AI Lead, AI Team Lead, Head of AI

Smile Digital Talent Ltd; Saffron Walden; Remote; GBP 65,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading technology driven business in the UK is seeking a Head of AI to shape their AI strategy. This position involves building and leading a high-performance team, designing AI architectures, and spearheading the development of AI models. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in machine learning and cloud environments. The role offers a salary range of £65k-£80k, a solid bonus, and the potential for equity, with remote working and occasional travel across the UK.

Qualifications

• Deep technical grounding in machine learning, NLP, computer vision, or autonomous systems.
• Proven track record of leading AI initiatives from R&D to production.
• Comfortable operating across cloud environments (GCP, Azure, AWS).

Responsibilities

• Build and lead a high-performance team of machine learning engineers and data scientists.
• Design and implement AI architectures across cloud and on-prem environments.
• Identify new AI use cases and communicate technical vision to stakeholders.

Skills

Machine learning

NLP

AI architecture design

Team leadership

Cloud environments

Ethical AI principles

Tools

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Kubernetes

Vertex AI

MLflow

Job description

Head of AI / AI Architect / AI Team Lead– Remote (Candidate must be based in the UK) £65k-£80k + solid bonus + potential for equity.

A leading technology driven business is seeking an exceptional AI leader to shape, scale and take ownership of their AI strategy, both internally and their client offering.

This role sits at the intersection of cutting edge research and enterprise impact, leading the delivery of transformative AI systems across multiple business domains,including LLMs, multimodal AI, generative models, and autonomous agents.

The role is remote working with Adhoc travel within the UK for client meetings, workshops etc.

Your role will involve:

• Building, scaling and leading a high performance team of machine learning engineers, AI researchers, and data scientists, driving end-to-end AI solution delivery.

• Designing and implementing AI architectures across cloud and on-prem environments, leveraging tools like PyTorch, TensorFlow, and Hugging Face.

• Spearheading the development of production ready AI models, from foundational LLMs to custom built cognitive agents, solving real world business challenges.

• Establishing scalable ML/AI pipelines and infrastructure, working closely with data engineering and DevOps functions (Kubernetes, MLflow, Vertex AI, etc.).
  

• Acting as a thought leader, identifying new AI use cases and communicating technical vision to executive stakeholders and cross-functional teams.

• Champion ethical AI principles, ensuring fairness, transparency, and robustness in deployed models.

What we need you to have:

• A deep technical grounding in machine learning, NLP, computer vision, or autonomous systems,ideally with hands on experience in deep learning frameworks.

• Proven track record of leading AI initiatives from R&D to production, including delivery of generative AI applications, custom LLMs, or intelligent agents.

• Strategic mindset with the ability to balance research innovation and commercial value delivery.

• Comfortable operating across cloud environments (GCP, Azure, AWS) and deploying AI/ML systems at scale.

• Strong knowledge of MLOps practices and infrastructure — including CI/CD, model versioning, orchestration, and monitoring.

• A collaborative and inspiring leader who brings out the best in technical teams and communicates complex concepts to diverse audiences.

Why This Role Stands Out:

This opportunity will enable you to lead transformative AI products that go beyond dashboards and models,powering real-time automation, autonomous decision making, and LLM-driven innovation.

Join an organisation investing heavily in next-gen AI, with an open mindsetfor experimentation and thought leadership.