AI Platform Engineer reference: 0000083798

AI Platform Engineer: Chart Your Course in Financial Services Innovation

Barclays is embarking on an exciting journey to build a next-generation AI platform, and we're seeking talented AI Platform Engineers to be at the forefront of this transformation. This is a unique opportunity to shape the future of AI-driven applications within the financial services sector, empowering front-office professionals like Quants and Strats to harness the power of cutting-edge AI and machine learning.

This role is a hands-on engineering position where your technical prowess will directly impact the delivery of secure, scalable, and innovative AI solutions. You'll collaborate with dynamic teams, tackle complex challenges, and significantly influence the technical direction of a platform poised to revolutionize how AI is utilized in finance.

Advantages for Aspiring AI Platform Engineers:

• Pioneering Technology: Be part of building a brand-new, next-generation AI platform from the ground up, working with the latest technologies and cloud-native solutions.
• Impactful Work: Directly contribute to empowering front-office developers, enabling them to build high-performance, AI-driven applications that can drive significant business value.
• Hybrid Cloud Exposure: Gain extensive experience with a robust AWS ecosystem and potentially explore hybrid cloud strategies involving Azure and on-premises Kubernetes, broadening your skillset.
• Generative AI Focus: Immerse yourself in the rapidly evolving field of Generative AI, working with LLMs, SLMs, agentic frameworks, and tools like Hugging Face for enterprise-scale applications.
• Career Growth and Influence: This role offers significant opportunities to grow as a subject matter expert, guide engineering teams, influence technical strategy, and contribute to long-term organizational goals.
• Collaborative Environment: Work alongside diverse and talented teams, fostering a culture of knowledge sharing, code quality, and continuous improvement.
• Strategic Contribution: Beyond engineering, you'll have the chance to contribute to strategy, drive requirements, and advise senior leadership on technical direction and risk mitigation.
• Location Flexibility: This position is available in either our vibrant Glasgow or Canary Wharf offices, offering choices for your work environment.

Key Considerations for Your Career Path:

• Technical Depth Required: A strong foundation in Python engineering, particularly for backend and infrastructure tooling, is essential. Expect to leverage your expertise in a wide array of AWS services including IAM, KMS, CloudFormation, API Gateway, S3, Lambda, ECS, Glue, Step Functions, MSK, EKS, and Bedrock.
• AI/ML Scaling Expertise: Demonstrating experience in scaling platforms for demanding AI/ML workloads, including integrating generative AI tooling, is crucial.
• Security and Optimization Mindset: A solid understanding of secure software development practices, cloud cost optimization strategies, and platform observability will be vital for building robust and efficient solutions.
• Communication Skills: The ability to articulate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical and non-technical stakeholders is a key requirement for influencing and collaboration.
• MLOps and Hybrid Cloud Familiarity (Highly Valued): While not always mandatory, prior experience with MLOps platforms like Databricks or SageMaker, and an understanding of hybrid cloud strategies (Azure, on-prem Kubernetes), will significantly enhance your candidacy.
• AI Infrastructure Acumen (Highly Valued): Deep knowledge of AI infrastructure for scalable model serving, distributed training, and GPU orchestration is a strong plus.
• LLM/SLM Expertise (Highly Valued): Hands-on experience with Large Language Models (LLMs) and Small Language Models (SLMs), including fine-tuning and deployment for enterprise use cases, is highly desirable.
• Agentic Frameworks and Model Protocols (Highly Valued): Familiarity with agentic frameworks (e.g., LangChain, AutoGen) and Model Context Protocol (MCP) will be advantageous for building advanced AI workflows.
• Emerging Trends Awareness: A proactive approach to staying abreast of emerging trends in GenAI platforms, open-source MLOps, and cloud-native AI solutions will be highly beneficial.
• Barclays Values: As with all roles at Barclays, you'll be expected to embody the core values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence, and Stewardship, as well as the Barclays Mindset of Empower, Challenge, and Drive.

This role offers a compelling opportunity for driven AI Platform Engineers to make a significant impact, advance their careers, and contribute to the technological evolution of a leading financial institution. If you are passionate about building scalable AI solutions and thrive in a dynamic, innovative environment, this could be your next career milestone.