Lead AI Engineer

OtherUniversity (OU) is building the world’s first AI-powered university for degree apprenticeships - a new model of higher education that is faster, smarter, employer-funded, and built for real professional mastery.

We are looking for a Lead AI Engineer to join as our founding technical hire.

This is a hands-on role: you will design, build, and own the core AI systems that power Prof. T, our 24/7 AI professor.

If you want to build something important, ambitious, and first-of-its-kind - this is it.

What you'll build

As our Lead AI engineer, you will:

• Architect and deploy OU’s private Azure OpenAI environment
• Build Prof. T v0.1 — our AI tutor trained on curriculum, assessments, and teaching materials
• Create retrieval and vector-based pipelines (RAG) for structured learning content
• Build internal tools for academics to upload, review, and refine materials
• Work with leadership to define our long-term AI roadmap
• Lay the foundation for adaptive learning, personalised coaching, and automated formative assessment
• Set engineering standards, model safety guidelines, and data governance frameworks
• Help scale the AI stack into a proprietary academic engine used by thousands of learners

This is a rare opportunity to shape the technical core of an entire institution.

What we’re looking for
Essential

• Experience with Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, LangChain, or similar frameworks
• Strong Python engineering skills
• Practical experience building RAG systems, embeddings, vector stores
• Comfort with cloud architecture (Azure preferred)
• Ability to move fast, prototype, and ship
• Experience building MVPs, internal tools, or early-stage AI products
• Strong understanding of prompt engineering, evaluation, and safety guardrails
• Ownership mindset — you want to build and shape the system, not just take tickets

Bonus

• Experience with LLM fine-tuning or instruction tuning
• Background in edtech, assessment, apprenticeship systems, or LMS tooling
• Previous startup or founding-engineer experience
• Familiarity with SOC2 / ISO data security practices
• Interest in AI ethics, education, or professional training

Who you are

You want to build something meaningful.

You like small teams, high autonomy, and rapid iteration.

You enjoy creating systems, not just writing code.

You care about impact, not bureaucracy.

You’re energised by the challenge of building the AI foundation of a new kind of university.

Why join us

• Founding engineer role with massive influence
• Build a globally significant AI education product from scratch
• Work directly with the founder/CEO and academic leadership
• Zero bureaucracy - move fast, own outcomes, ship continuously
• London or Dubai (both supported)
• Competitive pay (£7k/month)
• Mission-driven organisation with UK non-profit status
• You will create the backbone of a new educational model