AI Platform Lead (Director)

3761 Barclays - BX - UK; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

Barclays is seeking a senior AI platform lead to design, develop and scale a global AI/ML platform that supports markets, banking, research and operations. You will own end-to-end delivery from development to production, ensuring secure, compliant, high-performance solutions across cloud and on‑prem environments.

You will lead engineering teams, align with risk and data governance, and continuously evolve the platform roadmap to leverage technologies like AWS, Kubernetes, and modern MLOps

Qualifications

• Strong Python engineering expertise with cloud-native platforms.
• Deep experience with AWS services and distributed systems.
• Proven track record building and scaling AI platforms in production.
• Hands-on knowledge of model lifecycle, deployment, monitoring, and governance.
• Security, compliance, and risk management in enterprise environments.
• Ability to lead technical teams and communicate effectively with both technical and senior stakeholders.
• Experience with Agentic Software Engineering tools.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and evolution of a global AI/ML platform supporting high scale, secure workloads across cloud and on‑prem environments.
• Deliver hands-on engineering solutions using Python and cloud-native technologies.
• Own end‑to‑end platform delivery including development, production support, monitoring, and incident management.
• Drive operational excellence with focus on reliability, performance, cost optimization, and automation.
• Establish and enforce governance, security, and compliance frameworks for AI and data platforms.
• Partner with business, technology, and risk stakeholders to align platform capabilities with priorities.
• Shape platform strategy and technical roadmap, evaluating emerging AI, MLOps, and cloud technologies.
• Ensure delivery outcomes by tracking performance metrics and driving adoption of platform capabilities.

Skills

Python

AWS

Distributed systems

Model governance

Security & risk

Leadership

Agentic tools

Tools

Kubernetes

CI/CD

Infrastructure as Code

Databricks

SageMaker

Job description

Job Description Purpose of the role

To design, develop and improve software, utilising various engineering methodologies, that provides business, platform, and technology capabilities for our customers and colleagues. Accountabilities Development and delivery of high-quality software solutions by using industry aligned programming languages, frameworks, and tools. Ensuring that code is scalable, maintainable, and optimized for performance. Cross-functional collaboration with product managers, designers, and other engineers to define software requirements, devise solution strategies, and ensure seamless integration and alignment with business objectives. Collaboration with peers, participate in code reviews, and promote a culture of code quality and knowledge sharing. Stay informed of industry technology trends and innovations and actively contribute to the organization’s technology communities to foster a culture of technical excellence and growth. Adherence to secure coding practices to mitigate vulnerabilities, protect sensitive data, and ensure secure software solutions. Implementation of effective unit testing practices to ensure proper code design, readability, and reliability.

Purpose of the role

To design, develop and improve software, utilising various engineering methodologies, that provides business, platform, and technology capabilities for our customers and colleagues. Accountabilities Development and delivery of high-quality software solutions by using industry aligned programming languages, frameworks, and tools. Ensuring that code is scalable, maintainable, and optimized for performance. Cross-functional collaboration with product managers, designers, and other engineers to define software requirements, devise solution strategies, and ensure seamless integration and alignment with business objectives. Collaboration with peers, participate in code reviews, and promote a culture of code quality and knowledge sharing. Stay informed of industry technology trends and innovations and actively contribute to the organization’s technology communities to foster a culture of technical excellence and growth. Adherence to secure coding practices to mitigate vulnerabilities, protect sensitive data, and ensure secure software solutions. Implementation of effective unit testing practices to ensure proper code design, readability, and reliability.

Director Expectations

Provide expert advice to senior functional management and committees to influence decisions made outside of own function, offering significant input to function wide strategic initiatives. Manage, coordinate and enable resourcing, budgeting and policy creation for a significant sub‑function. Escalates breaches of policies / procedure appropriately. Foster and guide compliance, ensure regulations are observed that relevant processes in place to facilitate adherence. Focus on the external environment, regulators, or advocacy groups to both monitor and influence on behalf of Barclays, when appropriate. Demonstrate extensive knowledge of how the function integrates with the business division / Group to achieve the overall business objectives. Maintain broad and comprehensive knowledge of industry theories and practices within own discipline alongside up‑to‑date relevant sector / functional knowledge, and insight into external market developments / initiatives. Use interpretative thinking and advanced analytical skills to solve problems and design solutions in often complex/ sensitive situations. Exercise management authority to make significant decisions and certain strategic decisions or recommendations within own area. Negotiate with and influence stakeholders at a senior level both internally and externally. Act as principal contact point for key clients and counterparts in other functions/ businesses divisions. Mandated as a spokesperson for the function and business division. All Senior Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others. All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.

