Lead Engineer, Digital & AI (Greenfield) – Hybrid Cardiff

Yolk Recruitment; Cardiff; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

Yolk Recruitment in Cardiff is seeking a Divisional Lead Engineer (Digital & AI) to shape the early AI engineering journey for an international organisation. The role blends hands-on development with technical leadership across AI-powered applications, LLMs, and automation, with hybrid work and a £70,000–£80,000 salary plus benefits.

You'll guide design standards, governance, and best practices, mentor engineers, and collaborate with cross-functional teams using React, Next.js, Node.js, and AWS

Qualifications

• Strong software engineering background with experience leading technical projects.
• Experience as a Technical Lead, Lead Engineer, Principal Engineer or similar.
• Excellent communication skills with both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Proven ability to mentor engineers and influence technical direction.
• Hands-on in AI-enabled applications and automation, with modern web tech.

Responsibilities

• Lead the technical direction of a new Digital & AI capability.
• Design, develop and deliver AI-powered applications and automation solutions.
• Build and integrate solutions using LLMs, AI agents and RAG architectures.
• Define development standards, engineering frameworks and best practices.
• Provide technical governance to support safe and scalable AI adoption.
• Mentor developers and support citizen developers across the business.
• Work with React, Next.js, Node.js and AWS.
• Collaborate with infrastructure, cloud and wider technology teams.
• Shape long-term AI strategy and implementation across an international organisation.
• Balance hands-on engineering with technical leadership and stakeholder engagement.

Skills

Software engineering leadership

JavaScript/TypeScript

AI-enabled applications

Mentoring engineers

Excellent communication

Tools

React

Node.js

Next.js

AWS

LLMs / AI agents / RAG

Job description

Yolk Recruitment in Cardiff is seeking a Divisional Lead Engineer (Digital & AI) to shape the early AI engineering journey for an international organisation. The role blends hands-on development with technical leadership across AI-powered applications, LLMs, and automation, with hybrid work and a £70,000–£80,000 salary plus benefits.

You'll guide design standards, governance, and best practices, mentor engineers, and collaborate with cross-functional teams using React, Next.js, Node.js, and AWS