Lead Generative AI Engineer

About This Opportunity

We are representing a confidential technology client in their search for a Lead Generative AI Engineer based in London. Our client operates a high-transaction marketplace platform where GenAI features directly impact both consumer and business user experiences.

This is a player-coach role within a scaling Data and AI function. You'll set technical standards for production GenAI systems, own architecture decisions for complex deployments, and build the hardest components yourself. Your work will define how multiple engineering teams approach retrieval quality, evaluation infrastructure, and production reliability across the AI stack.

Responsibilities

• Set architecture standards for complex GenAI systems across engineering teams through high-quality direct contributions that others reference and adopt
• Hold sign-off authority on materially complex AI deployments, identifying architectural, safety, and reliability issues before production release
• Own shared technical foundations including retrieval patterns, evaluation infrastructure, data pipelines, and tooling that enables consistent quality
• Serve as technical escalation point for the function's most challenging engineering problems, building critical components directly
• Design systems for production durability and cost efficiency, including graceful degradation, fallback behaviour, and latency/cost management at scale
• Develop senior engineers through progressively harder problem assignments, decision-making autonomy, and direct technical feedback
• Contribute to hiring and performance evaluation with clear, defensible standards for engineering excellence
• Translate emerging industry developments into actionable architectural guidance for planning cycles

What We're Looking For

Required Experience and Skills:

• Proven track record setting technical direction that multiple engineering teams successfully adopted
• Strong production Python and SQL expertise, with substantial data engineering experience (grounding data, golden datasets, failure analysis)
• Deep, current GenAI stack expertise: retrieval at scale, vector stores, agentic orchestration, multimodal systems, evaluation infrastructure, and strategic fine-tuning
• Fluency in MLOps tooling, deployment pipelines, and cloud infrastructure (AWS and GCP experience valued)
• Experience designing systems that remain stable under production conditions, including direct accountability when failures occurred
• Strong perspective on evaluation methodology, distinguishing between regression-catching evals and confidence-building metrics
• Ability to explain complex technical trade-offs to non-technical stakeholders with clarity and substance
• Self-awareness about knowledge boundaries and judgment to seek external expertise early

You'll Excel If You:

• Prefer simple, functional systems over complex, fragile architectures
• Use technical authority judiciously—empowering teams while preventing poor decisions from shipping
• Find satisfaction in the unglamorous engineering that makes AI features reliable, not just impressive in demos
• Derive genuine satisfaction from elevating other engineers' capabilities
• Have demonstrable experience developing engineers through code review, technical talks, or daily collaboration
• Balance strategic two-to-three-year vision with tactical focus on current sprint deliverables

How We Work with You

Candidates apply directly through Get A Job.ai. Our talent team conducts initial screening to understand your background and technical approach. Qualified candidates are then submitted to our client for their interview process. Please do not attempt to contact the client directly, as all communication is managed through our recruitment team to ensure a smooth, professional experience.

This role requires hybrid work in London (2 days per week in office). The client offers competitive equity participation, comprehensive private medical insurance, enhanced family leave policies, and flexible benefits including EV leasing and pension contributions.

Pay

Compensation details will be discussed during the screening process based on your experience level and background.

Get A Job.ai is an equal opportunity recruiter. We welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds and are committed to fostering inclusive hiring processes for our clients.