Vice President of Engineering

VP of Engineering - AI (Hands-On | LLMs | RAG | Multi-Agent Systems)

📍 London

🧠 Early-stage tech company

💼 Permanent

About the Role

We are hiring a hands-on VP of Engineering - AI to lead the development of a next-generation AI automation platform. This is a rare opportunity to join an early-stage, high-growth environment where you will own the architecture, delivery, and scaling of complex LLM-driven systems - while still writing production code daily.

If you’re a builder, a problem-solver, and someone who prefers shipping over managing layers of teams, this role is built for you.

What You’ll Do

• Build and ship end-to-end AI products using Python (core) and supporting Node.js services.
• Architect and implement LLM, RAG, workflow automation, and multi-agent systems .
• Design scalable pipelines (embeddings, vector databases, retrieval, orchestration, agents).
• Lead engineering direction while staying hands-on (~80% coding).
• Work directly with founders to define roadmap and deliver high-impact features.
• Set high engineering standards (testing, reliability, observability).
• Grow and mentor a small, elite engineering team as the business scales.
• Solve real-world operational problems through AI-driven automation.

Required Experience

To succeed in this role, you must have:

Technical

✔ Deep, hands-on Python expertise (production-level)

✔ Strong Node.js experience

✔ Proven experience shipping LLM-based products

✔ Real examples of:

• RAG systems
• Multi-agent or agentic workflows
• Embeddings & vector databases
• LLM orchestration
• Model evaluation & performance tuning
• ✔ Ability to architect from scratch in a lean environment

Background

✔ Recent startup / scaleup experience (Seed–Series C preferred)

✔ Strong academic record

• UK: Russell Group / Top 20 university
• Overseas: Top 100 global university

✔ Experience building in small, high-output teams

✔ Evidence of ownership

✔ Stable tenure (avoid frequent hopping)

Ways of Working

✔ Must be willing to work 5 days per week onsite in London

✔ Thrives in fast-moving, unstructured, founder-led environments

✔ Bias for action, rapid experimentation, and iterative delivery

Nice to Have

• Experience with telephony, workflow automation, or real-time systems
• MLOps / DevOps experience (Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, GPU optimisation)
• TypeScript or full-stack background
• Multi-modal models or speech pipelines

Why This Role?

• Work on real AI challenges that blend automation, LLMs, and workflow intelligence
• Zero bureaucracy - immediate ownership and autonomy
• Build from first principles, not maintain legacy systems
• Be part of a small, high-calibre engineering group with direct founder impact
• Ship quickly, iterate fast, and see your work used instantly

If you’re a builder at heart, love coding, and want to own the future of AI automation, we’d love to hear from you.

How to apply?

Send a CV to kacey.norris@experis.co.uk