Graduate / Apprentice AI Developer

Uinsure's vision is simple: change the way insurance is bought in the UK. We are already doing it, and now we are disrupting ourselves to improve the speed, intelligence and simplicity of everything we build. The AI Lab is our next digital factory to help us get there.

HOW THE AI LAB WORKS

The colleagues powering Uinsure today are the reason we can do this. The platform they have built is what the Lab stands on.

The Lab operates in cells: small, autonomous delivery units, each combining human engineers with AI workers. A cell owns the full delivery lifecycle end to end: requirements, design, build, QA, infrastructure, deployment, monitoring, live running.

AI workers participate at every stage, not just code generation. Engineers in the Lab are orchestrating, directing and quality-controlling AI systems across the entire product lifecycle. You will build things that reach real customers. Fast.

THE MOONSHOT

The Lab exists to step-change how Uinsure operates across every dimension. Not incremental improvement. A fundamentally different way of building and running a platform.

Speed to market

Features that take quarters will ship in days or weeks. Daily iteration replaces release cycles. The Lab's job is to compress the time between idea and live product to a point that changes what is commercially possible.

Smarter operations

Every process the business runs today was designed before AI existed. The Lab looks for opportunities to optimise, automate and simplify: faster decisions, fewer handoffs, greater efficiency across the platform.

Throughput at scale

AI workers multiply the output of every human in the cell. The goal is not to do the same work faster, it is to do exponentially more of it, compounding capability back into the business with every cycle.

WHAT MAKES THIS DIFFERENT

This is not a maintenance role, an agile programme, or a consultancy engagement. It is a startup operating inside an award-winning regulated business. The Lab's work ships to real customers. Uinsure already has live AI-powered insurance journeys in market. That is the bar. You will have genuine autonomy, a short feedback loop, and direct visibility of impact. The Lab moves deliberately ahead of the wider organisation, to forge new ground for everyone who follows.

WHAT YOU'LL DO

• Work within your cell's sprint cycle from the start, picking up real backlog items, writing real code, and shipping real features.
• Learn to direct and evaluate AI workers alongside your AI Engineer, understanding when to trust their output and when to push back.
• Contribute to the full delivery lifecycle: you are not just a coder. You will be involved in requirements, testing, deployment and monitoring.
• Write and run tests for the code you and the AI workers produce, supported by the QA Standards Lead.
• Build fluency in the Lab's AI-native tooling stack: Cursor, Claude, coding agents, and the supporting infrastructure.
• Contribute to the Lab's pattern library. Document what you learn, share what works, flag what doesn't.
• Participate in sprint ceremonies: standups, reviews and retros are part of how the Lab learns and improves.
• Ask questions. The Lab's culture is built on direct, honest communication. No question is too basic if you haven't asked it yet.

WHAT GOOD LOOKS LIKE

• Within 4 weeks: you can pick up a well-defined backlog item and ship it with AI worker support.
• Within 12 weeks: you are a productive, largely independent member of the cell cadence.
• Within 6 months: you are developing a specialism (agent orchestration, testing, frontend, or a domain area) and contributing to the Lab's standards.

WHAT WE'RE LOOKING FOR

We are open to graduates and apprentices. The route matters less than the mindset.

• Someone who has taught themselves AI tools in their own time: side projects, personal builds, tinkering. A formal qualification is welcome but not required.
• Real AI problem-solving or coding ability, assessed in the interview process.
• Genuine interest in AI and how it is changing software development, in practice not just in theory.
• Growth mindset: you want to be pushed, you respond to feedback, you are comfortable not knowing things yet.

Working model and location

Location: Spinningfields, Manchester

On-site: Minimum 1 day per fortnight, otherwise remote

Cadence: Weekly sprints · Daily standups · Fortnightly Lab retrospectives

Benefits

Uinsure offers a competitive package including company pension, private health (Vitality), 25 days holiday, and regular team events.

AI Lab roles include a dedicated tooling budget covering laptops, hardware, AI-native stack subscriptions and usage costs.

SFIA Skills Mapping

Programming and Software Dev: L2-3

Core coding, developing ability to write production-quality code with AI support

AI and Machine Learning Eng: L2-3

Learning to direct AI workers, prompt fundamentals, output evaluation basics

Testing: L2

Writing and running tests, supported by QA Standards Lead

Data Analysis: L2

Basic analysis of AI outputs, debugging with data

Salary band: £25,000 – £30,000 p.a.