Director, AI Engineering
About Imperagen
Imperagen is building an AI-powered enzyme engineering company focused on biocatalysis. Our ambition is to create a proprietary AI platform that connects computational design, experimental validation, and real-world commercial outcomes in a system that gets smarter over time.
We believe the future of biocatalysis will be shaped by autonomous closed loop experimentation, where AI, software, and lab workflows work together to accelerate discovery, improve decision quality, and compound learning across programs.
Reporting: Reports to CEO | Member of the management team | Occasional Board reporting
Location: Manchester, UK. This is an on-site leadership role. We are not considering remote or primarily hybrid candidates. Candidates must either already be based within commuting distance of Manchester or be willing to relocate before their start date.
The Role
We are hiring a Director, AI Engineering to build and lead Imperagen’s AI engineering capability in Manchester.
You will join a small existing team and build from that foundation, strengthening current capabilities while selectively adding new talent over time. This is not a zero-to-one team creation role, but a hands-on leadership role focused on scaling and upgrading an already established base.
You will be responsible for building the team, defining the architecture, writing code, shaping engineering standards, and leading the development of the AI platform that underpins Imperagen’s long-term advantage.
You will report directly to the CEO, join the management team, and occasionally present to the Board on technical progress, capability build-out, and strategic direction.
We are looking for a technical AI leader who is equally comfortable coding, architecting systems, and setting direction at company level.
You will work closely with leadership, scientists, and engineers to build the AI platform, deploy AI agents, and create the software systems required for autonomous closed loop experimentation in biocatalysis.
Manchester, UK.
Responsibilities
• Lead and develop Imperagen’s AI engineering team in Manchester. You will assess team capabilities, make strategic hires, and develop a high-performing group of AI and software engineers through strong leadership, coaching, and organisational design.
• Remain hands-on in coding, system design, architecture, and technical problem-solving.
• Define and build the AI platform that connects data, models, scientific workflows, experimentation, and learning loops.
• Lead the development of agentic capabilities across the company, including the design and deployment of AI agents that improve scientific workflows, internal productivity, and platform intelligence.
• Build the software foundations required for autonomous closed loop experimentation linking computational design and wet-lab validation.
• Partner closely with scientific leadership to translate biological and experimental challenges into scalable AI systems.
• Establish best practices in engineering quality, reproducibility, reliability, security, and technical execution.
• Balance near-term delivery goals with long-term platform and model advantage.
• Shape technical strategy, hiring plans, and capability development as Imperagen scales.
• Serve as a senior technical leader on the management team and a trusted partner to the CEO.
• Present occasional updates to the Board on technical roadmap, progress, risks, and strategic opportunities.
Required Experience and Qualifications
• 5+ years of experience leading and managing engineering, machine learning, or AI teams.
• Experience at Director level, or clear evidence of operating with Director-level scope, judgment, and accountability.
• Proven track record of building teams, including hiring, performance management, and making effective people decisions when needed.
• Deep technical expertise in AI and machine learning, with strong understanding of modern model architectures, training strategies, evaluation frameworks, and production deployment.
• Strong software engineering background, including experience building production-grade platforms, systems, and infrastructure around AI.
• Clear evidence of being a hands-on technical leader who still writes code and drives architecture.
• Experience building and deploying AI-enabled products or platforms in real-world settings.
• Experience building agentic systems and deploying AI agents into live workflows.
• Experience leading technical teams in high-ambiguity, fast-moving environments.
• Ability to operate as a player-coach who can move fluidly between coding, architecture, leadership, and strategy.
• Strong communication skills and the ability to work effectively across technical, scientific, and executive stakeholders.
Eligibility to Work in the UK
• Candidates must have the legal right to work in the UK.
• Please note that Imperagen is not able to provide visa or work permit sponsorship for this role.
Preferred Experience
• Experience in elite AI environments or top-tier technology organizations.
• Experience building applied AI systems in scientific, biotech, life sciences, computational biology, or other deep tech domains.
• Experience working with experimental, noisy, sparse, or highly specialized datasets.
• Experience designing or scaling AI platforms that support iterative learning loops and continuous improvement over time.
• Familiarity with semi-autonomous or autonomous experimentation systems, lab-in-the-loop workflows, or related closed-loop scientific platforms.
• Familiarity with protein engineering, biocatalysis, computational biology, bioinformatics, structural biology, or related domains.
• Experience in startup or scale-up environments where speed, judgment, and resourcefulness matter.
• Experience attracting top-tier AI and engineering talent and building high-performance cultures from scratch.
Education
• Bachelor’s degree in computer science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Mathematics, Physics, Bioinformatics, Computational Biology, Engineering, or a related technical field required.
• Research experience relevant to AI/ML, computational biology, protein science, biocatalysis, or adjacent quantitative scientific fields is desirable.
What Success Looks Like
In the first 12 months, success in this role would include:
• Building a strong initial AI engineering team in Manchester,
• Establishing the architectural foundations of Imperagen’s AI platform,
• Delivering meaningful progress toward autonomous closed loop experimentation,
• Deploying early agentic capabilities and AI agents that improve scientific and operational workflows,
• Raising the standard of engineering quality, speed, and technical scalability across the company,
• Creating a credible roadmap for long-term platform advantage in AI-driven biocatalysis.
Compensation
Imperagen offers a competitive salary plus equity, and the opportunity to help build a category-defining company at the intersection of AI, biology, and industrial impact.
Why Join Imperagen
This is a rare opportunity to build something foundational. You will shape the AI engineering function, help define the company’s technical advantage, and work on real-world systems where software, models, and experimental science come together.
If you want to build an AI platform that interacts with reality, deploy agentic systems in a frontier scientific setting, and help create a long-term competitive edge in biocatalysis, we would love to hear from you.