At a Glance
- Tasks: Design and build AI systems that enhance customer experiences and drive innovation.
- Company: Exciting fintech startup with a mission to transform financial wellbeing.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, equity opportunities, flexible working, and direct access to founders.
- Other info: Great opportunity for career growth into a leadership role.
- Why this job: Join at the ground level and shape the future of AI in finance.
- Qualifications: Experience in software or machine learning engineering with a passion for AI.
The predicted salary is between 80000 - 100000 £ per year.
We're partnering with an ambitious, early-stage fintech business on a mission to transform how consumers engage with and improve their financial wellbeing. Having achieved strong early validation and entered its next phase of growth, the company is seeking a highly capable AI Engineer to become the first dedicated AI hire and ultimately build and lead the AI function. This is a rare opportunity to join at a formative stage, influence product direction, and create AI capabilities that sit at the heart of the customer experience. For the right individual, there is a clear pathway into a future Head of AI position, alongside meaningful equity participation.
The Role
This is not a traditional engineering role. You'll operate as a builder, architect, and strategic partner to the founders, helping shape both the AI roadmap and the wider product vision. The business sees AI as a core differentiator, not an add-on feature. You will be responsible for designing, building, and scaling intelligent systems that enhance customer engagement, personalisation, automation, and decision-making.
Key Responsibilities
- AI Product Development
- Design and deploy AI-powered customer experiences
- Build intelligent recommendation and personalisation systems
- Create AI-driven workflows that deliver measurable user value
- Rapidly prototype, test and launch new AI capabilities
- Agentic AI & Automation
- Design and implement agent-based architectures
- Build autonomous and semi-autonomous workflows
- Develop multi-agent systems where appropriate
- Leverage modern orchestration frameworks to improve customer outcomes
- AI Infrastructure & Architecture
- Build scalable AI foundations and pipelines
- Develop retrieval and knowledge-management systems
- Implement evaluation, monitoring and governance frameworks
- Ensure solutions are secure, reliable and production-ready
- Strategic Contribution
- Work closely with founders on AI strategy
- Help identify commercially valuable AI opportunities
- Influence product direction and roadmap decisions
- Act as the internal AI subject matter expert
- Future Leadership
- Define the AI hiring strategy
- Recruit and mentor future AI talent
- Establish AI standards and best practices
- Build and lead the AI function
What We're Looking For
- Technical Experience
- Software engineering or machine learning engineering
- Proven experience building production AI applications
- Strong Python engineering capability
- Experience deploying AI products into real-world environments
- Experience with several of:
- LLM applications
- Agentic AI frameworks
- Multi-agent systems
- RAG architectures
- Vector databases
- AI orchestration platforms
- AI evaluation and observability tools
- Model optimisation and fine-tuning
- Mindset
- Thrive in startup environments
- Enjoy building from zero to one
- Think commercially as well as technically
- Are naturally curious about emerging AI capabilities
- Move quickly and take ownership
- Want to help build a company, not just a product
Ideal Backgrounds
- Senior AI Engineer
- Lead AI Engineer
- Founding AI Engineer
- Applied AI Engineer
- AI Product Engineer
- Machine Learning Engineer (LLM Focus)
- AI Solutions Architect
What's on Offer
- Competitive salary
- Meaningful equity opportunity
- Direct access to founders and strategic decision-making
- Significant autonomy and ownership
- Flexible working environment
- Clear progression pathway to Head of AI
Why This Role?
Few opportunities offer the chance to join at such an early stage and genuinely shape the future of a business. If you're excited by ownership, AI innovation, start-up pace, and the opportunity to build a function from the ground up, we'd love to hear from you. Apply in confidence for a confidential discussion.
Founding AI Engineer in Manchester employer: Adria Solutions Ltd
Join an innovative fintech start-up in Manchester as a Founding AI Engineer, where you'll have the unique opportunity to shape the AI function from the ground up. With a strong focus on employee growth, you will enjoy significant autonomy, direct access to founders, and a clear pathway to leadership, all while contributing to transformative AI solutions that enhance customer engagement. This role offers competitive salary and meaningful equity participation, making it an attractive prospect for those eager to make a real impact in a dynamic environment.
