Lead Software Engineer

About this role

WHY FACULTY? We established Faculty in 2014 because we thought that AI would be the most important technology of our time. Since then, we’ve worked with over 350 global customers to transform their performance through human-centric AI. You can read about our real-world impact here https://faculty.ai/impact. We don’t chase hype cycles. We innovate, build and deploy responsible AI which moves the needle - and we know a thing or two about doing it well. We bring an unparalleled depth of technical, product and delivery expertise to our clients who span government, finance, retail, energy, life sciences and defence. Our business, and reputation, is growing fast and we’re always on the lookout for individuals who share our intellectual curiosity and desire to build a positive legacy through technology. AI is an epoch-defining technology, join a company where you’ll be empowered to envision its most powerful applications, and to make them happen. ABOUT THE TEAM   Our Public Services Business Unit is committed to leveraging AI for the benefit of individual citizens and the public good. From our work informing strategic government decisions, to optimising our NHS, through to reducing bureaucratic backlogs - we know that AI offers opportunities to drive improvements at every level of Government and we are proud to lead on some of the most impactful work happening in the sector. Because of the nature of the work we do with our Government clients, you may need to be eligible for UK Security Clearance (SC) and willing to work on site with these clients from time to time. ABOUT THE ROLE As a Lead AI/ML Engineer at Faculty, you will set the technical direction for complex AI/ML projects, ensuring models perform at scale and in production over time by balancing technical trade-offs and guiding team priorities. You will lead the delivery of large-scale AI-powered platforms in high-risk environments while defining project roadmaps across multiple complex workstreams. This is an ambitious, entrepreneurial leadership role where you will act as a trusted technical expert, defending your architectural rationale to senior stakeholders to ensure we deliver high-quality, high-value outputs.     WHAT YOU'LL BE DOING: - Setting the technical direction for complex software projects to ensure architectural decisions support long-term product and client goals. - Driving the development of shared software libraries and microservices that accelerate delivery across multiple client engagements. - Overseeing the delivery of large-scale AI-powered platforms while defining project roadmaps in high-risk environments. - Facilitating alignment between ML, Data Science, and DevOps crafts to ensure agentic software is built on a reliable foundation. - Managing and coaching a distributed team of engineers, setting development goals that align with organisational growth. - Establishing enterprise-wide standards for code delivery, testing, and system documentation across the software engineering craft. - Leading hiring processes for the software engineering craft to continue building a world-class technical team.     WHO WE'RE LOOKING FOR: - You apply deep expertise across the application lifecycle to set high standards for system integration and end-user software quality. - You design large-scale, complex software ecosystems with the authority to justify critical architectural trade-offs in high-stakes environments. - You define the gold standard for production readiness, establishing application deployment protocols across diverse client engagements. - You translate high-level commercial strategy into technical roadmaps, ensuring AI work-streams are accurately estimated and seamlessly integrated. - You architecturally direct the development of products leveraging autonomous AI agents to ensure they are robust and effectively integrated. - You are a confident communicator, capable of conveying complex technical roadmaps and architectural risks to commercial partners and executive leadership. THE INTERVIEW PROCESS   1. Talent Team Screen (30 minutes) 2. Introduction to the Hiring Manager (30 minutes) 3. Pair Programming Interview (90 minutes) 4. System Design Interview (90 minutes) 5. Commercial & Leadership Interview (60 minutes)   #LI-PRIO OUR RECRUITMENT ETHOS We aim to grow the best team - not the most similar one. We know that diversity of individuals fosters diversity of thought, and that strengthens our principle of seeking truth. And we know from experience that diverse teams deliver better work, relevant to the world in which we live. We’re united by a deep intellectual curiosity and desire to use our abilities for measurable positive impact. We strongly encourage applications from people of all backgrounds, ethnicities, genders, religions and sexual orientations. Some of our standout benefits: - Unlimited Annual Leave Policy - Private healthcare and dental - Enhanced parental leave - Family-Friendly Flexibility & Flexible working - Sanctus Coaching - Hybrid Working If you don’t feel you meet all the requirements, but are excited by the role and know you bring some key strengths, please don't hesitate in applying as you might be right for this role, or other roles. We are open to conversations about part-time hours. A note on AI: we're happy for you to use it for research and interview prep, but please don't use it to generate answers during live interviews. We also use an AI note-taker (Metaview) in interviews so interviewers can stay present (which you can opt out of just let us know,) and every application is reviewed by a human, never decided by AI.