Lead AI/ML Consultant in London

We are seeking a highly experienced AI Consultant to design, implement, and drive enterprise-grade AI solutions on the Azure platform Microsoft AI Foundry. This role combines hands-on experience, solution architecture, and technical leadership, with responsibility for guiding teams and proactively supporting multiple accounts. The candidate needs to have deep insurance domain knowledge, a strong grip on modern AI architecture patterns, and the communication skills to operate comfortably in both technical and domain jargons.

Key Responsibilities

• Deep understanding of the insurance domain: underwriting, policy administration, claims, reinsurance, and distribution.
• Ability to speak credibly to business stakeholders about business impact without needing a translator.
• Familiarity with insurance data types: structured (policy, claims, exposure) and unstructured (loss reports, survey documents, correspondence).
• Experience applying Responsible AI frameworks in practice: bias assessment, fairness metrics, explainability techniques and model cards.
• Demonstrable hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure AI Foundry: project setup, model catalogue, evaluation frameworks, and deployment pipelines.
• Proficiency with Azure OpenAI Service: GPT model deployment, fine-tuning, content filtering, and token management.
• Experience with Azure AI Search (vector and hybrid search), Azure AI Document Intelligence, and Azure Machine Learning.
• Ability to wire these services together into coherent, production-ready architectures not just run individual demos.
• Understanding of Azure security and identity controls as they apply to AI workloads: managed identities, private endpoints, and data residency.
• Develop and deploy RAG-based knowledge systems using Azure AI Search, Azure OpenAI Service, and relevant orchestration frameworks (LangChain, Semantic Kernel, or Prompt Flow).
• Design and implement AI agent architectures for orchestrating multi-step insurance workflows (e.g. automated claims triage, document extraction pipelines, underwriting assist tools).
• Build and evaluate ML / predictive models relevant to insurance: churn, risk scoring, fraud detection, reserve outputs from engineering teams against the original solution design; identify deviations before they reach the client.
• Establish and apply Responsible AI practices: bias evaluation, explainability, model monitoring, and governance documentation aligned to FCA and industry standards.
• Ability to produce governance documentation that satisfies both technical and regulatory audiences.
• Mentor and provide technical direction to junior consultants and engineers on the team.

Required Skills & Qualifications

• Python proficiency sufficient to build prototypes, review engineering output, and debug issues independently.
• Familiarity with orchestration frameworks: LangChain, Semantic Kernel, or Microsoft Prompt Flow.
• Hands-on experience with Microsoft Azure AI Foundry.
• Working knowledge of Azure DevOps or GitHub for managing AI experiment tracking and deployment pipelines.
• Ability to read and interpret SQL; experience with cloud data platforms (Databricks, Synapse, or equivalent) is advantageous.

Preferred Qualifications/Certifications

• Microsoft Certifications: AI-102 (Azure AI Engineer), DP-100 (Azure Data Scientist), AI-900, or equivalent.
• Familiarity with insurance-specific AI regulation guidance.
• Exposure to ML Ops practices: model versioning, drift detection, retraining pipelines, and A/B evaluation in production.
• Experience with multi-modal AI (document + image pipelines relevant to property claims or risk surveys).
• Familiarity with data bricks.
• Prior experience in a vendor or consultancy environment managing multiple concurrent client engagements.
• Knowledge of CI/CD for Databricks (Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions).
• Exposure to data governance, security, and compliance frameworks.