Lead AI Engineer, AI Lab

We are an organisation that exists to drive progress. Our businesses share a devotion to innovation, independence and rigour in their fields of expertise. We empower people to understand and tackle the critical challenges and changes facing the world. Our analytical rigour, global expertise and evidence-based insights enable individuals and organisations to make sense of these shifts and chart a course through them.

This is a permanent, senior role within the AI Lab that will help shape and build the next generation of AI-powered Economist experiences. This hire will play an especially important role over the next 6 to 12 months, providing senior technical leadership and continuity while our current Technical Lead is on maternity leave. After that period, they will remain a core senior member of the Lab, helping shape its technical direction and lead the development of future prototypes and AI innovation.

This is a hands-on role for someone who combines strong engineering judgement with deep familiarity with modern AI systems. You will help turn promising ideas into working prototypes, assess emerging technologies, and guide technical decisions across the AI Lab’s work. You should be comfortable operating in an exploratory environment where not every question has a clear answer, but where disciplined experimentation and practical delivery matter. This role will be based in our London headquarters.

Responsibilities

• Provide senior technical leadership for the AI Lab’s work, ensuring continuity and momentum during a period of maternity cover.
• Design, build and iterate on prototypes and experimental concepts using frontier AI capabilities across areas such as text, audio, voice, video and multimodal experiences.
• Lead technical investigation and experimentation, including testing new models, methods and workflows.
• Partner with commercial, editorial and other technology teams to support the testing, scaling and launch of concepts developed by the AI Lab.
• Shape and implement the right technical architectures for AI Lab prototypes and experiments - balancing speed, quality, flexibility and longer-term scalability.
• Help the Lab identify where advances in AI could create distinctive value for Economist audiences and products.
• Contribute to the Lab’s longer-term technical direction, helping decide what capabilities to build, test or scale over time.
• Support and, where appropriate, mentor other technical contributors working on Lab initiatives.

What sort of person we are looking for

• A strong technical builder with deep curiosity who enjoys turning emerging ideas into tangible products and prototypes.
• Comfortable taking ownership and being autonomous in an uncertain, fast-moving environment.
• Works well in a small team with the freedom to make decisions and communicate clearly with others.
• Combines technical knowledge with business sense to ensure that research supports company goals and editorial standards.
• Able to switch between hands-on engineering, technical strategy and clear communication with non-technical colleagues.
• Understands The Economist’s core values of classical liberalism, intellectual rigour and editorial independence.

Specific skills and expertise

• Significant experience building with modern generative AI models and systems in production or advanced prototype settings.
• Strong software engineering skills, with the ability to design and implement robust prototypes quickly and thoughtfully.
• Experience working across multiple modalities such as text, audio, voice, video or conversational interfaces.
• Good judgement in selecting and evaluating models, tooling and system architectures for different use cases.
• Ability to explain technical concepts, opportunities and constraints clearly to non-technical audiences.
• Experience defining practical evaluation approaches for AI systems, including quality, reliability and usability.

Strong candidates might also have

• Experience in a startup, innovation, advanced product or R&D environment.
• Experience in building B2C customer-facing AI products or features in content-rich or editorial domains.
• Interest or experience in media, journalism, information products or knowledge-rich domains.
• Familiarity with fine-tuning, benchmarking, model evaluation and experimentation workflows.
• Experience with orchestration frameworks, tool-using systems and agentic patterns.
• Experience leading senior technical work during periods of ambiguity, change or team transition.

How to submit an application

Candidates should submit a CV and optional cover letter.

More about the Economist AI Lab:

We believe AI will fundamentally change both our business and the world around us, making our mission more vital than ever. While we already use AI across The Economist Group, we think the changes to come in the next few years could be even more far-reaching. This is why we have established the Economist AI Lab–to reimagine Economist journalism for an AI-driven world.

Working Arrangements

The majority of our roles operate on a hybrid working pattern, with 3+ days office attendance required.

AI usage for your application

We are an innovative organisation that encourages the use of technology. We recognise that candidates may utilise AI tools to support with their job application process. However, it is essential that all information you provide truthfully and accurately reflects your own experience, skills, and qualifications.

What we offer

Our benefits package is designed to support your wellbeing, growth, and work-life balance. It includes a highly competitive pension or 401(k) plan, private health insurance, and 24/7 access to counselling and wellbeing resources through our Employee Assistance Program. We also offer a range of lifestyle benefits, including our Work From Anywhere program, which allows you to work from any location where you have the legal right to do so for up to 25 days per year. In addition, we provide generous annual and parental leave, as well as dedicated days off for volunteering and even for moving home. You will also be given free access to all The Economist content, including an online subscription, our range of apps, podcasts and more.