Job description

About the Role

A partner company based in Ireland seeks a Head of AI to lead their engineering team in developing next-generation AI systems tailored to address complex cybersecurity challenges at scale. This position offers a unique chance to be a hands-on technical leader responsible for shaping AI strategy while actively engaging in research, experimentation, and production-level development. As part of a fast-moving, remote-first environment, you will collaborate with seasoned engineering leaders to advance cutting-edge large language models (LLMs), autonomous agents, and evaluation frameworks that enhance the company's competitive positioning.

Key Responsibilities

Formulate and execute the company's AI research strategy by identifying emerging technologies and translating them into actionable product roadmaps.
Lead the creation of sophisticated evaluation frameworks to gauge performance of autonomous AI agents across complex, unpredictable workflows, driving continuous improvements in model quality.
Innovate by designing, prototyping, and deploying novel AI features, swiftly progressing experiments into production-ready implementations.
Manage fine-tuning pipelines, model selection, routing strategies, context engineering, and inference optimization utilizing production data.
Oversee technical priorities within a high-performing AI engineering team, assessing new research, tools, and methodologies in terms of business impact and feasibility.
Exemplify leadership through active software development, architectural decisions, mentoring, code reviews, and collaborative problem-solving.
Work closely with engineering leadership, product teams, and clients to align AI capabilities with business objectives and real-world cybersecurity concerns.
Continuously enhance AI performance, scalability, cost-effectiveness, and reliability while establishing long-term technical standards.

Required Qualifications and Skills

Demonstrated experience leading AI projects with continued hands-on involvement in software development and technical delivery.
Proven track record in designing, deploying, and maintaining production-grade LLM or agentic AI systems serving actual customers.
In-depth knowledge of transformer models, fine-tuning techniques including LoRA, inference optimizations, and modern generative AI approaches.
Expertise in creating evaluation frameworks for autonomous or non-deterministic AI systems involving trajectory analysis, benchmarking, and model assessments.
Strong programming ability with experience in developing scalable machine learning solutions for production use.
Experience thriving in fast-paced startup environments, managing projects from concept through deployment with limited supervision.
Exceptional technical leadership capabilities encompassing mentoring, standards setting, and cross-functional decision influence.
Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills, balancing innovation, performance, and operational costs pragmatically.
Effective communication skills for clearly conveying complex AI concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Preferred experience includes cybersecurity, vulnerability management, offensive security, or AI-based security platforms.
Added advantages include expertise in model routing optimization, inference cost reduction, RLHF, AI evaluation pipelines, or advanced academic research in machine learning.

Compensation and Benefits

Attractive annual salary between £180,000 and £250,000.
Equity shares from 0.2% to 0.5%, providing meaningful long-term ownership opportunities.
Fully remote position with flexibility to work throughout Europe while residing in the United Kingdom.
Chance to influence the AI strategy of a fast-growing, venture-backed tech company.
Direct impact on product direction as part of the engineering leadership team.
Collaborate with seasoned engineering leaders from renowned global tech firms.
Engage with challenging problems in generative AI, autonomous systems, and cybersecurity.
Strong opportunities for career advancement towards executive AI leadership roles as the organization expands.

Additional Information

This opportunity is managed by a partner company that handles all applications and subsequent stages. Applications are processed through an AI-supported matching system ensuring objective and speedy review against core requirements. Final selections and subsequent interview arrangements are conducted internally by the hiring organization.

By applying, candidates consent to personal data processing under applicable data protection laws (including GDPR). AI tools may assist recruitment in screening and assessment processes, but human judgment remains decisive.