Senior AI Engineer

KDR Talent Solutions UK

Greater London

On-site

GBP 130,000 - 180,000

Full time

14 days+

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Benefits offered by this job

Private Healthcare

Hybrid Working (3 Days London Office /

Direct Access to Founders and Senior

Future Equity Opportunity

Career Growth

Job summary

KDR Talent Solutions UK is partnering with a top-tier technology business to hire a Senior AI Research Engineer. You will bridge cutting-edge AI research with software engineering to design, build and deploy intelligent systems powering trading and research workflows.

You will turn research concepts into production-ready solutions, work with emerging AI technologies, and own meaningful product areas from ideation through deployment in a fast-paced, high-impact environment.

Qualifications

Strong commercial experience in AI Engineering or Applied AI.
Proven track record shipping AI-powered products to production.
Hands-on experience with LLMs, Generative AI or Agentic AI systems.

Responsibilities

Design and deploy LLM-powered AI systems for strategy generation and research workflows.
Build evaluation, experimentation and monitoring frameworks to improve model performance.
Enhance existing AI capabilities while developing new AI-driven features and products.
Develop production-grade AI infrastructure, inference services and data pipelines.
Research, test and implement the latest AI models and architectures.
Improve model robustness, scalability and observability in production.

Skills

AI Engineering

Python

LLMs

PyTorch

Hugging Face

Agentic AI

Production AI

Education

PhD or advanced research

Tools

PyTorch

Hugging Face

Foundation models

Job description

Shape the Future of AI-Powered Trading

We're partnering with an exceptionally well-funded technology business on a mission to transform how institutional trading firms, hedge funds and financial organisations research, design and execute trading strategies.

Having built a sophisticated AI-powered trading platform and reached a critical stage in its evolution, the business is now investing heavily in its next phase of growth. This is a rare opportunity to join at an early stage, influence the direction of a genuinely innovative product and work on some of the most exciting challenges in applied AI today.

If you're motivated by cutting-edge AI, complex technical problems and the opportunity to build products that deliver real-world impact, this could be the role you've been waiting for.

The Opportunity

As a Senior AI Research Engineer, you'll sit at the intersection of advanced AI research and software engineering, helping to design, build and deploy intelligent systems that power the next generation of trading and research workflows.

This is far more than a traditional Machine Learning or Data Science position. We're looking for someone who thrives on turning research concepts into production-ready systems, enjoys experimenting with emerging AI technologies and wants to own meaningful product areas from idea through to deployment.

You'll join a highly talented team where innovation, autonomy and technical excellence are genuinely valued, and where your work will have a direct influence on both the platform and wider business strategy.

What You'll Be Doing

Designing and deploying LLM-powered and agentic AI systems for strategy generation, market intelligence and quantitative research.
Building evaluation, experimentation and monitoring frameworks to improve model performance and reliability.
Enhancing existing AI capabilities while developing entirely new AI-driven features and products.
Developing production-grade AI infrastructure, inference services and data pipelines.
Researching, testing and implementing the latest AI models, techniques and architectures.
Improving model robustness, scalability, observability and operational performance.
Collaborating with engineers, product leaders and quantitative specialists to deliver innovative solutions at scale.
Helping shape the future direction of AI across the organisation.

What We're Looking For

Essential

Strong commercial experience in AI Engineering, Machine Learning Engineering or Applied AI.
Proven track record of building and shipping AI-powered products into production environments.
Hands-on experience with LLMs, Generative AI and/or Agentic AI systems.
Excellent Python development skills.
Strong experience with modern AI frameworks and tooling such as PyTorch, Hugging Face and leading foundation model providers.
A research-led mindset combined with the ability to execute and deliver commercially valuable solutions.
Strong engineering fundamentals and the ability to take ownership of complex technical challenges.
Comfortable working in fast-paced, evolving environments where ambiguity is often part of the journey.

Desirable

PhD or advanced academic research background.
Experience fine-tuning open-source LLMs.
Knowledge of AI evaluation frameworks and observability tooling.
Experience with cloud-native technologies, Kubernetes and modern distributed systems.
Exposure to quantitative finance, trading or financial markets.

Finance experience is not essential.

Why Join?

Work on Genuinely Cutting-Edge AI

AI sits at the core of the business strategy, not on the sidelines. You'll be solving challenging real-world problems using the latest advancements in LLMs, agents and intelligent systems.

Build in a True Greenfield Environment

This is an opportunity to influence architecture, tooling, product direction and technical standards from an early stage.

High Levels of Ownership

You'll have the freedom to make decisions, drive initiatives and see your ideas become reality in a business that values entrepreneurial thinking.

Career Growth Without Limits

Rather than fitting into a rigid corporate structure, you'll have the opportunity to shape your own path as the company scales.

Learn From a High-Calibre Team

Work alongside experienced engineers, AI specialists, quantitative researchers and leadership who are building a genuinely innovative platform.

Real Business Impact

Your work won't sit in research papers or proof-of-concepts. You'll be building AI systems that directly influence products, users and commercial outcomes.

Package