Director, Applied AI & Agentic Platform Engineering

Citigroup Inc.; Greater London; On-site; GBP 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

27 days annual leave

Discretionary bonus

Private medical care

Pension plan

Learning & development resources

Employee assistance program

Job summary

Citigroup Inc. in London seeks a Director of Agentic Platform Engineering to own the technical vision, architecture, and execution of a greenfield platform. You will lead a world-class team, write code, and shape a product that improves banking workflows and client outcomes.

The role blends strategic leadership with hands-on engineering, delivering scalable, cloud-native solutions and responsible AI integration with governance and security at the forefront.

Qualifications

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or related field.
• Significant software engineering experience with leadership and team-building.
• Hands-on player-coach capable of contributing to codebase and mentoring.
• Experience building scalable, cloud-native platforms from the ground up.
• Domain knowledge in financial services is a plus.

Responsibilities

• Lead design, architecture, and hands-on development of a scalable agentic AI platform.
• Serve as technical authority; guide frameworks, tech, and infrastructure decisions.
• Recruit, hire, and mentor a high-performing engineering team.
• Define product strategy and technical roadmap in partnership with product and business leaders.
• Collaborate with AI platform teams, enterprise architects, and vendors to accelerate delivery.
• Drive AI/ML integration strategies for LLMs and agentic frameworks.
• Champion CI/CD, test automation, IaC, and robust monitoring for reliability.
• Define KPIs and report platform adoption and business impact.
• Ensure data privacy, security, and regulatory compliance in banking.

Skills

Leadership

Hands-on coding

Architectural vision

Stakeholder communication

Education

Bachelor’s or Master’s in CS/Engineering

Tools

GCP

Vertex AI

Kubernetes

Terraform

Databricks

Job description

Our Vision

We are building a next-generation system that reimagines banking workflows for our Corporate, Commercial, and Investment Bankers. Our vision is to empower them with a revolutionary Agentic AI Platform, featuring intelligent, autonomous agents that streamline processes, uncover new opportunities, and deepen client relationships—ultimately leading to significant productivity gains and increased wallet share. We are looking for a visionary, hands‑on engineering leader to build and scale the platform that will make this a reality.

The Role

As the Director of Agentic Platform Engineering, you will be a player‑coach responsible for the technical vision, architecture, and execution of this greenfield platform. You will join a world‑class engineering team being built from the ground up, while remaining deeply technical and contributing to the core development of the platform. This is a unique opportunity to blend strategic leadership with hands‑on engineering to build a product that will have a direct and measurable impact on the front lines of our business.

Key Responsibilities

• Platform Architecture & Development: Lead the design, architecture, and hands‑on development of a scalable, secure, and resilient agentic AI platform from concept to production.
• Technical Leadership & Hands‑On Engineering: Serve as the lead engineer and technical authority, guiding critical decisions on frameworks, technologies, and infrastructure. You will be expected to write code, build prototypes, and lead by example.
• Team Building & Mentorship: Recruit, hire, and mentor a high‑performing, agile team of software and machine‑learning engineers. Foster a culture of innovation, excellence, and accountability.
• Strategic Roadmapping: Partner closely with product management and senior business leaders in banking to define the product strategy and technical roadmap. Translate complex business needs into elegant technical solutions.
• Cross‑Functional Collaboration: Partner effectively with horizontal AI platform teams, enterprise architecture, and external vendor partners to leverage existing capabilities, influence roadmaps, and accelerate delivery.
• AI & ML Integration: Drive the strategy for integrating and operationalizing Large Language Models (LLMs), agentic frameworks (e.g., Google ADK, LangChain), and other AI/ML technologies to solve real‑world banking challenges.
• Operational Excellence: Implement and champion best‑in‑class engineering practices, including CI/CD, automated testing, infrastructure‑as‑code, and robust monitoring to ensure enterprise‑grade reliability.
• Business Impact: Define, measure, and report on key performance indicators (KPIs) related to platform adoption, user productivity, and the ultimate impact on business outcomes like wallet share growth.
• Compliance & Security: Ensure the platform adheres to the highest standards of data privacy, security, and regulatory compliance required in the banking industry.

Qualifications & Experience

• Education: Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.
• Experience: Significant experience in software engineering, with proven years in a leadership role, leading high‑performing engineering teams.
• Hands‑On Leader: Proven experience as a "player‑coach" who can lead from the front, contribute to the codebase, and mentor junior and senior engineers.
• Platform Building: A strong track record of designing, building, and launching scalable, distributed, cloud‑native platforms from the ground up.
• Domain Knowledge: Experience in the financial services industry (Corporate Banking, Investment Banking, FinTech) is a significant plus. An understanding of banking workflows and data is highly desirable.
• Communication Skills: Exceptional ability to communicate complex technical concepts to non‑technical stakeholders and to articulate a clear technical vision that aligns with business goals.

Technical Skills

• AI / GenAI / Agentic Platforms
  • LLM & Agentic Frameworks: Deep expertise in building production‑grade agentic systems using GCP as primary (ADK, Vertex AI)
  • Multi‑Agent Systems: Hands‑on experience designing and implementing multi‑agent architectures
• Enterprise AI Integration & Data
  • API‑ and event‑driven integration of AI into enterprise workflows
  • Data platforms: Databricks, Spark, Snowflake; streaming via Kafka
• Backend & Distributed Systems
  • Languages: Python (expert), Java/Spring Boot (enterprise standard), Go (plus)
  • Architecture: Microservices, domain‑driven design, event‑driven systems
  • APIs & Integration: REST/gRPC; Apigee, Kong
  • Data & Messaging: PostgreSQL/Oracle, MongoDB/Cassandra, Kafka
• Cloud & DevSecOps
  • Cloud Platforms: Strong experience with GCP (preferred); working knowledge of AWS; Azure exposure optional (not a dependency)
  • Containers: Docker, Kubernetes (GKE/EKS)
  • IaC: Terraform
  • CI/CD: GitHub Actions, Jenkins
  • Observability: Splunk, ELK, Prometheus, Grafana
• Security & Compliance
  • Secure coding, API security, Zero Trust
  • Data privacy, encryption, access control
  • Regulatory compliance and AI governance (MRM)

What We Offer

• A leadership role in a high‑priority, transformative initiative with executive visibility.
• The opportunity to build a cutting‑edge AI platform from scratch.
• A competitive compensation package including salary, bonus, and benefits.
• A collaborative and innovative culture that values technical excellence and business impact.

What we’ll provide you

• 27 days annual leave (plus bank holidays)
• A discretionary annual performance related bonus
• Private Medical Care & Life Insurance
• Employee Assistance Program
• Pension Plan
• Paid Parental Leave
• Special discounts for employees, family, and friends
• Access to an array of learning and development resources

Alongside these benefits Citi is committed to ensuring our workplace is where everyone feels comfortable coming to work as their whole self, every day. We want the best talent around the world to be energized to join us, motivated to stay and empowered to thrive.

Citi is an equal opportunity employer, and qualified candidates will receive consideration without regard to their race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, status as a protected veteran, or any other characteristic protected by law.

If you are a person with a disability and need a reasonable accommodation to use our search tools and/or apply for a career opportunity review Accessibility at Citi. View Citi’s EEO Policy Statement and the Know Your Rights poster.