Senior Automation Specialist (RPA & AI) in London

Descriptionace has partnered with a prestigious, leading global Hedge Fund to appoint an experienced Automation Specialist (RPA & AI) who will take full ownership of end-to-end delivery of production-grade automation across core operational functions, with a strong preference for exposure to Legal, Compliance and control-driven environments. This is an engineering-first role: you will design, build, test, deploy and run automations using UiPath, integrating AI capabilities (Gemini/LLM) where they tangibly improve outcomes. You will operate as the delivery and product owner for automation outcomes, working independently, making day-to-day implementation decisions, and escalating by exception. Our client needs a high-output delivery operator who takes direction well and thrives in a demanding, high-performance environment. Please note that this role requires presence in the client’s London office 5 days a week.

Responsibilities

• Own end-to-end automation delivery: intake, process mapping, solution design, build, test, release, hypercare, BAU handover/runbooks.
• Build and maintain robust UiPath automations (attended/unattended) with production-grade engineering patterns: resilience, retries, idempotency, exception handling, monitoring, logging and supportability.
• Implement AI-enabled automation using Gemini/LLM integrations where appropriate (e.g., extraction, classification, summarisation, triage), ensuring controls, traceability and appropriate human-in-the-loop design.
• Act as the product owner for automation outcomes: manage an automation backlog, define acceptance criteria, prioritise delivery, and track measurable benefits (time saved, risk reduced, throughput increased).
• Partner closely with Operations, Finance, Treasury and (where applicable) Legal/Compliance stakeholders to embed controls into workflows (approvals, evidence capture, audit trails, SoD).
• Establish and maintain continuous assurance/test automation for automation: automated regression checks, control validation routines, and operational health monitoring.
• Own documentation standards: solution design docs, SOPs/runbooks, release notes, evidence packs and support procedures.
• Identify and remediate automation risk: breakpoints, failure modes, data-quality issues, access/credential risks; escalate by exception with clear options and trade-offs.

Requirements

• Demonstrable experience delivering automation in financial services (buy-side strongly preferred).
• Deep hands-on expertise with UiPath (Studio, Orchestrator, queues, exception frameworks; able to build independently without client upskilling).
• Practical experience integrating AI/LLMs into operational workflows (Gemini preferred) with a clear view on controls, auditability, and operational risks.
• Proven track record of shipping automations to production, not just POCs, and owning stability post go-live.
• Strong delivery discipline: works at pace, handles ambiguity, executes reliably in high-pressure environments.

Nice to have

• Experience/exposure to Legal/Compliance processes and control environments; familiarity with evidence-driven governance.
• Exposure to Equities / Fixed Income operational processes.

Benefits

• Initial 12-month contract, with likelihood of extension.
• 5 days per week in the London office (non-negotiable).
• Salary/rate to be discussed.

About us

ace is a specialist post-digital advisory and delivery partner helping financial institutions implement high-impact automation, AI, and post-digital solutions in regulated environments. We combine deep technical expertise with a practical understanding of governance, controls, and operational risk to deliver production-grade outcomes at pace. We are part of the G MASS group, a global financial services resource augmentation and consulting firm that provides expert talent and delivery support across transformation, change, and operational resilience.