AI Solutions Engineer in London

At Freshfields, technology and innovation are embedded into how we work with our clients. We're a global law firm with more than 5,500 people across 33 offices, and we are continuing to advance our innovation strategy including investment in key technology. Our partnerships with Anthropic and Google as well as the investment in Freshfields Lab and AI Academy are but a few examples. Join us to work on some of the most exciting challenges at the intersection of law, technology and business.

Tasks

• Implement and support the development of Python-based services and applications.
• Maintain and improve existing AI/ML solutions to enhance performance and scalability.
• Support troubleshooting and resolve system issues as the designated technical specialist.
• Set up systems implement solutions for ad-hoc data analysis and document processing exercises.
• Collaborate with developers, product managers, business stakeholders, IT security, and architecture teams to gather and align requirements.

Continuous Improvement & Innovation

• Identify opportunities to enhance the firm's technology stack and contribute to its evolution.
• Introduce and promote best practices in AI/ML solution design, DevOps, and development.
• Stay up to date with emerging technologies and trends in AI, ML, and software engineering.

Requirements

• Hands-on experience integrating LLM APIs across one or more enterprise providers, such as Azure OpenAI, Google Vertex AI or Anthropic, including structured outputs, tool use, streaming, retries, rate limits, model versioning and cost controls.
• Understanding of traditional ML models and algorithms.
• Hands-on track record working with Python in a professional environment.
• Development & DevOps: Hands-on experience with git/git-flow, containerization (Docker) and CI/CD pipelines (ideally Azure DevOps).
• Strong English communication skills to engage with cross-functional stakeholders.
• Experience with retrieval-enabled and agentic document workflows, including repository navigation, hybrid search and RAG, metadata, OCR, chunking, source citation, tool use, structured outputs and document generation.
• Experience building production services with Python and Django or comparable web frameworks, including APIs, streaming interfaces and asynchronous or background job processing.
• Experience working with relational databases, ideally PostgreSQL, including schema design, migrations, and query performance.
• Prior experience working in legal tech or professional services firms.
• Knowledge of Azure Cloud, including AKS, Service Bus, Azure OpenAI and Form Recognizer.
• Experience with infrastructure-as-code tools (Terraform).
• Experience in agile, fast paced environments.
• Understanding of the security and compliance requirements of a professional services firm.

UK Inclusion

Freshfields is an equal opportunities employer and all applications received by the firm will be considered by the firm on the basis of their merit alone and we welcome applications from all suitably qualified individuals regardless of background. All offers of employment will be conditional on the candidate having/securing the right to work in the UK and providing the firm with evidence of that right (as required by the Immigration, Asylum and Nationality Act 2006) prior to employment commencing. Freshfields is a Ban the Box employer. We ask applicants to disclose criminal convictions only when a conditional job offer is made. A conviction does not automatically lead to withdrawal of the offer: we make decisions on a case by case basis and take a number of factors into account (eg the role you are applying for and the circumstances of the offence). You would have the opportunity to discuss the matter with us before we make a decision.