Lead Engineer (Digital/AI)

Divisional Lead Engineer (Digital & AI)

📍 Cardiff / Hybrid (3 Days Per Week)

💰 £70,000 - £80,000 + Benefits

A rare opportunity to join an international organisation at the start of its Digital & AI engineering journey.

The business is already exploring AI across multiple countries, with teams building applications, automations and new solutions to solve real business problems. The next step is building the technical foundations, governance and engineering capability to take that further.

As the first dedicated hire in this area, you'll have genuine influence over how AI solutions are designed, built and deployed across the organisation.

The key thing is that this is a hands-on engineering role.

They need someone who has personally built AI into applications or products, understands how those solutions work beyond the development environment, and enjoys experimenting with new technologies as they emerge.

You don't need to be managing a large engineering team already. This could suit a Senior, Lead or Principal Engineer who mentors others and influences technical direction but still wants to be close to the technology.

What You'll Do:

Design, build and deliver AI-powered applications and automation solutions

Integrate LLMs and AI services into real-world applications

Work with AI agents, RAG architectures and orchestration

Help define the technical direction of a new Digital & AI capability

Build the controls, observability and governance needed to use AI safely at scale

Define development standards, engineering frameworks and best practice

Mentor developers and provide technical guidance across the business

Work across technologies including React, Next.js, Node.js and AWS

Collaborate with infrastructure, cloud and wider technology teams

Stay hands-on whilst helping shape the organisation's longer-term approach to AI What You'll Bring:

Strong software engineering fundamentals

Practical experience personally building AI-enabled applications, features or products

Experience integrating LLMs or AI services into applications, rather than solely using AI as a development tool

Understanding of areas such as LLM APIs, orchestration, agents, RAG, guardrails and observability

AWS experience, ideally including exposure to Amazon Bedrock

JavaScript / TypeScript and modern web engineering experience

Experience with Node.js, React, Next.js or comparable technologies

Strong understanding of software architecture and engineering best practice

Experience mentoring engineers or influencing technical direction

Genuine interest in emerging AI technologies and a willingness to experiment with new models, tools and approaches

Ability to communicate technical ideas clearly to non-technical stakeholdersYou Don't Need:

A Head of AI title

Experience managing a large engineering team

To have spent years in formal people managementWhat's more important is that you're technically strong, curious about where AI engineering is heading and can demonstrate things you've actually built.

Why You Should Apply:

Founding role within a growing AI Engineering function

Opportunity to build something from the ground up

Remain genuinely hands-on with AI and software engineering

Influence technology choices, standards and ways of working

Greenfield AI projects with strong organisational backing

International scope across multiple regions and business units

Opportunity to grow into a broader technical leadership position

Hybrid workingInterested?

Contact Lewis Allen to find out more.

Please apply with a CV outlining your suitability for the role.

Know someone great for the job? We offer a referral scheme, so get in touch.

Note: We do our best to respond to every application, but due to volume, we can't always guarantee it. If you haven't heard back within 7 days, unfortunately, you haven't been successful this time. Keep an eye on our site for new opportunities