Machine Learning Engineering Manager, Financial Assistant

Cleo; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Cleo is hiring an ML Engineering Manager to lead the data science function and build production models for the Financial Assistant feature. You’ll shape how Cleo uses LLMs to create engaging, accurate, and personalised conversations about money.

You’ll manage ML engineers across squads, own the headcount plan, and drive hiring and team development to support growth in a fast-moving fintech environment.

Qualifications

• Experience building and deploying ML models into production.
• Experience managing data scientists and ML engineers.
• Stays up-to-date with research; experiments productively with NLP/LLMs.
• Owns an ML roadmap; drives ideas to business impact.
• Proficient in production-quality Python.
• Nice to have: NLP/domain knowledge with LLMs.
• Nice to have: communicate findings to non-technical stakeholders.
• Nice to have: containers and orchestration (Kubernetes, Docker, Mesos).
• Nice to have: vector databases like OpenSearch.

Responsibilities

• Understand core problems faced by the Financial Assistant team and coordinate the ML function’s contribution to solving them.
• Find opportunities for model and product improvements in Cleo’s user data.
• Manage the ML engineers in your squads—coaching and delivering on the roadmap.
• Build out the headcount plan and own hiring and team development within your area.

Skills

ML model deployment

Team leadership

LLMs

Python programming

Production code

NLP knowledge

Stakeholder communication

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Mesos

OpenSearch

Job description

Most money apps talk at you. Cleo talks back

We’re not building another finance app. We’re building the world’s first AI financial assistant, one that actually understands your money and makes you better at it, and we’re changing the world’s relationship with money in the process For everyone, whatever their background or balance.

The proof: profitable, fast-growing, a unicorn with over $300M in ARR, and millions of people who now feel differently about their money.

We love original thinkers who challenge the status quo. We move fast, tell the truth, and there’s nowhere to hide from good work here. If that excites you more than it scares you, you’ll fit right in.

Meet the team

Here at Cleo, we have ~45 ML engineers They are the builders behind the AI that powers our product. They design experiments, create models that personalise financial insights, deploy fraud detection systems and scale our conversational AI, making sure that what we build genuinely helps people feel better about their money. From shaping product features and building the models that personalise our users’ money journeys, to tackling fraud, scaling our systems and giving leaders the insights they need, our data team is at the heart of it all.

About the role

We’re hiring an ML Engineering Manager to join the existing data science function at Cleo - a collaborative team of ML engineers, analysts, and data engineers - to build and deploy production models that go directly into the product. You’ll lead the ML workstream behind our Financial Assistant feature, shaping how Cleo uses LLMs to have more engaging, accurate, and personalised conversations about money.

This is a people management role: you’ll manage the ML engineers across your squads, own the headcount plan, and be responsible for hiring and team development in your area.

• Understand the core problems faced by the Financial Assistant team and coordinate the ML function’s contribution to solving them
• Find opportunities for model and product improvements in Cleo’s extensive customer behaviour datasets
• Manage the ML engineers in your squads - coaching and developing them to deliver on the roadmap
• Build out the headcount plan and own hiring and team development within your area to support growth

What we’re looking for

• Extensive experience building and deploying machine learning models to production
• Experience managing and developing high-performing teams of data scientists and ML engineers
• A habit of keeping abreast of the latest research and experimenting productively with new technologies, including LLMs and LLM agent design
• Experience owning an ML roadmap, driving new ideas through to business impact
• Ability to write production-quality Python code, with a willingness to stay somewhat hands‑on
• Nice to have: domain knowledge of NLP, including evaluating LLM systems and fine‑tuning LLMs or other transformer models
• Nice to have: a strong ability to communicate findings to non-technical stakeholders concisely and engagingly
• Nice to have: experience with containers and container orchestration - Kubernetes, Docker, and/or Mesos
• Nice to have: experience using vector databases such as OpenSearch

What we offer

We offer benefits package built to support you in and out of work. Benefits vary by country and include meaningful equity, comprehensive health, dental and vision insurance, mental health support, a paid one‑month sabbatical after four years, a learning and development platform, pension or retirement contributions, and location‑specific leave entitlements.

For the full breakdown on what’s available in your location, visit our Candidate Hub

What Matters

Cleo’s mission is to change the world’s relationship with money. We can’t do that without building a brilliant, genuinely diverse team - and making sure our hiring process gives everyone a fair shot, running a fair and transparent recruitment process in which every candidate is considered on their metris.

We’re glad to make reasonable adjustments at any stage of the process. If there’s anything we can do to support you in showing us your best, please let your recruiter or one of the team know.

We may use AI‑assisted tools during the recruitment process to take support the team in different ways like taking notes or referring back to conversations. They do not replace the team and all applications are reviewed by a Cleo employee thoroughly!