AI Systems Engineer

Nimble Approach; Sheffield, Leeds, Manchester; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 95,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private healthcare

Hybrid working

Parental pay

Volunteer days

Mental health support

L&D fund

Equipment provided

Social events

Holiday entitlement

Company pension

Job summary

Nimble Approach in the UK North (Leeds/Manchester base) is seeking an AI Systems Engineer to deliver production AI features end-to-end, from integration to release. You will work on secure, cost-aware AI products across retrieval, tool usage and deployment.

Collaborate with cross-functional teams, define delivery tickets, and build robust RAG pipelines with guardrails and observability. The role combines hands-on engineering with strategic thinking in a fast-paced, supportive consultancy culture.

Qualifications

• Has SC Clearance or eligibility for clearance.
• Curious, low-ego, able to explain technical decisions clearly to engineers and clients.
• Proven ability to build robust AI features including tool calling, streaming responses, state management, and error handling.
• Hands-on experience with RAG pipelines, embedding models, and implementing context caching to optimise latency and cost.
• Experience running automated, repeatable evaluation checks for feature accuracy and basic safety/injection filtering.
• Ability to verify that cloud API integrations enforce zero-data-retention and non-training agreements, securely managing API credentials.

Responsibilities

• Build and integrate production AI services, select suitable models, and configure parameters while understanding the trade-offs between static context length, latency, and output costs.
• Build and test functional retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines that respect source permissions, handling document parsing, retrieval filtering, citation generation, and context caching.
• Implement agentic patterns—such as task routing and stateful tool execution—within production services, ensuring safe execution through deterministic fallbacks and retry limits.
• Set human approval points for higher-risk automated actions and implement programmatic guardrails to mitigate prompt manipulation and sensitive data leakage.
• Implement automated, repeatable evaluation checks for feature accuracy, response latency, and token cost to validate prompt and agent updates before deployment.
• Instrument AI applications with structured logging and tracing to capture latency, error rates, and token spend per call.
• Help define, size, and break down delivery tickets, evaluating whether a proposed feature delivers tangible user value relative to its cost, latency, and failure rate.

Skills

SC Clearance

Curious problem solver

AI features

RAG pipelines

Context caching

Tool calling

Streaming responses

State management

Error handling

Tools

Tool calling

Streaming

State management

Error handling

Job description

AI Systems Engineer

Who we are:

Nimble is a boutique technology consultancy based in the UK North; Sheffield, Leeds and

Manchester. We partner with ambitious clients across the public and private sectors to design,

build, and optimize digital services that deliver real value. We pride ourselves on our agile

mindset, our creative problem-solving, and our collaborative culture.

Our projects are diverse and different, just like our ways of working and our people. One of our

key focusses is maintaining a strong culture of pragmatic, skilled, egoless people who collaborate to get things done and have lots of fun along the way.

The people we want

We want curious, tenacious problem solvers who create forward momentum. We value people

with a high learning capacity: people who get to the real problem, learn fast in unfamiliar

territory and turn ambiguity into a useful next step. We also want kind, low-ego colleagues who

are direct but constructive, generous with knowledge and good to work with. Brilliance is not a

licence for poor behaviour. People should strengthen the team, not make it harder to work in.

The role

The role sits within Nimble’s Frontier AI Business Unit. While you will be working with a remote

client, you must be based in either our Leeds or Manchester office.

As an AI Engineer, you will be trusted to deliver complete AI features or small services independently, from integration through release and support. Your work will span the core disciplines required to build secure, useful AI products:

• Product framing
• Data and retrieval
• Application & context engineering
• Evaluation
• Reliable operation

What you will do

• Build and integrate production AI services, select suitable models, and configure parameters while understanding the trade-offs between static context length, latency, and output costs.
• Build and test functional retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines that respect source permissions, handling document parsing, retrieval filtering, citation generation, and context caching.
• Implement agentic patterns—such as task routing and stateful tool execution—within production services, ensuring safe execution through deterministic fallbacks and retry limits.
• Set human approval points for higher-risk automated actions and implement programmatic guardrails to mitigate prompt manipulation and sensitive data leakage.
• Implement automated, repeatable evaluation checks for feature accuracy, response latency, and token cost to validate prompt and agent updates before deployment.
• Instrument AI applications with structured logging and tracing to capture latency, error rates, and token spend per call.
• Help define, size, and break down delivery tickets, evaluating whether a proposed feature delivers tangible user value relative to its cost, latency, and failure rate.

What good looks like after 90 days

• You are independently delivering robust, complete AI features, ensuring non-deterministic failures degrade gracefully for the user.
• You have implemented automated evaluation checks and programmatic guardrails that the squad relies on to deploy updates safely.
• You are collaborating effectively across disciplines, consistently documenting patterns for the team, and explaining technical decisions and AI constraints clearly in reviews.
• You have established a strong working cadence with product, data, and security colleagues to test systems before release and investigate any failures in use.

What you bring

Essential

• Has SC Clearance or eligibility for clearance.
• You are curious, low-ego, willing to challenge assumptions, and able to explain technical decisions clearly to engineers and clients.
• Proven ability to build robust AI features including tool calling, streaming responses, state management, and error handling.
• Hands‑on experience with RAG pipelines, embedding models, and implementing context caching to optimise latency and cost.
• Experience running automated, repeatable evaluation checks for feature accuracy and basic safety/injection filtering.
• Ability to verify that cloud API integrations enforce zero-data-retention and non-training agreements, securely managing API credentials.

Desirable

• Familiarity with standard protocols like MCP or OpenAPI schemas for building tool connectors.
• Experience using an interactive coding workflow with AI assistants while rigorously validating the generated logic.
• A pragmatic approach to product value, recognising where simple rule‑based logic or standard databases might solve a problem more reliably than generative models.

What we offer:

• Private healthcare for you and a family member through Westfield Health
• Flexible / Hybrid working
• Enhanced Parental pay
• Volunteer Days
• Multiple Qualified Mental Health First Aider’s with regular 1-1’s available
• £2,000 champion fund to spend as you wish on your own L&D each year
• Laptop and any practicable equipment provided (either a Mac or Windows)
• Regular Nimble Socials (both virtual & physical) including Escape rooms, Lunches, Award nights, Bowling, Bouldering and more!
• Engaging and collaborative communities to be involved in
• 25 days holiday allowance + bank holidays
• Company pension (with employer contributions)
• Please note, we are unable to offer any form of Visa Sponsorship for this role

Equal Opportunities Statement:

At Nimble Approach, we strongly believe that discrimination and victimisation is unacceptable.

It is our duty to ensure that no employee or job applicant receives less favourable facilities or

treatment (either directly or indirectly) in recruitment or employment on grounds of age,

disability, gender / gender reassignment, marriage / civil partnership, pregnancy / maternity,

race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation (the protected characteristics).

Our aim is that our workforce will be truly representative of society and each employee feels

respectful and able to give their best. We want everyone at Nimble and those applying to join us

to feel safe, supported and encouraged so if we can make any adjustments to help with your

application or you require any assistance, please reach

[e-mail] or reach