AI Engineer

We’re on a mission to back the UK’s small businesses like no one else. Small businesses are the backbone of the economy, and we’re here to help them win. We’ve built a platform that uses clever data to get them the funding they need in minutes, not weeks. At Funding Circle, we have the restless energy of a fintech start-up with the stability of a public company. It’s a unique mix that gives Circlers the autonomy to take ownership and the scale to make an impact that truly counts. We’re a high-performing team that chooses to lift each other up. We challenge, we champion, and we have each other’s backs - because we know that when we stand together, we move faster and build better. The impact is real: Last year alone, the businesses on our platform generated £7.2bn for the UK economy.

The role is based in London (Hybrid) with 2 days in the office and offers a competitive salary plus benefits. Data is core to our mission at Funding Circle to build a better financial world as well as being our key asset that everyone across the organisation has a part to play in making sure that we look after it, allowing us to better support our customers. Our central data team lives in our Tech org and reports to the VP of Data. In order to strengthen our data maturity and become truly data driven we are committed to:

• Building a strong data culture where data is treated as an asset
• Empowering our circlers to become highly data fluent and confident self-serve users
• Enhancing our world-class data platform
• Creating data products across all domains
• Transforming our business with ML & AI

You will be joining our AI and Machine Learning team, which for the past two years has been at the forefront of leveraging AI to transform our business. Our team is composed of talented platform engineers, data scientists and a Product Manager and we are now looking for AI Engineers to build the applications that our internal and external users will interact with. This is a strategic, hands-on role created to embed critical full-stack engineering skills directly within our AI/ML experts. Your mission is to bridge the gap between our AI systems and user-facing applications. By adding your expertise, you will help make our team a more self-sufficient unit, capable of moving from concept to production with greater speed and efficiency.

You will spearhead the development of flagship GenAI products, across multiple business areas (e.g. Product, Underwriting, Sales, Operations) and will own the full product lifecycle, from design and development to production support and maintenance.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design, build, and maintain full-stack web applications, including front-end development, serverless or containerised back-ends, APIs, and database storage.
• Employ technologies specifically suited to GenAI applications (MCP, Knowledge Bases, Agent to Agent communication, Agent Catalogues, LLM output monitoring and evaluation systems etc.)
• Take ownership of and accelerate the development of flagship GenAI products, like our internal 'Customer Profile,' to reduce time-to-value and iterate rapidly based on user feedback.
• Collaborate directly with AI/ML engineers, data scientists, product engineers and product managers in a rapid experimentation and prototyping environment.
• Embrace and drive a culture of full lifecycle ownership, taking responsibility for your applications' design, development, ongoing production support, maintenance, and on-call duties.
• Help evolve our cross-functional operating model, establishing robust, repeatable processes and best practices for building end-to-end AI applications.

What we’re looking for:

• A strong Full Stack Engineer with a passion for product and a curiosity for AI.
• Proven expertise in building, testing, and deploying modern full-stack web applications.
• Strong skills in front-end frameworks (e.g. React), application back-ends (e.g. python, serverless/containerised applications, APIs), and database storage.
• A product-focused mindset with experience in taking applications from concept to production.
• Comfortable with full lifecycle ownership, including maintenance and on-call responsibilities.
• Experience with cloud platforms and familiarity with infrastructure concepts (e.g. CI/CD, containerisation, serverless) needed to build scalable and reliable applications.
• Excellent ability to work effectively in a cross-functional team, managing stakeholders and clearly translating complex technical ideas and user feedback into product features.
• Strong analytical and troubleshooting skills.
• Excited by the ambiguity of a new, experimental team and able to take ownership to drive initiatives forward.
• A strong interest in and hands-on experience with AI/ML technologies, such as LLM-based applications, RAG, or agent frameworks.
• Knowledge of event-driven systems (e.g. Kafka) is a plus.
• Willingness to learn is a requirement.

We’re building a place where everyone truly feels they belong. Even if your past experience doesn't align perfectly with every requirement, we'd still love to hear from you.

Why join us?

• We back you to build an incredible career and by joining us, you'll be part of one of The Sunday Times Best Companies to Work For 2026!
• As a flexible-first employer, we use a 'best of both' approach. We’ll see you in our London office to collaborate – with barista coffee and subsidised Just Eat lunches on us!
• Our Circler Proposition focuses on five areas:
• Flexibility: We provide a benefit allowance you can tailor to your own life and family.
• Health: This includes private medical and dental, health assessments, and access to a digital GP.
• Wealth: We offer life assurance, share schemes, and financial coaching.
• Development: You get a dedicated annual learning allowance to help you level up.
• Lifestyle: We have electric car and cycle-to-work schemes, plus season ticket loans.
• We also have award-winning parental leave policies. We're here to support you through the big life moments, from fertility treatments to new additions to the family.

Ready to join a mission that matters? We’d love to chat!