At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the development of groundbreaking AI solutions in finance and mentor a talented engineering team.
- Company: Join Citi, a global leader in financial services with a commitment to innovation.
- Benefits: Enjoy competitive pay, comprehensive benefits, and opportunities for professional growth.
- Other info: Dynamic work environment with a focus on collaboration and continuous learning.
- Why this job: Shape the future of AI in finance and make a significant impact on global operations.
- Qualifications: 5+ years in software development and technical leadership, with expertise in AI systems.
The predicted salary is between 72000 - 88000 £ per year.
We are building the most consequential AI solutions in Funds Transfer Pricing and Financial Hedging platforms, and we are seeking a Lead AI Engineer to own the technical vision and drive the execution for these domains. In this position, you will be accountable for the end-to-end technical success of our agentic solutions, from architectural vision and design through implementation and adoption, ensuring they deliver scalable, resilient, and business-impacting capabilities at global scale.
Responsibilities:
- Strategy & Technical Ownership
- Define and own the end-to-end technical strategy for agentic AI within the Funds Transfer Pricing and Financial Hedging domains, ensuring alignment with both business objectives and the firm's technology standards.
- Serve as the ultimate technical authority on agentic systems, providing expert guidance to senior leadership and translating complex business challenges into a clear, actionable technical roadmap.
- Lead by example through hands-on coding, personally architecting and contributing to the most critical and complex components of the system, setting the standard for code quality and innovation.
- Mentor and cultivate a team of senior AI engineers, fostering a culture of technical excellence, continuous learning, and collaborative problem-solving.
- System Architecture & Design
- Own the architectural vision for highly scalable, resilient, and performant multi-agent systems, establishing the blueprint and design patterns that will be used across the platform.
- Oversee the design of intelligent agentic systems, including reasoning, planning, memory, orchestration, and action execution, ensuring they are scalable, reliable, auditable, and fit for business-critical workflows.
- Development Guidance & Implementation
- Guide the team in implementing robust AI agents while personally driving the development of core components and complex features.
- Set the strategy for integrating advanced technologies, including large language models (LLMs), predictive models, and sophisticated reasoning frameworks, to continuously expand agent capabilities.
- Establish and enforce best practices for designing and optimizing Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures and vector data strategies.
- Quality, Performance & Governance
- Own the comprehensive strategy for AI system quality, defining the frameworks and metrics for measuring and optimizing agent performance, reliability, and task success.
- Establish and enforce rigorous standards for AI governance, explainability (XAI), and responsible AI, ensuring systems are transparent, auditable, and compliant.
Required Qualifications & Skills:
- Extensive professional experience in software development and system design, with at least 5 years in a technical leadership capacity, guiding senior engineering teams in delivering large-scale, complex systems.
- Architectural Mastery of the AI Ecosystem: A proven track record of architecting solutions with the modern AI ecosystem. This requires deep, hands-on expertise with frameworks for agent development (Google ADK), multi-agent orchestration (LangGraph, AutoGen, CrewAI), and data augmentation (LangChain, LlamaIndex).
- Proven Expertise in Agentic Systems: A track record of architecting and delivering complex single- and multi-agent systems, demonstrating expertise in planning/reasoning engines, memory systems, and agentic protocols like MCP.
- Deep, Practical Knowledge of LLMs: Demonstrated mastery of LLM fundamentals, Prompt Engineering, and Context Engineering, with a history of applying this knowledge to build sophisticated agentic architectures and design robust APIs for AI services.
- Deep expertise in enterprise Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) architectures, including document ingestion, embedding strategies, retrieval optimization, reranking, vector databases, and context management.
- Expert-Level Engineering Craftsmanship: Expert-level proficiency in Python and SQL applied to building production-quality, high-performance AI systems.
- Proven ability to lead technical strategy, influence senior stakeholders, drive architecture decisions across multiple teams, and mentor senior engineers and technical leads.
Beneficial Qualifications & Skills:
- Experience working in the financial services industry.
- Proficiency in Java as an additional programming language.
Education:
- Bachelor’s degree/University degree in Computer Science.
- Master's degree preferred.
Lead AI Engineer, Senior Vice President 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 Lead AI Engineer, Senior Vice President 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 Lead AI Engineer, Senior Vice President 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.
