Head of Applied AI

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United Kingdom.

📋 Description

• Lead the development and expansion of Colibri Digital's AI engineering capabilities.

• Define the technical vision, standards, personnel, offerings, and growth of the Applied AI division.

• Oversee AI discovery, consulting, and solution discussions with senior clients from initial opportunity to final delivery.

• Establish standards for architecture, engineering, testing, CI/CD, MLOps/LLMOps, evaluation, security, and AI governance.

• Ensure AI solutions evolve from experimentation into reliable, scalable, and governed production environments.

• Critically assess architecture, estimates, and delivery methods prior to commitments.

• Lead, mentor, and cultivate the skills of AI engineers and senior technical specialists.

• Collaborate with sales and pre-sales teams to develop pipelines, secure new projects, and enhance client relationships.

• Transform successful client solutions into standardized offerings, accelerators, and reusable intellectual property.

• Assist in managing revenue, utilization, capacity, and margin across the practice.

• Enhance Colibri's presence in the AI market through clients, partners, events, content, and thought leadership.

• Travel to client locations, partner events, and Colibri/Nasstar offices, including central London, as needed.

• Engage in talent acquisition, leadership, technical/working, peer/practice, and executive discussions during the hiring process.

⛳️ Requirements

• Extensive technical knowledge in modern AI engineering, especially LLM-based systems, RAG, agentic or multi-agent architectures, vector databases/embeddings, and AI evaluation.

• Proven experience in taking AI or ML solutions from prototype to reliable production use.

• Strong foundation in software engineering principles, including system design, APIs, version control, automated testing, and CI/CD.

• Familiarity with MLOps/LLMOps and managing AI systems in production environments.

• Experience with contemporary cloud AI technologies and platforms.

• Skilled in leading engineers in the development of AI systems while maintaining robust technical credibility.

• Experience in direct collaboration with senior clients, preferably in consulting, professional services, or other client-focused technology settings.

• Background in pre-sales activities, including discovery, solution shaping, proposals, pitches, or aiding in the acquisition and expansion of client work.

• Proven ability to lead, mentor, and develop technical talent.

• Strong understanding of responsible AI, governance, evaluation, and the safe deployment of AI at scale.

• Capability to navigate between discussions of business value and commercial outcomes and detailed AI solution design.

• Comfortable operating independently, taking ownership, and translating ideas into actionable plans.

• Remote work within the UK with required travel.

🏝️ Benefits

• Salary Sacrifice Pension plan of 5+3.

• 25 days of annual leave plus 1 additional day for your birthday.

• Private Medical insurance and additional benefits.

• Remote-first working arrangement within the UK.

• Travel to client sites, partner events, and Colibri/Nasstar offices, including central London, as necessary.