Purpose of the role

To design, develop and improve software, utilising various engineering methodologies, that provides business, platform, and technology capabilities for our customers and colleagues. Accountabilities Development and delivery of high-quality software solutions by using industry aligned programming languages, frameworks, and tools. Ensuring that code is scalable, maintainable, and optimized for performance. Cross-functional collaboration with product managers, designers, and other engineers to define software requirements, devise solution strategies, and ensure seamless integration and alignment with business objectives. Collaboration with peers, participate in code reviews, and promote a culture of code quality and knowledge sharing. Stay informed of industry technology trends and innovations and actively contribute to the organization’s technology communities to foster a culture of technical excellence and growth. Adherence to secure coding practices to mitigate vulnerabilities, protect sensitive data, and ensure secure software solutions. Implementation of effective unit testing practices to ensure proper code design, readability, and reliability.

Director Expectations

Provide expert advice to senior functional management and committees to influence decisions made outside of own function, offering significant input to function wide strategic initiatives. Manage, coordinate and enable resourcing, budgeting and policy creation for a significant sub‑function. Escalates breaches of policies / procedure appropriately. Foster and guide compliance, ensure regulations are observed that relevant processes in place to facilitate adherence. Focus on the external environment, regulators, or advocacy groups to both monitor and influence on behalf of Barclays, when appropriate. Demonstrate extensive knowledge of how the function integrates with the business division / Group to achieve the overall business objectives. Maintain broad and comprehensive knowledge of industry theories and practices within own discipline alongside up‑to‑date relevant sector / functional knowledge, and insight into external market developments / initiatives. Use interpretative thinking and advanced analytical skills to solve problems and design solutions in often complex/ sensitive situations. Exercise management authority to make significant decisions and certain strategic decisions or recommendations within own area. Negotiate with and influence stakeholders at a senior level both internally and externally. Act as principal contact point for key clients and counterparts in other functions/ businesses divisions. Mandated as a spokesperson for the function and business division. All Senior Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others. All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.

Additional Job Description

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the design and evolution of a global AI/ML platform supporting high scale, secure, and cost-efficient workloads across cloud and on prem environments for Markets, Banking, Research, and Operations use cases
• Deliver hands on engineering solutions using Python and cloud native technologies to build reliable AI and machine learning infrastructure
• Own end to end platform delivery including development, production support, monitoring, and incident management
• Drive operational excellence with strong focus on reliability, performance, cost optimization, and automation
• Establish and enforce governance, security, and compliance frameworks for AI and data platforms
• Partner with business, technology, and risk stakeholders to align platform capabilities with enterprise priorities
• Shape platform strategy and technical roadmap, evaluating emerging AI, MLOps, and cloud technologies
• Ensure delivery outcomes by tracking performance metrics, managing risks, and driving adoption of platform capabilities

Required Skills

• Strong Python engineering expertise with experience building cloud native platforms
• Deep experience with AWS services and modern distributed systems architecture
• Proven track record building and scaling AI platforms in production environments
• Hands on knowledge of model lifecycle, deployment, monitoring, and governance practices
• Strong understanding of security, compliance, and risk management in enterprise environments
• Ability to lead technical teams and communicate effectively with both technical and senior stakeholders
• Ability to lead execution using Agentic Software Engineering tools

Preferred Experience

• Experience with AWS and Bedrock
• Experience with Kubernetes, CI or CD, infrastructure as code, and automation tools
• Familiarity with AI or ML platforms such as Databricks, SageMaker, or MLflow
• Exposure to hybrid cloud architectures and large scale data processing ecosystems
• Knowledge of enterprise data platforms, observability, and cost management tooling

Leadership Expectations

• Set technical direction and influence enterprise wide platform strategy and adoption
• Lead high performing engineering teams and foster a culture of innovation and excellence
• Drive accountability for delivery outcomes, performance metrics, and continuous improvement
• Act as a trusted advisor to senior stakeholders on AI platform strategy and execution

Our Work Experience

Our Work Experience is the combination of everything that’s unique about us: our culture, our core values, our company meetings, our commitment to sustainability, our recognition programmes but most importantly, it’s our people. Our employees are self‑disciplined, hard‑working, curious, trustworthy, humble, and truthful. They make choices according to what is best for the team, they live for opportunities to collaborate and make a difference, and they make us the #1 Top Workplace in the area.