Applied AI Engineer

NEXT Ventures; Kuala Lumpur; On-site; MYR 100,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

NEXT Ventures is offering an exciting opportunity for an Applied AI Engineer to drive innovation in fintech. This role involves designing AI-powered products and embedding within cross-functional teams to identify automation opportunities that deliver measurable business outcomes.

With a focus on deploying cutting-edge AI solutions, the ideal candidate will leverage strong expertise in Python and AI frameworks. Join NEXT and shape the future of fintech!

Qualifications

• 5+ years of software engineering experience including AI/ML, LLM-powered, or AI-driven products.
• Strong proficiency in Python and modern AI frameworks.
• Hands-on experience with production-grade AI solutions.

Responsibilities

• Identify high-impact automation opportunities and build AI-powered products.
• Design and deliver internal AI-driven tools and automation solutions.
• Own end-to-end delivery of AI initiatives, from discovery to deployment.

Skills

Python

AI frameworks

Machine Learning

Stakeholder discovery

Cloud platforms

Education

5+ years of software engineering experience

Experience in fintech or financial services

Tools

Docker

AWS

GCP

Azure

Job description

Who We Are

NEXT Ventures is where ambition takes shape and movement becomes momentum. As a global platform revolutionising access to performance-based capital, we empower the world’s most driven individuals to rise. Through our flagship brand, FundedNext, we empower dreamers to become doers, and potential to turn into performance. With 500+ driven minds across five countries, we power a global rhythm—220,000+ daily users from 170+ nations, each chasing greatness in their own way.

Your Role in Our Mission

As an Applied AI Engineer, you will operate as a vision-driven Forward Deployed Engineer (FDE), embedding directly with teams across the organization to identify high-impact opportunities, build AI-powered products, and deliver measurable business outcomes. This is not a traditional engineering role. You'll work at the intersection of engineering, product, and business operations—owning projects end-to-end, from stakeholder discovery and process mapping to solution design, implementation, deployment, and optimization.

How You’ll Make An Impact

AI Discovery & Business Transformation

• Embed with Operations, Support, Risk, Finance, Trading, and Partner teams to understand workflows and identify high-impact automation opportunities
• Conduct stakeholder interviews, process mapping, and workflow analysis to quantify inefficiencies and establish improvement targets
• Build business cases and ROI models that prioritize AI initiatives with measurable operational impact

AI Automation & Internal Tools

• Design, prototype, and deliver internal AI-driven tools and automation solutions that reduce manual effort across departments
• Build intelligent workflows, investigation assistants, operational copilots, and knowledge systems that improve efficiency and decision‑making
• Create scalable solutions that generate measurable operational savings and process improvements

Customer-Facing AI Products

• Lead the development of customer-facing AI products across the FundedNext ecosystem, including AI-powered support assistants and intelligent analytics experiences
• Build and iterate on AI prototypes, rapidly validating ideas before transforming them into production‑ready solutions
• Improve customer experience through AI-powered insights, automation, and self‑service capabilities

LLM Engineering & Intelligent Systems

• Build solutions using prompt engineering, Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG), vector databases, MCP integrations, agentic workflows, and modern AI frameworks
• Evaluate emerging AI technologies and integrate practical innovations into products and internal systems
• Develop and maintain AI‑ready knowledge repositories that improve information accessibility across the organization

AI‑Native Engineering & Adoption

• Drive the adoption of AI-assisted coding tools and AI‑native engineering practices across teams
• Leverage AI coding agents such as Claude Code, Cursor, Windsurf, and similar tools to accelerate development, debugging, testing, and code review
• Promote practical AI adoption through experimentation, enablement, and knowledge sharing

Ownership & Delivery

• Own end-to-end delivery of AI initiatives—from discovery and prototyping through production deployment and post‑launch optimization
• Present findings, recommendations, and implementation plans to leadership and key stakeholders
• Translate technical concepts into measurable business outcomes and ROI
• Monitor adoption, performance, and impact to ensure delivered solutions achieve their intended objectives

What You Bring

• 5+ years of software engineering experience, including at least 2 years building AI/ML, LLM‑powered, or AI‑driven products in production environments
• Strong proficiency in Python and modern AI frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, Agno, LlamaIndex, Hugging Face, vLLM, or similar, with deep expertise in LLM architectures, agents, Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG), vector databases, prompt engineering, fine‑tuning, and AI application development
• Hands‑on experience building and deploying production‑grade AI solutions, including intelligent assistants, conversational AI, automation systems, and customer‑facing AI products
• Experience with the Anthropic ecosystem, including Claude API, Claude Code, MCP workflows, and advanced AI‑native engineering practices leveraging modern coding agents
• Strong understanding of APIs, Docker, microservices, cloud platforms (AWS, GCP, or Azure), and scalable software architecture
• Proven ability to conduct stakeholder discovery, analyze business processes, translate business challenges into technical solutions, and communicate effectively with both technical and non‑technical audiences
• Experience in fintech, trading, brokerage, or financial services is a strong advantage

Your X‑Factor

• You thrive in ambiguity and consistently turn unclear business problems into shipped products
• You combine deep technical expertise with strong product thinking and business judgment
• You are equally comfortable discussing ROI with leadership and writing production code
• You take ownership of outcomes, not just implementation

Your Journey after Applying

• 30 minute HR interview with the Talent Acquisition team member
• 45 minute Problem Solving Interview (with talent acquisition team & department front line manager)
• 60 minute Bar Raiser Interview (with head of department & talent acquisition lead)

Why Join NEXT

At NEXT Ventures, we believe the right talent fuels breakthrough innovation. If you're driven to connect great minds with big ideas and want to shape the future of fintech, we’d love to meet you. Join our team of bold thinkers where technology meets transformation.

Apply now and be part of our journey — the future is calling, and it starts with you.