Senior AI Engineer

A&O Shearman; Belfast City District; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A&O Shearman in Belfast seeks a Senior AI Engineer (Manager) to lead the AI Platform team within IT (EA & Technology Platforms). You will shape AI strategy, design, and implement advanced AI/ML use cases across the firm, guiding a team of IT professionals and external providers.

The ideal candidate will have strong ML/DL expertise, software development skills, and a track record of delivering scalable AI solutions that improve experiences for fee earners and business teams.

Qualifications

• Experience leading AI/ML teams and delivering enterprise-scale AI solutions.
• Strong background in model development, validation, deployment, and integration.
• Proven ability to manage large global teams and external providers.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication skills.

Responsibilities

• Define and drive the technical AI strategy across platforms.
• Lead, mentor, and develop the AI engineering team.
• Oversee end-to-end ML lifecycle including deployment and monitoring.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders to map AI use cases to outcomes.
• Manage service providers and ensure security, governance, and quality.

Skills

ML/DL development

Leadership

Stakeholder mgmt

Project management

IT strategy

Communication

Cloud platforms

Programming languages

AI frameworks

Team building

Legal/Professional services (desirable

Tools

TensorFlow

PyTorch

scikit-learn

AWS

Azure

GCP

GitHub Copilot

Job description

We have an exciting opportunity for a Senior AI Engineer (Manager) to join our IT (EA & Technology Platforms) team, based in A&O Shearman's Belfast office.

What you will do

Reporting to the AI Platform Owner, this role will be a senior technical leader responsible for the strategy, design, and implementation of advanced AI and ML use cases across the firm. The role is a member of AI leadership and is responsible for managing and motivating a team of skilled IT professionals and directing external third-party service providers.

The role is accountable for the implementation of the full lifecycle of AI solutions including model development, validation, deployment, and integration into other systems while providing feedback to continue to evolve the AI platform.

The ideal candidate will have a strong background in machine learning, data analysis, and software development. The role will be responsible for designing, developing, and implementing AI solutions to solve complex problems and enhance our products and services resulting in improved experiences for our fee earners and business teams.

Maintain strong customer relationships with fee earners and business teams to manage the delivery of driving the technical strategy for AI solutions, ensuring scalable architecture and alignment with best practices.

Work as part of the Enterprise Architecture & Technology Platforms leadership team to collectively define, implement and operate the firm’s technical strategy for AI solutions, ensuring scalable architecture and alignment with best practices.

Work with senior stakeholders from business teams to understand AI use cases mapping to business outcomes.

Act as the focal point for matters related to driving the technical strategy for AI solutions, ensuring scalable architecture and alignment with best practices, providing expert guidance to other teams when required.

Performance management of AI Engineering, providing mentorship and ensuring alignment with HR standards and policies.

Facilitate regular service provider reviews to assess performance against service targets, drive innovation and ensure any remediation activities are being delivered.

Own the technical strategy for AI solutions, ensuring scalable architecture and alignment with best practices budget and benefits delivery, balancing priorities and clearly demonstrating the value that the firm’s AI solutions deliver whilst working with IT Business Operations to ensure alignment.

Actively identify and pursue opportunities for continuous improvement in driving the technical strategy for AI solutions, ensuring scalable architecture and alignment with best practices, whilst assessing the viability and business value for the firm.

What you will have

• Experience in machine learning, deep learning, and AI model development
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python, R, or C-Sharp.
• Experience with AI frameworks and libraries such as TensorFlow, PyTorch, or scikit-learn.
• Experience with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, Azure), experience with Azure a plus.
• Experience leveraging AI code-writing assistants (e.g., GitHub Copilot, Claude Code, Codex) with appropriate engineering controls (code review, testing, security) in professional environments.
• Knowledge of IT strategic planning, design, and operations processes.
• Proven project and program management capabilities.
• Strong knowledge of current IT and data market trends and technology innovations.
• Proven track record of managing large global teams.
• Experience within the legal or professional services sector is desirable but not essential.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and communication skills.
• Excellent business acumen and understanding of how the firm is positioned in the market.
• Ability to lead and develop teams.
• Promotes the firm's values at all times and fosters collaborative working relationships with a wide range of people and departments.

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