Head of Applied Research

Help us use technology to make a big green dent in the universe! Kraken powers some of the most innovative global developments in energy. We create the technology that redefines utilities and unlocks a new energy system of the future. By optimising renewable generation, building a more intelligent grid, and empowering utilities to deliver an exceptional customer experience, our operating system is transforming the industry worldwide. It's an incredibly exciting time to work in energy. Join us on our mission to improve the lives of ONE BILLION humans within the decade and shape a cleaner, better future for everyone.

Kraken is building the next generation of AI technologies for the energy sector, and we're looking for an exceptional Head of Applied Research to help lead that ambition. As the advanced technology platform powering some of the world's largest energy utilities, Kraken has a unique combination of deep energy domain expertise along with technological rigor in AI and optimisation, offering a unique opportunity to develop AI technologies that shape how energy systems operate.

Kraken has been investing in the development of energy-specific AI models and intelligent decision‑making systems to power products that can understand, predict and ultimately help shape how energy is consumed, managed and distributed. This isn't a traditional research lab. Our focus is on building technically ambitious, commercially valuable AI systems that solve real‑world problems. We want to push the boundaries of what's technically possible while ensuring that the technology we develop translates into meaningful products, measurable impact and lasting competitive advantage.

Reporting into and working closely with our Chief AI Officer, you'll help define Kraken's applied research strategy, establish the technical foundations for our next generation products and cultivate an exceptional team capable of delivering them. This is an opportunity for someone who combines deep technical expertise with the ambition to build something genuinely new - someone who is equally comfortable with the latest literature in the field, making difficult technical decisions and turning breakthrough ideas into implementable products.

What you'll own:

• Shape Kraken's next generation of AI technology.
• Partner with our Chief AI Officer to define and execute Kraken's applied research strategy and roadmap, identifying the foundational capabilities and proprietary technologies that will create lasting competitive advantage.
• Lead the development of advanced AI models and architectures designed to understand and model complex energy systems, behaviour, and decision‑making.
• Explore and develop approaches using foundation models, deep learning, transformer architectures, representation learning as well as emerging techniques to unlock new capabilities.
• Develop generalisable models capable of supporting multiple products and applications per client.
• Establish a technical roadmap that balances ambitious innovation with practical development, scalability and commercial outcomes.
• Develop, lead a high‑performing team of AI researchers, research engineers and data scientists.
• Establish a culture of technological excellence, intellectual curiosity, experimentation and strong execution.
• Remain close to the technology, providing hands‑on technical direction, challenging data modelling and architectural decisions and helping solve complex modelling problems.
• Attract and develop exceptional technical talent, creating an environment where highly capable individuals can do the best work of their careers.
• Set clear technical priorities, development standards and measures of success while giving the team the autonomy to explore ambitious ideas.
• Develop proprietary AI models and intelligent systems.
• Lead the design, development, training and evaluation of advanced AI models.
• Develop models capable of learning underlying patterns in energy demand and system behaviour, with the potential to generalise across different applications and environments.
• Advance intelligent decision‑making capabilities that move beyond prediction towards sophisticated reasoning, control and optimisation.
• Evaluate new architectures and modelling approaches against existing methods, with the ambition to achieve state‑of‑the‑art performance in strategically important areas.
• Ensure models are technically robust, scalable and capable of being integrated into real‑world production environments.
• Drive AI research that turns into meaningful products.
• Work closely with engineering, product and commercial teams to ensure Kraken's technological research addresses core client needs, with the potential to translate into products that deliver measurable value for Kraken and its clients.
• Help establish the infrastructure, tooling and development practices required to build, evaluate, deploy and continuous.