Lead AI Engineer in London

London (hybrid) — open to Europe/USA for exceptional candidates. Full-time. Competitive + equity. Start: June 2026. Reports to: CEO / Founder.

Build the platform that makes workers instantly bookable, credentials portable, and hiring fair. This role has the potential to evolve into a CTO position for the right person.

About Able:

Able is an ethical AI-enhanced staffing platform that makes workers instantly bookable. Through comprehensive profiles ("gigfolios"), verified skills, availability calendars, and AI-assisted video biographies, we match workers to opportunities in minutes. Our matching uses pseudonymised, bias‑free algorithms. Hiring managers see skills, availability, and verified credentials. We've replaced star ratings with skills‑based feedback because research shows 5‑star systems create measurable earnings gaps for non‑white workers. We charge employers 8% versus traditional agencies' 30–50%. Workers pay zero platform fees and receive pay within 48 hours. We operate across hospitality, events, creative, and adjacent sectors. We're backed by Innovate UK (The Department for Business and Trade) and the Mayor of London's Grow London programme. We're partnered with the Connect to Work programme across East London and with AIESEC university networks. We're raising £500,000 to rebuild the platform to enterprise‑grade standards (SOC 2, ISO 27001), launch a New York pilot, and expand across the UK and Europe.

The Role:

You will be the lead technical person on the Able platform. This is a hands‑on delivery role with full ownership of building and shipping the technology. We are rebuilding Able as an enterprise‑grade platform. That means the entire product: the matching engine, the AI agents, onboarding flows for freelancers and businesses and enterprise clients, payments, the user experience, credential verification, career coaching, portable skills passports, training materials, and support for full‑time workers alongside freelancers. You'll lead the technical delivery of all of it.

You'll work directly with the founder/CEO, who brings Fortune 100 transformation experience from BlackRock and Deloitte and deep domain expertise in workforce systems, AI strategy, and product direction. This is a genuine partnership between technical delivery and business vision.

What You'll Build:

• Rebuilding Able to enterprise‑grade standards: SOC 2 compliance, ISO 27001 certification, and architecture designed to scale across UK, USA, and European markets. The current stack includes Next.js 15 / React 19, PostgreSQL with Drizzle ORM, multiple Gemini AI agents, Firebase/Firestore, Twilio 2FA, and vector database for semantic search.
• Evolving the core matching engine and suite of AI agents that power the platform — onboarding, matching, suggestions, gig creation, incident detection, and support. Improving the intelligence, accuracy, and scalability of the entire system.
• ML document forensics for credential verification, autonomous agents navigating fragmented verification pathways across regulatory bodies and international qualifications, conversational AI career coaching integrated with labour market data, and a portable skills passport built on W3C Verifiable Credentials 2.0. Healthcare is the pilot sector because the verification landscape is the most complex — eight regulatory bodies, qualifications from 146+ countries, hundreds of training providers. Human‑in‑the‑loop oversight governs every edge case.
• Open Banking API integration and flexible payment infrastructure for enterprise clients. Right to Work verification via Passport Reader API and government share code API. The compliance architecture required for regulated sectors and international expansion.

What We're Looking For:

• A professional. Someone who conducts themselves with integrity, communicates clearly, and takes pride in their craft and their commitments.
• Meticulous, fluent English language skills — written and verbal.
• Currently building with AI and agentic systems — this is what you do right now.
• Demonstrable experience delivering AI/ML products to production: shipped products that real users rely on.
• Strong proficiency with modern AI tooling including Claude, LLM integration, and autonomous agent architectures.
• Full‑stack capability across a modern stack: Next.js/React, PostgreSQL, cloud infrastructure, W3C Verifiable Credentials, Open Banking/payment integrations.
• Self‑managing and agile/sprint‑disciplined: you plan your own work, set realistic timelines, and deliver against them.
• Startup experience: you understand the pace, the ambiguity, and the need to ship with limited resources.
• Genuine commitment to ethical AI and algorithmic fairness.

Highly Desirable:

• Experience in work tech, marketplace platforms, or HR technology.
• Familiarity with credentialing systems, skills verification, or digital identity — W3C Verifiable Credentials, blockchain‑based credentialing, Open Badges.
• Interest in the future of work: how AI changes employment, the skills economy, portable credentials, skills‑based hiring.
• Experience with ML document analysis, fraud detection, or forensic verification.
• Experience building SOC 2 compliant or ISO 27001 certified systems.
• Knowledge of UK/EU regulatory landscape: EU AI Act, UK Employment Rights Bill, GDPR implications for AI in employment.
• Experience pitching and securing funding; a network of potential investors.

Ethical AI at Able:

Able exists because the current system fails workers. AI should make employment fairer. That belief shapes every technical decision:

• Pseudonymised matching: algorithms never access names, photos, addresses, or demographic data.
• Published algorithm weights with external audit capability and full transparency.
• Human‑in‑the‑loop governance: every disputed decision is resolved by a person.
• Skills‑based feedback instead of star ratings, because research shows 5‑star systems create 9% earnings gaps for non‑white workers.
• Zero worker fees and same‑day pay.
• Worker‑owned portable credentials.
• Compliance by design with the EU AI Act and UK Employment Rights Bill.

Compensation & Structure:

• Salary: Competitive, based on experience.
• Equity: Available for candidates who demonstrate they can expand the vision and deliver on it.
• Path to CTO: For the right person, this role evolves into the technical leadership position as Able scales.
• Location: London‑based preferred (hybrid). Open to exceptional US‑based candidates in compatible time zones.

Hiring Process:

1. Application: CV and a brief note on why Able interests you. Share links to anything you've built that you're proud of.
2. CEO Conversation (April): 30–45 minutes. How you think about building with AI, your approach to delivery, and what excites you about the future of work.
3. Technical Deep‑Dive (May): Walk us through something you've built. We want to see how you approach real problems and talk through technical decisions.
4. References: Two references specifically confirming delivery track record and timeline discipline.
5. Offer: May/June, with start date June 2026.

Why Able:

The labour market is broken. Hiring is slow, expensive, and biased. Workers are treated as interchangeable. Agencies extract value without adding it. The systems that connect people to work haven't kept pace with how people actually work. Able is the solution. We're building a completely innovative, patent‑pending platform (UK and US) that uses ethical AI to match people to opportunities based on skills, availability, and verified credentials — instantly. We're cutting‑edge technology built on good, fair, ethical principles. A genuine force for good and measurable social impact. We're raising £500,000 to rebuild the entire platform to enterprise‑grade standards, launch a New York pilot, and expand across the UK and Europe. We have government backing, institutional partnerships, and a growing community of workers who chose Able because we treat them fairly. Ready to build something that matters? Send your CV and a brief note or video intro (preferred). Able is an equal opportunities employer. We actively welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds.