AI Architect / Engineer (Agentic AI & LLM Architecture)

About the Position

AI Architect / Engineer (Agentic AI & LLM Architecture)

• Employment Type: Full-time
• Contract Type: Permanent contract

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About the Company

Talan Data x AI is a leading Data Management and Analytics consultancy, working closely with leading software vendors and top industry experts across a range of sectors, unlocking value and insight from their data. At Talan Data x AI, innovation is at the heart of our client offerings, and we help companies to further improve their efficiency with modern processes and technologies, such as Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI).

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Responsibilities

As our AI practice scales, we are seeking an experienced AI Architect / Engineer to act as the senior technical authority shaping how we design and deliver next-generation AI solutions. This role involves:

• Leading end-to-end solution architecture for AI and LLM-based systems, spanning data, integration, infrastructure, and deployment.
• Designing agentic architectures and multi-agent orchestration patterns, defining how LLMs, tools, APIs, and retrieval layers interact reliably.
• Shaping early-stage engagements (scoping, solutioning, estimation, and pre-sales) turning client ambition into deliverable technical plans.
• Providing technical validation and quality oversight across several concurrent projects, mitigating risk before it reaches delivery.
• Defining LLM integration and prompting strategies, including RAG, fine-tuning, evaluation, and guardrailing approaches.
• Establishing MLOps and LLMOps practices that ensure solutions are observable, testable, and production ready.
• Setting architectural standards, reusable patterns, and reference implementations that raise the quality bar across the practice.
• Partnering with Responsible AI colleagues to embed safety, security, and governance into solution designs from the outset.

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Requirements

Required skills & experience:

• Minimum 5 years in AI architecture or AI engineering, ideally 10+, with a track record of production deployments.
• Deep expertise in LLMs, agent frameworks (e.g. LangGraph, AutoGen, Semantic Kernel), API design, and orchestration.
• Strong cloud engineering experience.
• Proven MLOps / LLMOps capability - CI/CD for models, monitoring, evaluation, and cost optimisation.
• Hands-on software engineering background (Python and modern tooling) underpinning your architectural decisions.
• Comfort managing multiple engagements at once, with pragmatic judgement on trade-offs and delivery risk.

Ideally, you’ll also have, but not essential:

• Experience in consulting, professional services, or pre-sales environments.
• Exposure to enterprise-scale, regulated AI deployments (financial services, public sector, healthcare).
• Familiarity with vector databases, knowledge graphs, and advanced retrieval techniques.
• Relevant cloud or AI certifications.

You must be:

• Willing to work on client sites, potentially for extended periods.
• Willing to travel for work purposes and be happy to stay away from home for extended periods.
• Eligible to work in the UK without restriction.

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We Offer

Compensation & Benefits Package:

• BDP Plus – A reward programme whereby you accrue points to trade against a 3-month paid sabbatical or cash equivalent.
• 25 days holiday + bank holidays.
• 5 days holiday buy/sell option.
• Private medical insurance.
• Life cover.
• Cycle to work scheme.
• Eligibility for company pension scheme (5% employer contribution, salary sacrifice option).
• Employee assistance programme.
• Bespoke online learning via Udemy for Business.

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Why Join

You will be a founding technical voice in a practice that is investing decisively in AI. The work is varied, intellectually demanding, and commercially significant, you will shape solutions that reach production, not slideware. You will have the autonomy to define how we build, the support of a collaborative multidisciplinary team, and a clear platform to grow into a practice-leading technical figure.