At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the development of a revolutionary AI platform that transforms banking workflows.
- Company: Join Citi, a global leader in financial services with a focus on innovation.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive salary, 27 days leave, private medical care, and a hybrid work model.
- Other info: Collaborative culture that values diversity and empowers you to thrive.
- Why this job: Be at the forefront of AI technology and make a real impact in banking.
- Qualifications: Proven leadership in software engineering and experience in building scalable platforms.
The predicted salary is between 72000 - 88000 £ per year.
We are building a next-generation system that reimagines banking workflows for our Corporate, Commercial, and Investment Bankers. Our vision is to empower them with a revolutionary Agentic AI Platform, featuring intelligent, autonomous agents that streamline processes, uncover new opportunities, and deepen client relationships—ultimately leading to significant productivity gains and increased wallet share. We are looking for a visionary, hands-on engineering leader to build and scale the platform that will make this a reality.
As the Director of Agentic Platform Engineering, you will be a player-coach responsible for the technical vision, architecture, and execution of this greenfield platform. You will join a world-class engineering team being built from the ground up, while remaining deeply technical and contributing to the core development of the platform. This is a unique opportunity to blend strategic leadership with hands-on engineering to build a product that will have a direct and measurable impact on the front lines of our business.
Key Responsibilities
- Platform Architecture & Development: Lead the design, architecture, and hands-on development of a scalable, secure, and resilient agentic AI platform from concept to production.
- Technical Leadership & Hands-On Engineering: Serve as the lead engineer and technical authority, guiding critical decisions on frameworks, technologies, and infrastructure. You will be expected to write code, build prototypes, and lead by example.
- Team Building & Mentorship: Recruit, hire, and mentor a high-performing, agile team of software and machine learning engineers. Foster a culture of innovation, excellence, and accountability.
- Strategic Roadmapping: Partner closely with product management and senior business leaders in banking to define the product strategy and technical roadmap. Translate complex business needs into elegant technical solutions.
- Cross-Functional Collaboration: Partner effectively with horizontal AI platform teams, enterprise architecture, and external vendor partners to leverage existing capabilities, influence roadmaps, and accelerate delivery.
- AI & ML Integration: Drive the strategy for integrating and operationalizing Large Language Models (LLMs), agentic frameworks, and other AI/ML technologies to solve real-world banking challenges.
- Operational Excellence: Implement and champion best-in-class engineering practices, including CI/CD, automated testing, infrastructure-as-code, and robust monitoring to ensure enterprise-grade reliability.
- Business Impact: Define, measure, and report on key performance indicators (KPIs) related to platform adoption, user productivity, and the ultimate impact on business outcomes like wallet share growth.
- Compliance & Security: Ensure the platform adheres to the highest standards of data privacy, security, and regulatory compliance required in the banking industry.
Qualifications & Experience
- Education: Bachelor's or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, or a related technical field.
- Experience: Significant experience in software engineering, with proven years in a leadership role, leading high-performing engineering teams.
- Hands-On Leader: Proven experience as a "player-coach" who can lead from the front, contribute to the codebase, and mentor junior and senior engineers.
- Platform Building: A strong track record of designing, building, and launching scalable, distributed, cloud-native platforms from the ground up.
- Domain Knowledge: Experience in the financial services industry (Corporate Banking, Investment Banking, FinTech) is a significant plus. An understanding of banking workflows and data is highly desirable.
- Communication Skills: Exceptional ability to communicate complex technical concepts to non-technical stakeholders and to articulate a clear technical vision that aligns with business goals.
Technical Skills
- AI / GenAI / Agentic Platforms
- LLM & Agentic Frameworks: Deep expertise in building production-grade agentic systems using GCP as primary.
- Multi-Agent Systems: Hands-on experience designing and implementing multi-agent architectures.
- Model Context Protocol (MCP) & Integrations: Experience integrating agents with enterprise tools and data sources.
- Knowledge Graphs & Reasoning: Building and leveraging knowledge graphs for context enrichment, reasoning, and workflow automation.
- RAG & Knowledge Systems: End-to-end RAG pipelines using enterprise search + vector stores.
- Model Lifecycle & Governance: Model evaluation, monitoring, prompt/version control, and Responsible AI / MRM compliance.
- Enterprise AI Integration & Data: API- and event-driven integration of AI into enterprise workflows.
- Data platforms: Databricks, Spark, Snowflake; streaming via Kafka.
- Backend & Distributed Systems: Languages: Python (expert), Java/Spring Boot (enterprise standard), Go (plus).
- Architecture: Microservices, domain-driven design, event-driven systems.
- APIs & Integration: REST/gRPC; Apigee, Kong.
- Data & Messaging: PostgreSQL/Oracle, MongoDB/Cassandra, Kafka.
- Cloud & DevSecOps: Strong experience with GCP (preferred); working knowledge of AWS; Azure exposure optional.
- Containers: Docker, Kubernetes.
- IaC: Terraform.
- CI/CD: GitHub Actions, Jenkins.
- Observability: Splunk, ELK, Prometheus, Grafana.
- Security & Compliance: Secure coding, API security, Zero Trust, Data privacy, encryption, access control, Regulatory compliance and AI governance.
What We Offer
- A leadership role in a high-priority, transformative initiative with executive visibility.
- The opportunity to build a cutting-edge AI platform from scratch.
- A competitive compensation package including salary, bonus, and benefits.
- A collaborative and innovative culture that values technical excellence and business impact.
By joining Citi London, you will not only be part of a business casual workplace with a hybrid working model, but also receive a competitive base salary, and enjoy a whole host of additional benefits such as:
- 27 days annual leave (plus bank holidays)
- A discretional annual performance related bonus
- Private Medical Care & Life Insurance
- Employee Assistance Program
- Pension Plan
- Paid Parental Leave
- Special discounts for employees, family, and friends
- Access to an array of learning and development resources
Citi is committed to ensuring our workplace is where everyone feels comfortable coming to work as their whole self, every day. We want the best talent around the world to be energized to join us, motivated to stay and empowered to thrive.
Director, Applied AI & Agentic Platform Engineering in London employer: CitiGroup
Citi is an exceptional employer that offers a dynamic work environment where employees can thrive and make a significant impact in the investment banking sector. With a strong focus on professional development, team collaboration, and community engagement, associates are empowered to grow their careers while contributing to meaningful projects within the Consumer, Luxury & Retail team. Located in a vibrant city, Citi provides unique opportunities for networking and exposure to leading global consumer players, making it an ideal place for ambitious professionals seeking rewarding employment.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Director, Applied AI & Agentic Platform Engineering in London
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at CitiGroup or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to CitiGroup.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like CitiGroup.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like CitiGroup that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Director, Applied AI & Agentic Platform Engineering in London
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at CitiGroup.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at CitiGroup and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at CitiGroup
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If CitiGroup uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
