Head of AI Engineering & Architecture

Blake Anderson Recruitment; Greater London; On-site; GBP 180,000 - 240,000; Full time

Job summary

Blake Anderson Recruitment is seeking a senior engineering leader to build the next generation of AI-native real estate platforms in London. You will own the target-state architecture, lead the AI engineering function, and coordinate with teams in the Gulf and India to deliver scalable production GenAI solutions.

The role requires deep distributed-systems expertise, hands-on Python and at least one of TypeScript/Go/Java, and a proven track record delivering production LLM/GenAI systems.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in software engineering with leadership experience.
• Delivery of production LLM/GenAI systems at scale.

Responsibilities

• Define and own target-state architecture across the platform.
• Lead AI engineering function in London and coordinate with distributed teams.
• Establish model strategy, evaluation and cost/latency optimisation.
• Stand up production-grade MLOps and LLMOps with clear SLOs.
• Own cloud architecture and multi-region deployment.
• Embed security and privacy by design and regulatory compliance.
• Institute AI governance and board-ready reporting.
• Partner with executives on roadmap feasibility and delivery.

Skills

Senior leadership

GenAI at scale

Python

TypeScript/Go/Java

Distributed systems

Cloud architectures

Executive communication

Tools

Vector databases

Orchestration frameworks

Inference optimisation

Job description

Our client a leading Real Estate Developer with projects in the UK, Europe and across the MENA Region are building the next generation of AI-native platforms for real estate - spanning intelligent marketplaces, agentic transaction workflows and data-driven investment tooling - with engineering in London and operating businesses in Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf.

Key Responsibilities

Our client a leading Real Estate Developer with projects in the UK, Europe and across the MENA Region are building the next generation of AI-native platforms for real estate - spanning intelligent marketplaces, agentic transaction workflows and data-driven investment tooling - with engineering in London and operating businesses in Saudi Arabia and the wider Gulf.

• Architecture - Define and own the target-state architecture across the platform: multi-tenant SaaS core, LLM and agentic orchestration layers, retrieval and vector infrastructure, data platform and APIs.
• Engineering leadership - Build, lead and scale the AI engineering function in London - hiring, organisation design, performance management and succession - while coordinating with distributed development teams in the Gulf and India.
• AI/ML platform - Establish the model strategy: selection and evaluation of foundation models, fine-tuning and RAG patterns, agent frameworks, guardrails, evaluation harnesses and cost/latency optimisation.
• MLOps & reliability - Stand up production-grade MLOps and LLMOps - CI/CD, observability, model monitoring, drift detection, prompt and version management - with clear SLOs for reliability and performance.
• Cloud & infrastructure - Own cloud architecture and infrastructure economics (AWS/Azure/GCP), including data residency design for Saudi-hosted workloads and multi-region deployment.
• Security & compliance - Embed security and privacy by design; ensure the platform meets UK GDPR and Saudi PDPL requirements and supports sector regulatory obligations (REGA/FAL, and SAMA where financial-services use cases apply), working with legal and compliance counterparts.
• AI governance - Institute AI governance: model risk management, human-in-the-loop controls, auditability, red-teaming and responsible-AI standards suitable for board and investor scrutiny.
• Stakeholder partnership - Partner with the Head of AI Product on roadmap feasibility, technical discovery and build/buy/partner decisions; present architecture and delivery status to the CTAIO, board and investors.
• Vendors & partnerships - Manage vendor and partner ecosystem - model providers, cloud, data and tooling - including commercial negotiation and technical due diligence.

Candidate Profile

• 10+ years in software engineering with 5+ years leading engineering or architecture teams, ideally including a scale-up or venture-built environment.
• Demonstrable delivery of production LLM/GenAI systems at scale - agentic workflows, RAG pipelines, evaluation and safety tooling - not solely proofs of concept.
• Deep architectural command of distributed systems, event-driven design, APIs, data platforms (streaming and warehouse/lakehouse) and modern DevSecOps.
• Hands-on credibility in Python and at least one of TypeScript/Go/Java; strong grasp of vector databases, orchestration frameworks and inference optimisation.
• Track record of hiring and developing high-performing engineering teams in London or a comparable talent market.
• Working knowledge of data-protection regimes (UK GDPR essential; Saudi PDPL desirable) and experience operating in regulated or multi-jurisdiction environments.
• Sector exposure to PropTech, marketplaces or fintech is an advantage.
• Executive-level communication - able to translate deep technical trade-offs for boards, investors and non-technical leadership.