Head of AI Architecture

Location: London, Tokyo, New York or Miami (multi-location mandate, flexible base)

Level: Senior / Director

The Organisation

Our client is a privately held financial services group spanning three regulated businesses: an FCA-authorised broker‑dealer operating across prime brokerage and structured products, an asset management business, and a Brokerage‑as‑a‑Service platform in development. The group operates across the UK, US, and Japan. AI is central to the group’s next phase of growth — not as a peripheral tool but as a core architectural layer across operations, client servicing, risk, compliance, and product delivery. This hire will be the person who designs and owns that layer.

The Role

The Head of AI Architecture will design, build, and govern the AI infrastructure across the group’s businesses — from agentic workflow layers and LLM integration to data pipelines, model governance, and operational deployment across multiple regulated entities and geographies. The group already has strong technology foundations and established infrastructure; this role is about bringing focused AI expertise to unlock and extend what is already in place.

Core Responsibilities

• Design the end‑to‑end AI architecture across the group — agentic systems, LLM orchestration, retrieval‑augmented generation (RAG), and multi‑model pipelines
• Select and implement the right tooling stack — orchestration frameworks, vector databases, observability platforms, deployment infrastructure
• Build reusable AI components and shared infrastructure that can be deployed across multiple business units without duplication
• Own the integration layer between AI systems and existing trading, risk, compliance, and operational platforms

Governance & Risk

• Design and implement AI governance frameworks appropriate for regulated financial services entities — model risk management, audit trails, explainability, and human‑in‑the‑loop controls
• Ensure AI deployments meet FCA, SEC, and relevant regulatory requirements across all jurisdictions
• Define policies for data handling, model versioning, access controls, and incident response

Deployment & Operations

• Take AI initiatives from prototype to production — with a track record of systems that operate reliably at scale
• Initially likely an individual contributor role, with the potential to build and manage a small team as the function grows
• Work directly with business unit leads to identify high‑value AI applications and prioritise the build roadmap
• Maintain a live view of the AI tooling landscape and ensure the group’s stack remains best‑in‑class

Candidate Profile

• 6+ years in software engineering or AI/ML infrastructure, with at least 2 years in a senior architecture or leadership role
• Hands‑on experience building and deploying agentic AI systems or multi‑agent orchestration frameworks in production environments
• Deep familiarity with LLM orchestration tooling (LangChain, LlamaIndex, or equivalent) and modern AI infrastructure (vector databases, embedding pipelines, observability platforms)
• Experience designing AI governance frameworks in regulated industries — financial services, healthcare, defence, or equivalent
• Proven ability to deliver production‑grade AI systems, not just prototypes or internal tools
• Exceptional verbal and written communication skills — comfortable presenting architecture decisions and governance frameworks to executive leadership and regulators

Highly Desirable

• Direct experience deploying AI architecture at a broker‑dealer, prime broker, asset manager, or multi‑strategy fund
• Background at or significant engagement with leading AI infrastructure firms or AI‑native fintechs
• Familiarity with FCA, SEC, and/or MAS regulatory frameworks as they apply to AI and automated decision‑making
• Experience working across multiple regulated entities simultaneously — managing shared infrastructure with entity‑level governance
• Comfort operating across time zones — the group’s operations span London, Tokyo, and the Americas

The Right Mindset

This role suits someone who has outgrown large‑organisation bureaucracy and wants genuine ownership of an AI architecture build with direct impact on business outcomes. The group moves fast, values technical depth over credentials, and will give the right person the autonomy and resources to build something significant.

What’s on Offer

• Senior Director‑level position with direct access to group executive leadership
• Cross‑group mandate spanning three regulated entities across London, Tokyo, and the US
• Competitive base salary, bonus, and benefits