AI Engineer - SC Cleared - £600p/d(Outside) - Remote

IO Associates; Remote; GBP 100,000 - 125,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading AI technology firm in London is seeking experienced AI Engineers to design and deliver LLM-powered applications. This hands-on technical leadership role involves building features using Python and leading discussions with enterprise clients. The ideal candidate should have over 5 years of software engineering experience, particularly with LLM-based systems. Flexibility and innovation in a demanding environment are crucial. This position is remote and offers a competitive day rate.

Qualifications

• 5+ years of commercial software engineering experience required.
• Experience delivering production LLM-based systems needed.
• Strong Python background essential for API-driven development.

Responsibilities

• Designing and delivering LLM-powered applications.
• Building platform features and integrations using Python.
• Leading technical discussions and mentoring engineers.

Skills

Software engineering

Python programming

LLM-based systems

API development

Agile methodology

Tools

FastAPI

LangGraph

LlamaIndex

OpenAI SDK

Job description

Location: London (Remote)
Clearance: SC Cleared
Day Rate: £600p/d (Outside IR35)
Duration: 6 months (likely extension)

We're partnering with a high-growth, VC-backed AI technology company building a next-generation AI platform for use in secure, complex and regulated enterprise environments.

This organisation is solving the problem many enterprises face when moving from AI experimentation to trusted, production-grade systems. Their platform enables scalable, controlled deployment of AI solutions where security, reliability and governance are critical.

They're now hiring multiple AI Engineers to play a key role in designing, building and deploying LLM-powered applications directly with enterprise clients.

This is a hands-on technical leadership role with significant autonomy, client exposure and influence over platform direction.

What You'll Be Doing

• Designing and delivering LLM-powered applications and agentic workflows
• Building platform features, APIs and integrations using Python
• Implementing AI agents with tool/function calling, guardrails and evaluation frameworks
• Working with open-source and hosted LLMs
• Applying advanced techniques including RAG, knowledge graphs and vector databases
• Translating client requirements into scalable, production-ready AI solutions
• Leading technical discussions and mentoring engineers
• Balancing innovation with real-world constraints: security, performance, cost and compliance

Key Skills & Experience

• 5+ years commercial software engineering experience
• Proven experience delivering production LLM-based systems
• Strong Python background (production-grade, API-driven systems)
• Hands-on experience with LLM APIs, prompt engineering & evaluation
• Experience with agent frameworks (LangGraph, LlamaIndex, OpenAI SDK or similar)
• API development using FastAPI or similar frameworks
• Client-facing experience gathering requirements and delivering solutions
• Comfortable operating in agile, fast-paced environments

If you'd like to learn more, feel free to to apply or email me directly at for a confidential chat.