Lead AI Engineer

9fin; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A pioneering financial technology company is seeking a Lead AI Engineer to join their growing Data Science team in London. In this role, you will design and implement advanced AI systems, mentor engineers, and drive innovation. The company offers a competitive salary, extensive benefits, and a hybrid work environment to support flexible working arrangements.

Benefits

Competitive Salary

Pension matching up to 7%

Private Medical Insurance

Paid sick leave

25 holiday days per year

Hybrid working model

Qualifications

• Proven experience leading engineering teams in a high-growth environment.
• Strong software engineering skills, preferably in Python.
• Hands-on experience building and deploying ML/GenAI systems.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design and delivery of ML and GenAI systems.
• Guide the team in end-to-end model development.
• Drive architectural decisions for AI-driven applications.
• Mentor engineers and share best practices.

Skills

Software engineering skills

AI/ML frameworks

GenAI tooling

Cloud infrastructure (AWS)

Job description

About 9fin

The world's largest asset class, debt, operates with the worst data. Technology has revolutionized equity markets with electronic trading, quant algos and instantaneous news. However, in debt capital markets, the picture is completely different. It still behaves like it's in the 1980s; trillions of dollars of trades are placed over the phone, news is slow, and corporate credit information is imperfect and scattered.

Our mission is to change this. 9fin's proprietary technology delivers fast and comprehensive financial, credit, legal & ESG analysis. Our clients are able to make faster, more informed decisions, win more business and most importantly, save time. Our fast growing list of clients include 9 of the top 10 Investment Banks, leading Asset Managers, Hedge Funds and Law Firms.

The Opportunity

The Data Science team is growing at 9fin! We are doing world-class work with groundbreaking technologies to build data-driven products using machine learning, computer vision, natural language processing, speech and audio, and knowledge/data mining. We are looking for a Lead AI Engineer to accelerate our application of AI across teams and products. Come and join us, you will get to build large-scale AI powered systems, learn and apply the latest techniques, and work alongside other great researchers and engineers!

Every day is different, but here\'s an example of the kind of things you\'ll work on:

• Lead the design and delivery of complex ML and GenAI systems, ensuring solutions are robust, scalable, and aligned with business goals.
• Guide the team in end-to-end model development - from experimentation and evaluation through deployment and monitoring - with a focus on reproducibility and reliability.
• Drive architectural decisions for data-intensive, AI-driven applications, making informed trade-offs between cutting-edge approaches and practical production readiness.
• Mentor and grow engineers across levels, sharing best practices in software engineering, ML/AI, and cloud infrastructure.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with stakeholders across the company to shape roadmaps, scope ambitious projects, and balance technical innovation with delivery.
• Champion engineering excellence - from coding standards and CI/CD pipelines to observability and incident management - creating a culture of technical rigor and continuous improvement.
• Be a visible technical leader within 9fin, pushing forward the adoption of AI/ML across teams and influencing company-wide strategy.

About You

This role will be a great fit if you:

• Have proven experience leading engineering teams in a high-growth, fast-paced environment.
• Care deeply about people development - mentoring engineers, conducting thoughtful performance reviews, and building inclusive, high-performing teams.
• Combine strong software engineering skills (Python preferred) with deep knowledge of AI/ML frameworks, GenAI tooling, and modern data/infra stacks.
• Have hands-on experience building and deploying ML/GenAI systems in production, ideally in domains with high complexity (finance, legal, or similar data-heavy spaces).
• Lead architectural discussions and technical trade-offs while staying close enough to dive into details when needed.
• Know your way around cloud infrastructure (AWS preferred) and modern MLOps practices.
• Thrive in a collaborative, startup-style environment: adaptable, decisive, and excited to work cross-functionally to deliver real business impact.

Benefits

We\'re a scaling start up, and we enjoy sharing our success, when the company succeeds, we always reinvest that in our people. We also offer huge amounts of responsibility, an abundance of opportunity for growth and a platform to truly excel.

Financial & Insurance

• Competitive Salary (our salary bands are benchmarked at the top end of the market)
• Pension (your minimum contributions are 4% with 9fin matching up to 7%)
• Private Medical Insurance
• Paid sick leave with Income Protection for long periods of illness
• Group Life Assurance
• Season Ticket Loan & Cycle to Work schemes

Time off

• 25 holiday days per year
• Local public holidays (with the ability to exchange them for alternative days)
• Hybrid working model, to allow you the flexibility to decide how, where and when you do your best work
• Work abroad for up to 3 months a year
• 1 month paid sabbatical after 5 years of service
• Enhanced parental leave & flexible working arrangements available

Training & Culture

• Professional learning and development budget
• Quarterly team socials
• Summer and Winter company social events

9fin is an equal opportunities employer

At 9fin we are dedicated to building and promoting a fair and inclusive workplace where everyone can reach their full potential and truly belong. We recognize that building diverse teams enables a more creative and productive environment. If you\'re excited about this role but your experience doesn\'t perfectly align with the job description, we encourage you to apply anyway. You might just be who we\'re looking for - either for this role, or perhaps another.