Director of AI | Machine Learning | Deep Learning | Natural Language Processing | Large Language Models | Leadership | Remote, UK in Bury

Role Overview

As the AI Director at a fast-growing, well-funded technology startup, you will lead the strategy, research, and implementation of the company's AI initiatives, driving the technical innovation behind its generative AI–powered cybersecurity solutions. Reporting directly to executive engineering leadership as part of the broader leadership team, you will own the end-to-end AI strategy—from identifying breakthrough research directions to developing prototypes and guiding their integration into customer-facing products. This is a senior leadership opportunity at the intersection of generative AI and cybersecurity.

You will take full ownership of the AI function from day one, managing an existing AI team and overseeing research direction, evaluation systems, and prototype development while scaling the organization's overall AI capabilities. Success in this role will be measured by roadmap progress, quantifiable improvements in model and agent performance, and the ability to drive competitive differentiation through AI innovation. This role is ideal for a senior AI researcher/engineer with deep experience in LLMs and agent systems who has shipped real product features and is eager to define the AI foundation of a next-generation cybersecurity company.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead AI Strategy and Research Direction - Own the technical AI roadmap, proactively identifying and validating novel research directions that strengthen cybersecurity capabilities and competitive positioning.
• Drive Innovation Through Prototyping - Design and build end-to-end prototypes of new AI techniques, acting as a technical product owner to guide engineering teams toward productionizing breakthrough capabilities.
• Develop Comprehensive Evaluation Systems - Create robust evaluation frameworks for agent performance, fine-tuning results, and system-level AI capabilities to ensure consistent, measurable improvements.
• Manage and Scale the AI Team - Provide direct leadership, mentorship, and prioritization for the AI team, establishing processes that enable rapid research progress and high-quality output.
• Ensure Technical Excellence - Collaborate closely with engineering teams to review system architecture, inform design decisions, and uphold high standards across all AI and agent-based components.
• Partner with Engineering Leadership - Translate research concepts into product features that drive customer value in close collaboration with senior engineering leadership.
• Stay at the Research Frontier - Continuously monitor cutting-edge work in LLMs, agents, and related fields, converting research insights into actionable roadmap items.

Qualifications

• Deep LLM/Generative AI Expertise - 7+ years in AI/ML with 3+ years focused on LLMs, generative AI, and agent systems, including hands-on experience with transformer architectures, fine-tuning, and production deployments.
• Proven Product Delivery Experience - Demonstrated success shipping AI/LLM features in production environments at product-focused organizations.
• Senior Technical Leadership Experience - Experience leading AI research and development teams and delivering on technical roadmaps at high-performing technology organizations.
• Research + Implementation Strength - Comfortable moving between cutting-edge research, prototype development, and guiding production implementation.
• Strategic Product Thinking - Ability to apply AI techniques to real-world challenges and define the metrics and benchmarks that drive system performance.
• Team Leadership and Development - Track record of managing, mentoring, and growing high-performing technical teams.
• Strong Technical Architecture Skills - Solid software engineering fundamentals and experience designing scalable AI systems.

Nice to Have

• Experience with NLP and agent frameworks (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex, etc.)
• Cybersecurity domain knowledge
• Experience in AI-focused startups, especially scaling research into product impact
• Advanced research background (e.g., PhD) with publications
• Familiarity with AI safety, evaluation methodologies, and responsible deployment
• Experience building custom benchmarking and evaluation systems

Why This Role Matters

• Lead Technical Innovation - Own the AI strategy at a company building novel applications of LLMs and agents to solve major cybersecurity challenges.
• Direct Research-to-Product Impact - Translate cutting-edge research into real product capabilities with visible impact for customers.
• Collaborate With Expert Teams - Work with experienced engineering leaders in AI and cybersecurity, enabling both deep technical exploration and scalable execution.
• Define the AI-Native Future of Security - Shape the technical standards and architectures that will influence the next generation of AI-powered cybersecurity.
• Leadership Growth Opportunities - Clear path to expanded executive ownership, with the opportunity to build transformative AI capabilities from research through production at a fast-growing startup.