AI Build Lead in Edinburgh

The gap between the engineering manager, the product owner, and the hands‑on builder is closing fast, and this role is for the person already operating in that mode. You lead the team, own delivery, and write the production code that puts the product in front of real customers. This is not three jobs crammed into one. Multiverse has built an environment where AI‑native ways of working collapse the old boundaries, so one person can own the whole arc from idea to live product. The Scotland hub exists to build AI‑native products like this one and set the practices that make the company AI‑first.

You partner with the leadership to shape the vision and own how it comes to life. The north star is still taking shape, so there is real room to influence what the product becomes while you build it, with a tight loop between customer feedback and what you build next. As a player‑coach, you line‑manage and grow a small core team while staying in the code, pulling in other engineers and specialists as the work needs them. The team is assembled around this problem and runs a compressed, AI‑native delivery loop: ideation to production in days not quarters, experimentation over debate, and an obsession with the right outcome rather than the perfect solution. We embrace a “re‑teaming” culture, giving you the high‑agency opportunity to dynamically form teams around business priorities, tackle new disciplines, and drastically accelerate your career trajectory.

What You Will Do

• Own delivery of the product. You bring the product vision to life for real apprentices, customers and coaches. You own discovery, build, launch, and the calls on what to build next. You are accountable for impact and not just for shipping on time.
• Lead the team as a player‑coach. You line‑manage and grow a small core team while staying in the code, and pull in other engineers and specialists as the work needs them. You set the standard in the work itself, and create the psychological safety and guided autonomy that let people own their decisions.
• Ship production code yourself. Prototypes, proofs of concept, and production agents in the same repos and behind the same gates as everyone else’s. When building the thing is the fastest way to learn or unblock the team, you build it.
• Read the customer and run a fast build loop. You stay close to how customers, learners and coaches use the product and let that drive what comes next, using AI‑native discovery: deep research agents, conversational research at scale, and analytics that go past the dashboard. The loop runs from idea to production in weeks, scored against real usage rather than argued in a meeting.
• Help shape how Multiverse works AI‑native. The ways of working that make this role possible are constantly being refined. You contribute the patterns, tooling, and operating model, prove them in how your own team runs, and share what works with the wider org.

What We Are Looking For

• Product Ownership: You have delivered a customer‑facing product end to end, and you are at your best taking an early vision and making it real. You decide what to build next from what customers actually do rather than from a roadmap fixed in advance, comfortable moving between the north star and the build. No product management title required. What matters is a product with your fingerprints on the outcome.
• Production AI Engineering: You ship production code and understand what makes AI product engineering its own discipline: context management, model selection, tool design, evaluation of agent output, and the token economics that separate a prototype from an affordable production system. You do not need to architect a multi‑agent platform from scratch — that depth sits with the Principal and Staff engineers — but you build what you want to test and get it live without an engineer rebuilding it first.
• Player‑Coach Leadership: You have led and grown engineers while staying hands‑on, setting direction and coaching without disappearing into management. You create psychological safety and guided autonomy by default, give direct feedback well, and grow people because you are close enough to the work to do it credibly.
• AI‑Native Delivery: You build with Claude Code, or the equivalent of the week, daily and well: worktrees, context steering, critical review, evals kept running. You have run delivery in tight loops where bets are cheap to test, failure is recovered from quickly, and progress is measured by outcomes rather than output. The bar is the one the AI engineering team holds itself to, and the product and leadership weight of the role buys no exemption from it.
• Communication: You explain product and technical calls clearly to engineers and the senior leaders you work with, write briefs that move decisions forward, and hold your ground with a Principal engineer without needing to be the most technical person in the room.

What Would Set You Apart

• Founding engineer or founding product hire at a startup that shipped real product, or the engineer‑PM‑lead hybrid on a small team.
• A track record of coaching other managers or engineers through the shift to AI‑native ways of working.
• Public thinking on how the manager, product, and builder roles converge in an AI‑native org.
• Experience in EdTech, regulated content, or domains where AI output quality has compliance or accreditation implications.
• Practical experience with MCP (Model Context Protocol) or equivalent agent integration standards.

What We Are Not Looking For

• Traditional engineering managers who run delivery and ceremonies but do not own a product or write code.
• Pure product specialists who will not lead a team or build, or Principal and Staff engineers who want to anchor architecture rather than lead a product; both have a better home in other roles.
• People who treat AI tooling as a productivity tweak rather than a step change in how a team works.
• People who need a detailed spec and a sprint plan before starting; this role writes the brief.

Benefits

• Time off - 27 days holiday, plus 5 additional days off: 1 life event day, 2 volunteer days, 2 company‑wide wellbeing days (M‑Powered Weekend) and 8 bank holidays per year.
• Health & Wellness - private medical Insurance with Bupa, a medical cashback scheme, life insurance, gym membership & wellness resources through Wellhub and access to Spill - all in one mental health support.
• Hybrid work offering - for most roles we collaborate in the office three days per week with the exception of Coaches and Instructors who collaborate in the office once a month.
• Work‑from‑anywhere scheme - you'll have the opportunity to work from anywhere, up to 10 days per year.
• Space to connect - Beyond the desk, we make time for weekly catch‑ups, seasonal celebrations, and have a kitchen that’s always stocked!

Our Commitment to Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

We’re an equal opportunities employer. And proud of it. Every applicant and employee is afforded the same opportunities regardless of race, colour, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender, gender identity or expression, or veteran status. This will never change.

Our Commitment to Safeguarding

Multiverse is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our learners. We expect all employees to share this commitment and adhere to our Safeguarding Policy, our Prevent Policy and all other Multiverse company policies. Successful applicants will be required to undertake at least a Basic check via the Disclosure Barring Service (DBS). For roles that will involve a Regulated Activity, successful applicants must also undergo an Enhanced DBS check, including a Children’s Barred List check and a Prohibition Order check. Roles involving Regulated Activity may interact with vulnerable groups, therefore are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 meaning applicants are required to declare any convictions, cautions, reprimands, and final warnings. Providing false information is an offence and could result in the application being rejected or summary dismissal if the applicant has been selected, and possible referral to the police and the DBS.