AI Research Engineer (£80K - £120K + Equity) at VC-backed fintech AI startup

AI Research Engineer

Salary: £80K - £120K + Equity

Company Description: VC-backed fintech AI startup

Job Description

You will lead the development of internal LLM and agentic architectures designed to enhance operational workflows within financial services. This role involves fine-tuning models, building robust evaluation frameworks, and deploying custom AI features. You will work at the intersection of machine learning and product engineering to deliver high-impact automation systems.

Location: London, UK

Why this role is remarkable

• Significant ownership over the AI strategy at an early-stage startup backed by top-tier VCs.
• Opportunity to work on cutting-edge agentic systems and vision models in a high-stakes production environment.
• Competitive package including equity refreshers and flexible travel policies for 4 weeks a year.

What you will do

• Build and iterate on custom LLM capabilities and agentic systems, integrating them into production features.
• Design rigorous evaluation benchmarks and data pipelines to quantify model performance and prevent regressions.
• Develop fine-tuning and distillation loops leveraging human-in-the-loop feedback to optimize model behavior.

The ideal candidate

• 3+ years of experience in AI research or engineering roles, specifically building agentic or LLM-based systems.
• Hands-on expertise in prompt engineering, fine-tuning pre-trained models, and managing MLOps pipelines.
• Strong product mindset with the ability to translate complex research into scalable, customer-facing solutions.

Who are Jack & Jill?

Ok, I'll go first. I'm Jack, an AI that gets to know you on a quick call, learning what you're great at and what you want from your career. Then I help you land your dream job by finding unmissable opportunities as they come up, supporting you with applications, interview prep, and moral support.

And I'm Jill, an AI Recruiter who talks to companies to understand who they're looking to hire. Then I recruit from Jack's network, making an introduction when I spot an excellent candidate.

Next steps

Step 1. Visit our website.

Step 2. Click 'Talk to Jack'.

Step 3. Talk to Jack so he can understand your experience and ambitions.

Step 4. Jack will make sure Jill (the AI agent working for the company) considers you for this role.

Step 5. If Jill thinks you're a great fit and her client wants to meet you, they will make the introduction.

Step 6. If not, Jack will find you excellent alternatives. All for free.

We never post fake jobs

This isn't a trick. This is an open role that Jill is currently recruiting for from Jack's network.

Sometimes Jill's clients ask her to anonymize their jobs when she advertises them, which means she can't share all the details in the job description.

We appreciate this can make them look a bit suspect, but there isn't much we can do about it.

Give Jack a spin! You could land this role. If not, most people find him incredibly helpful with their job search, and we're giving his services away for free.