Job Description

Purpose of the role:




The Lead AI Engineer combines deep technical expertise with strategic leadership to guide a high-performing team.




You will be responsible for coordinating the delivery of cutting-edge AI solutions, fostering an innovative environment, and ensuring the team's continued growth.


You will lead the AI engineering team from a technical perspective. You will bridge the gap between business requirements and technical execution, driving excellence across the entire AI lifecycle.

Job title:

AI Engineering Tech Lead

:

What we're looking for:

Technical Skills

Languages:

Proficiency in Python and Terraform is mandatory. Beyond syntax, the candidate must demonstrate mastery of best practices, clean code principles, and the ability to build maintainable, modular systems. Experience with TypeScript and SQL is highly desirable.

Cloud Services:

Must possess a deep understanding of the AWS ecosystem, including account navigation and resource management. Prior experience or understanding of Azure and GCP is considered a plus.

Strategic Architecture:

Design and oversee data pipelines based on robust infrastructure foundations and an understanding of complex model chaining using common open source frameworks.

Platform Leadership:

Expert-level management of LLM and Foundational models across AWS and Azure, ensuring scalable and cost-effective deployments.

Standards & Quality:

Define and enforce engineering standards for software practices, model serving, and lifetime management (accuracy, drift, and rigorous testing).

Development Excellence:

Drive best practices in Python and asynchronous programming, ensuring high-performance software architecture and design patterns.

CI/CD & DevOps:

Architect robust deployment pipelines and distributed computing environments to ensure seamless production cycles.

Technical Oversight:

Lead code and design reviews, identifying quality issues and refactoring complex systems to maintain technical debt.

Solution Implementation:

Provide high-level recommendations for AI developments and translate client specifications into actionable engineering roadmaps.

Requirements:

Experience:

At least 4 years in a specialized AI/Gen AI practitioner role.

Leadership & Mentoring:

Proven ability to coach and mentor engineers, serving as a primary route of escalation for complex technical issues.

Stakeholder Management:

Experience chairing meetings and communicating complex technical concepts to both internal leadership and external clients.

Strategic Thinking:

Strong business awareness to align AI initiatives with organisational drivers, structures, and priorities.

Project Governance:

Ability to organise, prioritise, and monitor team workloads, ensuring projects stay on schedule and meet service standards.

Ethical Oversight:

Deep understanding of Engineering and AI ethics, ensuring all team outputs adhere to responsible AI standards.

Continuous Innovation:

A passion for emerging technologies, staying up-to-date with certifications and industry advancements to keep the team's skills at the forefront.

Join Capita - Where Innovation Meets Opportunity

Capita is a dynamic leader in consulting and digital services, helping some of the UK's most recognized organizations transform and thrive. We use cutting-edge technology and fearless innovation to create smarter, more efficient solutions that make a real difference. Our work spans diverse sectors--government, healthcare, education, and finance--offering you the chance to contribute to projects that impact millions of lives. At Capita, you'll be part of a collaborative, forward-thinking team that values creativity, growth, and inclusion.


We're committed to your development and success, providing opportunities to learn, progress, and shape better outcomes for customers and communities. If you're ready to make an impact and grow your career, Capita is the place for you.

Check out our website

www.capita.com

What's in it for you?

A competitive basic salary 23 days' holiday (rising to 27) with the opportunity to buy extra leave The opportunity to take a paid day out of the office, volunteering for our charity partners or a cause of your choice Company matched pension, life assurance, a cycle2work scheme, 15 weeks' fully paid maternity, adoption and shared parental leave, paternity pay of two weeks...and plenty more Voluntary benefits designed to suit your lifestyle - from discounts on retail and socialising, to health & wellbeing, travel and technology Access to our Employee Network Groups, which represent every strand of diversity and allow colleagues to connect and learn from each other on an open, inclusive platform

What we hope you'll do next:

Choose 'Apply now' to fill out our short application, so that we can find out more about you.


We are committed to building a workforce that reflects the diversity of the communities we serve. As part of our strategic goals, we are focused on accelerating gender and ethnic representation in leadership roles. We warmly encourage applications from women and individuals from Black, Asian, and other ethnic minority backgrounds.


We're an equal opportunity and Disability Confident employer, which means we recruit and develop people based on their merit and passion. We're committed to providing an inclusive, barrier-free recruitment process and working environment for everyone. If you need the job description or application form in an alternative format (such as large print or audio), or if you'd like to discuss other changes or support you might need going forward, please email reasonableadjustments@capita.com and we'll get back to you.

For more information about equal opportunities and process adjustments, please visit the Capita Careers website.

Location:

Edinburgh
,


United Kingdom

Time Type:

Full time

Contract Type:

Permanent