AI Engineer

The role

You build and ship across AI agents and client-facing systems, owning features end to end and shaping what gets built together with the client team. This is a hands-on delivery role on live problems, not a research seat. Projects typically start as a proposal, followed by a proof of concept, expand into a beta, then shipped to production. You'll be involved across the full arc, and you won't be doing it alone.

Location: Remote (UK), with access to a number of London co-working office spaces.

What you'll do

• Take features from idea to production, then iterate on real usage.

• Build AI agents and integrations against clients' own data and systems.

• Collaborate directly with client project managers and engineers, learning how they work and sharing your expertise.

• Keep quality high through testing, monitoring and sensible guardrails.

What we look for

• Around 2+ years of production engineering experience.

• Excellent Python and at least one other modern programming language.

• Genuine curiosity about applied AI and a bias to ship.

• A clear communicator who enjoys working closely with clients and understands what they need.

• An appetite for working in an inclusive team, alongside people whose lived experiences may differ from your own.

Our process

Our typical hiring process usually consists of the following stages:

• Initial screening call

• Competency-based interview

• Technical assessment

Note that we may add additional assessment stages if required.

Additional note

A career break or a non-linear route into engineering isn't a blocker here. We hire on what you can do now, not the shape of your CV, and we offer structured ramp-up and mentoring for anyone returning after time out.

Who we are

Fifty One Degrees is a UK AI and data consultancy, founded in 2023 by Nick and Mark who both built and sold their own companies. Prior to 51D, Nick Harding (CEO) founded and scaled the fintech Fluro to four million credit applications a year. Mark Somers (CPO) built 4most into the UK's largest independent credit risk consultancy.

We embed practitioners in client teams and build the best solution that will drive for maximum client value. Strategy, governance and training are also key, but we stay and build rather than hand over a document and leave.

We're a fast-growing startup and the client list is highly varied with clients across financial services, retail, property and PR (to name a few).

This role combines client-facing consultant and software engineer. You’ll need to fluently read, interpret, write and test production-level code; but you'll also spend time working closely with our clients.

A real part of what we do is AI enablement and strategy: helping client teams adopt AI tooling, redesigning how they work around it, and building the systems that make it stick. This means configuring and integrating as well as writing code from scratch. If you are looking for a role that's only heads-down engineering, this isn't it. If you want to see how AI actually lands inside a business and unlocks value, this is the role for you.

How we work

Small teams, real ownership, no layer of middle management between you and the client or the founders. You're trusted with real work from week one, combined with the right level of support. We pair, we share what we learn, and we're honest about what's working and what isn't.