Applied AI Lead London, England, United Kingdom

EQT is looking for an Applied AI Lead — a delivery-focused engineering leader who brings together technical depth, product instinct, and the credibility to partner with investment professionals, operators, and engineers to turn generative AI from prototype into production. This role sits at the heart of EQT's ambition to become the most AI-literate firm in private markets.

About the Team

You will lead EQT's Applied AI function, a multidisciplinary team of applied AI engineers, ML engineers, and full-stack builders shipping high-impact generative AI products across Client, Investment Teams, and Fund/Group. The team consumes Tech Foundations' shared AI platform while owning lightweight tooling and operational practices to move with speed.

About the Role

• You will lead a team of engineers deployed on high-impact projects to quickly drive results within both engineering and business teams.
• You will lead with craft, actively contributing to assignments alongside your leadership duties and you will act as a catalyst, helping engineering teams accelerate AI delivery and maximizing AI impact across business teams.
• You set the standard for quality and delivery across the team.
• Lead, mentor, and grow a multidisciplinary Applied AI team with clear expectations for delivery quality and technical craft.
• Own the Applied AI roadmap in close alignment with business stakeholders and value stream teams; stay attuned to emerging AI capabilities and evaluate where new models, agents, or tooling unlock fresh value.
• Partner with Tech Foundations, Product, Data, and Security teams to ensure Applied AI products integrate cleanly and responsibly.
• Serve as the senior AI partner to EQT's business lines — working directly with investment professionals and leaders to translate opportunities into concrete deliverables.
• Drive adoption of shipped products through enablement, demonstrations, training, and active feedback loops with end users.
• Track the AI frontier and apply fresh thinking to raise the bar on what EQT can build.
• Measure and communicate business impact with rigour — instrumenting both engineering productivity gains and user adoption — and hire engineers who understand that judgment about AI output, decomposition skills, and willingness to change workflows matter more than framework credentials.

About You

You are a thoughtful, delivery-oriented leader who combines technical depth with business fluency to navigate private markets. You bring collaborative leadership, sound judgment, and relentless curiosity about where AI creates genuine value in PE.

What you'll bring (must-have):

• Leadership & Credibility: At least 10 years in software or ML/AI engineering, with 3–5 years in a leadership capacity managing teams or strategic delivery in applied AI, ML product, or AI platform environments.
• Demonstrated AI Leverage & Outcomes: Concrete evidence of AI-driven productivity gains: a specific product, workflow, or internal tool you shipped with AI; a measurable before/after (latency, throughput, manual-work elimination); and how you measured it.
• Willingness to Abandon Habits for Better Tooling: You've changed your mind on how you write AI systems because a new approach or model capability made the old one obsolete. You ship what works now, not what worked last year, and you bring that standard to how you lead.
• Working Knowledge of Private Equity & Deal Workflow: Genuine operational fluency in PE — deal cycles, investment decision-making, portfolio workflows, or comparable high-stakes professional services. You translate vague "investment teams struggle with analysis" into shippable features and know where AI actually applies vs. distraction.
• Measurement & Instrumentation: You cultivate a culture of transparency and clarity. You measure impact and productivity not just for dashboards, but to empower your team, identify where we win, and remove barriers to success. You believe that rigorous, data-informed insights create fairness and accountability—enabling you to hire, promote, and develop top-quartile talent who value ‘Owning It’.
• Stakeholder & Cross-Functional Leadership: You've translated ambiguous business needs into shippable AI products in close partnership with non-technical stakeholders. You lead across engineering, product, data, and security without formal authority. You've rolled out internal platforms or shared services and know how to drive adoption.
• Judgment About What's Real vs. Hype: You follow AI research actively but skeptically — testing whether new capabilities solve problems you care about. You experiment thoughtfully and bring a craft-oriented mindset to your team.
• Comfort in Ambiguity & Distributed Environments: You've operated effectively in large, complex organisations across time zones, unclear ownership, and shifting priorities.

Nice to have:

• Direct experience in private equity operations, investing, or portfolio company engagement.
• Experience with data governance, security, and AI compliance frameworks.
• A track record of building strong developer experiences and high-leverage internal tooling.
• Experience enabling AI adoption at an organisational scale, including training, change management, or community building.
• Familiarity with AI infrastructure or platform team environments (beyond applied AI delivery).
• A public track record of open-source contributions, technical writing, or speaking on AI systems design or engineering practices.

What We Offer

EQT offers a rare opportunity to shape how one of the world's leading private markets firms applies AI at scale. You'll work alongside sharp minds in finance and technology, with the mandate and resources to build something genuinely impactful. We're committed to a high-trust environment where what you deliver matters more than tenure.

Compensation & Benefits Notice

We offer a competitive total rewards package including base salary, determined based on the role, experience, skill set, and location. Eligible employees may also receive discretionary incentive compensation, awarded in recognition of individual performance and company results. EQT provides a comprehensive benefits offering designed to support employee wellbeing, development, and work-life balance. Benefits are effective from the first day of employment and may vary by location and role.

• Paid time off
• Parental leave
• Wellbeing and wellness support
• Flexible working arrangements
• Learning and development opportunities

Inclusion at EQT

Our vision for EQT employees is to build high performing & engaged teams. Our competitive edge comes from fostering an environment where every individual feels valued, empowered, and motivated to drive business impact. Our commitment to inclusion is not just about fairness; We understand and believe that being a great place to work drives the best performance. At EQT, inclusion is a business imperative and it's embedded into our talent strategy, decision-making, and culture to ensure that every individual and team operates at their full potential. By doing so, we unlock better collaboration, stronger innovation, and superior investment outcomes.

About EQT

EQT is a purpose-driven global investment organization focused on active ownership strategies. With a Nordic heritage and a global mindset, EQT has a track record of over three decades of developing companies across multiple geographies, sectors and strategies. EQT has investment strategies covering all phases of a business’ development, from start-up to maturity. EQT has EUR 270 billion in total assets under management (EUR 141 billion in fee-generating assets under management), within two business segments – Private Capital and Real Assets. With its roots in the Wallenberg family’s entrepreneurial mindset and philosophy of long-term ownership, EQT is guided by a set of strong values and a distinct corporate culture. EQT manages and advises funds and vehicles that invest across the world with the mission to future-proof companies, generate attractive returns and make a positive impact with everything EQT does. EQT has offices in more than 25 countries across Europe, Asia and the Americas and has more than 1,900 employees.