Lab Engineering Lead (AI)

Job Title: Lab Engineering Lead (AI)

Location: Leeds, Edinburgh or London

Salary: £90,440 - £123,160 (location dependant)

Hours: Full time

Working Pattern: Our work style is hybrid, which involves spending at least two days per week, or 40% of your time, at our Leeds, Edinburgh or London offices.

About This Opportunity:

The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has recognised AI’s potential to transform the UK’s investment culture, especially in closing the advice gap and making financial mentorship more accessible. With just 31% of UK adults currently investing, and most doing so without regulated advice, there is a clear opportunity to drive better financial outcomes.

Scottish Widows, one of the UK’s largest pension and investment providers, is well positioned to lead this change. Within Lloyds Banking Group, our D2C Investments Platform powers Halifax Share Dealing Ltd. and Ready-Made propositions via Embark and FNZ, delivering trusted investment solutions across Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland. Our mission is to redefine the investment experience for 26 million UK customers, powered by AI.

As Engineering Lead, you'll lead our newly formed Agentic AI Lab, exploring the frontier of AI in investing. Driving the development and deployment of advanced AI systems, tools and interfaces. You'll apply your leadership expertise, deep knowledge of AI technologies and awareness of market trends to enable the team to deliver robust, live investment solutions.

What you’ll be doing:

• Lead the Agentic AI Lab to explore and implement cutting-edge AI technologies that transform the investment experience for millions of UK customers.
• Design and deploy advanced AI systems, tools and interfaces within a complex financial environment, using multi-agent frameworks and enterprise-grade methodologies.
• Champion innovation and engineering excellence, staying ahead of AI trends and driving continuous improvement in delivery through Agile practices and CI/CD pipelines.
• Mentor and grow high-performing engineering teams, fostering a culture of trust, simplicity and customer focus while enabling development in emerging technologies.
• Collaborate across brands and platforms including Halifax Share Dealing Ltd., Embark and FNZ, to deliver scalable investment solutions under Lloyds, Halifax and Bank of Scotland.
• Drive strategic impact by aligning technical delivery with long-term business goals, ensuring resilience, performance and customer-centric outcomes.

Why Lloyds Banking Group:

If you think all banks are the same, you’d be wrong. We’re an innovative, fast-changing business that’s shaping finance as a force for good. A bank that’s empowering its people to innovate, explore possibilities and grow with purpose.

What you’ll need:

• Engineering Leadership: Proven experience leading software engineering teams within Pensions and Investments in UK Financial Services. You’ve delivered strategic change initiatives and oversaw technical direction across multiple squads. Skilled in managing critical service recovery protocols.
• Team Development & Coaching: Strong track record in building high-performing teams, mentoring talent, and fostering a culture of growth, simplicity, and trust. Able to inspire delivery and turn setbacks into success.
• AI Systems Expertise: Hands-on experience designing and implementing enterprise AI solutions. Capable of navigating complex challenges such as latency, security, and methodology selection (e.g. zero-shot vs RAG).
• Innovation & Vision: A forward-thinking leader with a passion for technology transformation and engineering excellence. Comfortable challenging norms to drive market-leading innovation.
• Cloud Engineering (GCP): Demonstrated success in leading cloud-based projects on Google Cloud Platform. GCP certifications (e.g. Associate Cloud Engineer) and experience with GCP AI tooling are highly desirable.
• Strategic Problem Solving: Adept at anticipating long-term business needs and developing strategic solutions. Experienced in identifying opportunities and resolving complex issues with lasting impact.

About working for us:

Our ambition is to be the top tier UK business for diversity, equity and inclusion supporting our customers, colleagues and communities, and we’re committed to creating an environment in which everyone can thrive, learn and develop.

We were one of the first major organisations to set goals on diversity in senior roles, create a menopause health package, and a dedicated Working with Cancer Initiative.

We offer reasonable workplace adjustments for colleagues with disabilities, including flexibility in office attendance, location and working patterns. And, as a Disability Confident Leader, we guarantee interviews for a fair and proportionate number of applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the role with a disability, long-term health or neurodivergent condition through the Disability Confident Scheme.

We provide reasonable adjustments throughout the recruitment process to reduce or remove barriers. Just let us know what you need

We also offer a wide-ranging benefits package, which includes:

• A generous pension contribution of up to 15%
• An annual performance-related bonus
• Share schemes including free shares
• Benefits you can adapt to your lifestyle, such as discounted shopping
• 28 days’ holiday, with bank holidays on top
• A range of wellbeing initiatives and generous parental leave policies

Ready for a career where you can have a positive impact as you learn, grow and thrive? Apply today and find out more.