’re looking for:

• Strong, hands‑on Python engineering background - ideally you'd have been a software engineer who picked up AI in recent years
• Real, practical exposure to LLMs/agentic AI - RAG, embeddings, model context, agent frameworks (LangChain, Microsoft Agent Framework, or similar)
• The judgement to know when AI is the right tool and when it isn’t - this matters more here than almost anywhere else you interview
• Genuine curiosity and a track record of tinkering, building, and staying current - side projects, open-source contributions, or just things you've built for the love of it are taken seriously here, commercial or not
• The ability to communicate clearly with non-technical stakeholders - this role lives close to the business, not in a back room
• Comfort operating in a regulated environment where explainability and auditability aren't optional extras

What’s genuinely good about this role:

• Real budget, real appetite - this isn’t a "maybe next year" hire. Leadership signed this off within 24 hours of being asked. The business wants this done properly and is backing it.
• You’re joining at the start - this is a small, forming team (not a team of one lost in a huge org), with a technical lead already in place and a genuine guild/mentorship culture
• No hypothetical/research detours - you’ll ship things that matter, quickly, and see them used
• Almost fully remote work - genuinely not precious about where you live as long as you can get into Leeds from time to time (once every month or two)