AI‑Native Lead Engineer — Build, Mentor & Deliver in Leeds

At Grant Thornton we do things differently - looking to the future, driving ambitious growth and pioneering positive change in our industry. Providing audit, tax and advisory services, we empower clients through strategic insight, curiosity, and genuine partnership. And we empower our people with real opportunity, an inclusive culture and work life balance.

With over 5,000 people in the UK, and a presence in 150 global markets, we’re on an ambitious journey, from great to exceptional, and we need the best people to help us achieve our potential. And with that comes the opportunity to help redefine what our industry looks like, and what you want from your career.

Grant Thornton UK LLP is part of a global network of independent audit, tax and advisory firms, made up of some 58,000 people in over 135 countries. We’re a team of independent thinkers who put quality, inclusion and integrity first. All around the world we bring a different experience to our clients. A better experience. One that delivers the expertise they need in a way that goes beyond. Personal, proactive, and agile.

Every day our teams help people in businesses and communities to do what is right and achieve their goals. Grant Thornton is building a new digital function at the heart of a £500m transformation of how the firm works and delivers for clients. We’re hiring Lead Engineers to be the senior technical voice in our delivery teams – hands‑on engineers who can work confidently in an AI‑native environment, solving problems natively in the platform or through AI‑enabled engineering from prototyping through to deployment.

We’re happy to talk flexible working and consider reduced hours and job shares, we’ll support you to balance your work and life.

A look into the role

As a Lead Engineer within our team, you’ll own technical direction and delivery quality across one or two small teams, working directly alongside product managers and senior business stakeholders. You’ll be a hands‑on individual contributor, building solutions while mentoring the engineers around you, setting the standard for how problems get solved, and being accountable for what gets shipped. You’ll work in a matrix, being embedded in a service line for day‑to‑day delivery and connected to a wider engineering function for craft, standards and career.

Key Responsibilities

• Set technical direction for your team(s) and own the quality of what is delivered
• Mentor engineers on craft, and develop their judgement about when and how to use AI tooling
• Build and maintain the integrations, MCP builds, API connections and infrastructure that sit beneath and around our GenAI platform
• Build systems, tools and solutions in an AI‑native way
• Represent engineering credibly with senior stakeholders, translating between technical design and business need in both directions
• Keep technical debt visible, trade‑offs explicit, and delivery pace predictable
• Contribute to our engineering standards and help the wider function improve over time

Knowing you’re right for us

Joining us as a Lead Engineer, the minimum criteria you’ll need is:

• Engineering depth. You’ve written and shipped production‑grade software – most likely in Python, C# .Net, or both (or similar). You think in systems, hold the line on fundamentals, and know what AI tooling is doing under the hood.
• AI‑native judgement. You’re fluent across AI‑native engineering, from building natively in the platform, using AI‑enabled tools to accelerate your own craft, and taking coalface experiments through to production‑grade operationalised solutions.
• Delivery credibility. You’ve owned end‑to‑end delivery in a team‑based model. You surface problems early, bring options, and keep stakeholders informed without being managed.
• Stakeholder presence. You can work directly and credibly with non‑technical people at a senior level, and translate technical constraints into business language without losing precision.

Additional Skills

• AI and LLM experience – you’re comfortable using GenAI tools such as Copilot, Claude or ChatGPT.

Knowing we’re right for you

Embracing uniqueness, the culture at Grant Thornton thrives on the contributions of all our people, we never settle for what is easy, we look beyond to deliver the right thing, for everyone. Building an inclusive culture, where we value difference and respect our colleagues helps our people to perform at the best of their ability and realise their potential. Our open and accessible culture means you’ll interact with leaders who are interested in you and everything you bring to our firm. The things that set you apart, we value them. That’s why we give you the freedom to bring your whole self to work and pursue your passions inside and outside of work.

Beyond the job

Life is more than work. The things you do, and the people you’re with outside of work matter, that’s why we’re happy to look at flexible working options for all our roles, and we’ll always do our best to keep your work and life in balance. The impact you can make here will go far beyond your day job. From secondments, to fundraising for local charities, or investing in entrepreneurs in the developing world, you’ll be giving back to society. It’s that drive to do the right thing that runs through our every move, grounded in our firm’s values – purposefully driven, actively curious and candid but kind. We’re looking for people who want to contribute, spark fresh ideas and go beyond expectations. People who want to be able to proudly do what’s right, for the firm, our clients, our people and themselves.