Lead AI Engineer

AI & Automation Lead

Warrington – Hybrid

Circa £75,000 + bonus & equity - Negotiable DOE

*Start-up opportunity – First tech hire*

Opportunities like this definitely don’t come around too often and this really is the best of the best – this is your chance to design and build solutions how you see fit, set up an environment from the ground up, chose your tools and tech stack and hand-pick your own team.

BD Talent are working with an industry titan who after over 20 years in the tech sector, where he successfully led, transformed and in the latter case, sold businesses, has now started his own venture.

The offering is an AI and automation consultancy, currently pre-launch with clients already engaged and projects ready to go. Focusing on operationally intensive SMEs with a turnover of up to £100 million, you’ll work with them to uncover where AI could add value and follow a tool agnostic approach to design, build and deploy the best solution.

What makes this start up different?

• It’s headed up by someone who has an impressive track record building and scaling businesses
• After 20+ years in industry, the Founder has an impressive contact list and an equally good reputation
• Following the sale of a previous business, it is currently Founder funded with further external funding offers on the table – and that’s pre-launch
• They have already been approached about becoming the ‘AI arm’ of a global consultancy

The journey here is well mapped out:

• Phase 1: Delivering high impact automation & AI projects to early clients
• Phase 2: Developing repeatable solution accelerators and internal IP
• Phase 3: Scaling the consultancy through additional engineers and delivery capacity
• Phase 4: Formalising industry-specific solution offerings
• Phase 5: Opening to investment to support scale

To start you’ll be hands-on, building solutions, code libraries, reusable components, internal systems etc and very quickly (likely to be within 3-6 months) you’ll hire additional Engineers and switch your focus slightly to become more managerial.

This role really does sit at the centre of the technical engine that will power all future growth and joining at this stage offers:

• Meaningful ownership and huge learning opportunities
• Personal progression with a clear route to a senior leadership role
• Freedom to influence technology choices
• Exposure to fascinating operational problems across a variety of sectors
• The chance to help build something distinctive in an exploding market

While the exact stack will evolve with client needs, experience across several of the following is beneficial:

• Workflow automation platforms (e.g., Make, n8n, Zapier, Workato)
• API design, integration, authentication
• Python, JavaScript or similar scripting languages
• AI/ML models (LLMs, embeddings, classification, summarisation)
• Data wrangling and ETL tools
• Cloud platforms and serverless architectures
• RPA or orchestration frameworks

We need someone who can build and deploy at scale, someone who can build repeatable solutions, with a consideration for how all can be maintained. Someone who can ensure security and server efficiency, someone who can create suitable testing protocols and ensure reliability.

Job title and package negotiable – guideline salary listed above.

This is a hybrid role with a requirement for 2 or 3 days a week working from their Warrington office.

It’s a big role and a challenging one, if you’ve ever wanted to make your mark on something and have someone put their full trust in you to deliver, this really is that opportunity. The Founder sees this hire as imperative to the business and is hoping to find someone who can both join him and grow with him on this journey – it’s definitely not one to be missed.