Lead AI Engineer

Lead AI Engineer at Ageas UK

Step into a role where your work shapes the future of insurance. At Ageas/esure, we're building on an exciting foundation of 20 live AI use cases already empowering over 900 frontline colleagues — and we’re just getting started!

As a Lead AI Engineer, you’ll take a central role in driving and delivering the next generation of AI‑powered solutions across our business. You’ll lead a team of AI Engineers of all levels, setting technical direction, owning end‑to‑end project delivery and ensuring our solutions generate real, measurable impact. Alongside your hands‑on technical work, you’ll mentor and develop the team, guide requirement‑gathering with stakeholders, and play a key part in defining our future AI strategy.

If you’re motivated by technical leadership, large‑scale impact and building high‑performing AI capability, this is a chance to truly shape our AI future.

Main Responsibilities as a Lead AI Engineer:

• Support and develop a small team, helping them grow and progress.
• Work with leaders to set and improve engineering and R&D standards.
• Shape the AI roadmap across both use cases and technology.
• Partner with senior stakeholders to understand processes and data, identifying high‑value GenAI opportunities.
• Drive scalable AI delivery as part of the Data Science & AI team, contributing to innovation across the enterprise.

Skills and experience you need as a Lead AI Engineer:

• Provide technical leadership and mentoring, supporting the growth of a high‑performing team.
• Proven experience delivering AI into production, solving real commercial problems and measuring impact.
• A self‑starter with a track record of taking research and models through to production to drive tangible business and customer value.
• Comfortable working both autonomously and collaboratively in a fast‑paced, cross‑functional environment.
• Strong experience with advanced NLP, including developing models, prompt engineering and fine‑tuning LLMs in a commercial setting.

Benefits at Ageas:

Ageas offers a wide range of benefits to support you and your family, earning them Top Employer status in the UK. These include:

• Flexible Working: Smart Working @ Ageas offers flexibility in location (within the UK) and daily hours, with options for part-time/job-shares. Minimum 35 days holiday (inc. bank holidays), with buy/sell options.
• Supporting your Health: Dental Insurance, Health Cash Plan, Health Screening, Will Writing, Voluntary Critical Illness, Mental Health First Aiders, Well Being Activities.
• Supporting your Wealth: 50% off esure and Sheilas' Wheels motor and home insurance, Annual Bonus Schemes, Annual Salary Reviews, Competitive Pension, Employee Savings, Employee Loans.
• Supporting you at Work: Well-being activities, mindfulness sessions, Sports and Social Club events.
• Supporting you and your Family: Generous Maternity/Paternity/Adoption leave and pay.
• Benefits for Them: Partner Life Assurance and Critical Illness cover.
• Get some Tech: Deals on various gadgets including Wearables, Tablets and Laptops.
• Getting around: Car Salary Exchange, Cycle Scheme, Vehicle Breakdown Cover.
• Supporting you back to work: Return to work programme after maternity leave.

About Ageas:

Ageas is one of the largest car and home insurers in the UK, with a focus on creating a thriving, creative, and innovative work environment. They serve over four million customers and are committed to inclusivity as a signatory of the Race at Work Charter and Women in Finance Charter, and a member of iCAN and GAIN. As a Disability Confident Leader, Ageas ensures fair access, support, and adjustments throughout the recruitment process, guaranteeing interviews for disabled applicants meeting minimum criteria. They maintain a zero-tolerance approach to harassment during recruitment and encourage flexible working arrangements.

Key skills/competency

• AI Engineering
• Technical Leadership
• NLP
• LLM Fine-tuning
• Prompt Engineering
• Data Science
• Stakeholder Management
• Team Mentorship
• Production AI
• GenAI