AI Engineering Manager

Join us as an AI Engineering Manager at Barclays, where you will spearhead the evolution of our infrastructure and deployment pipelines, driving innovation and operational excellence. You will harness cutting-edge technology to build and manage robust, scalable and secure infrastructure, ensuring seamless delivery of our digital solutions.  

To be successful as an AI Engineering Manager, you should have experience with:

• AI & Machine Learning: Strong background in AI/ML concepts and architectures. Experience with deploying machine learning models or AI services in production. Familiarity with autonomous agents or generative AI technologies is a significant advantage (e.g. knowledge of LLMs, multi-agent systems, or AI orchestration frameworks).
• Cloud (AWS): Hands-on experience with AWS cloud services and infrastructure. Comfortable guiding the team in using AWS for AI workloads – for example, using AWS for model training, data storage (S3), computing (EC2, Lambda, or Kubernetes/EKS), and machine learning operations (SageMaker or similar), while ensuring cloud solutions are secure and cost-effective.
• Programming & System Design: Proficiency in modern programming languages and software design. Python or Java expertise is required – you should be capable of understanding and reviewing code in at least one of these languages, as our AI solutions might span Python (for data science and ML pipelines) and Java (for integration with enterprise systems). Knowledge of software engineering best practices (code reviews, testing, CI/CD) and microservice architecture will help in overseeing complex AI systems.
• Integration & Data: Experience integrating AI systems into existing platforms and workflows. Familiarity with data engineering pipelines, databases, and APIs in a financial services context (e.g. using data warehouses or streaming data for model input) is beneficial. A good grasp of security and compliance requirements (encryption, access control, audit logging) when handling sensitive financial data is expected.

• Team Management: Proven experience leading and mentoring engineering teams, ideally in AI or software innovation projects. You will coordinate tasks, set goals, and provide technical guidance to team members. Your leadership will foster a collaborative environment that encourages continuous learning, experimentation, and high performance.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Ability to work closely with cross-functional teams – including Product Management, Data Science, Compliance, and Business Units – to define project scopes and success criteria. You will translate business objectives into technical requirements for your team, and conversely articulate technical progress and challenges to non-technical stakeholders. Experience managing projects that involve multiple disciplines (engineering, AI research, UX, etc.) ensures cohesive delivery of AI solutions that meet user needs and regulatory standards.
• Innovation & Strategic Vision: A forward-thinking mindset to drive innovative AI solutions (autonomous agents, generative AI, etc.) from concept to production. You keep abreast of emerging AI trends and assess their potential business value. By providing strategic direction, you guide the team in prioritising opportunities that leverage AI for competitive advantage – for example, improving customer experience through intelligent automation or enhancing risk detection with AI agents – while balancing innovation with practical feasibility.
• Governance & Delivery: Ensure that projects are delivered in alignment with the bank’s governance processes. This includes managing project timelines, budgets, and resources, and rigorously applying quality controls. An understanding of model risk management and AI ethics in financial services is important; you will implement oversight for model validation, monitoring, and documentation (e.g. ensuring transparency of AI decision-making and maintaining up-to-date model documentation).

Some other highly valued skills may include:

• Stakeholder Management: Excellent communication and interpersonal skills for engaging with senior stakeholders, clients, and diverse team members. You can build trust and clearly communicate the value, progress, and risks of AI initiatives to executive leadership and advisory boards. Skilled in negotiating priorities and aligning the AI team’s work with broader business goals.
• Strategic Thinking: High-level planning and decision-making abilities. You can devise a technology roadmap for AI/ML in alignment with organisational strategy, and make prudent decisions about project investments and technical approaches. Your strategic mindset helps anticipate industry trends and regulatory changes, allowing the team to stay ahead in compliance and innovation.
• Adaptability & Problem-Solving: Flexibility to navigate the uncertainties of cutting-edge AI projects. In a fast-evolving domain, you’re adept at problem-solving, whether it’s resolving technical roadblocks or adjusting team focus when business needs shift. You maintain composure and provide guidance under pressure, adeptly handling challenges such as unexpected model behavior or changes in regulatory guidance.
• People Leadership & Integrity: A collaborative leadership style that encourages growth, inclusivity, and accountability. You mentor team members, provide feedback, and help develop their careers. Importantly, you lead by example in following ethical practices and upholding compliance – crucial for an AI team operating in a high-stakes, regulated environment. You champion a culture where quality, responsibility, and ethical considerations are central to every project.

You may be assessed on key critical skills relevant for success in role, such as risk and controls, change and transformation, business acumen, strategic thinking and digital and technology, as well as job-specific technical skills.

The role is based out of Pune.

Purpose of the role

To design, develop, and implement solutions to complex business problems, collaborating with stakeholders to understand their needs and requirements, and design and implement solutions that meet those needs and create solutions that balance technology risks against business delivery, driving consistency. 

Accountabilities

• Design and development of solutions as products that can evolve, meeting business requirements that align with modern software engineering practices and automated delivery tooling. This includes identification and implementation of the technologies and platforms.
• Targeted design activities that apply an appropriate workload placement strategy and maximise the benefit of cloud capabilities such as elasticity, serverless, containerisation etc.
• Best practice designs incorporating security principles (such as defence in depth and reduction of blast radius) that meet the Bank’s resiliency expectations.
• Solutions that appropriately balance risks and controls to deliver the agreed business and technology value.
• Adoption of standardised solutions where they fit. If no standard solutions fit, feed into their ongoing evolution where appropriate.
• Fault finding and performance issues support to operational support teams, leveraging available tooling.
• Solution design impact assessment in terms of risk, capacity and cost impact, inc. estimation of project change and ongoing run costs.
• Development of the requisite architecture inputs required to comply with the banks governance processes, including design artefacts required for architecture, privacy, security and records management governance processes.

Vice President Expectations

• To contribute or set strategy, drive requirements and make recommendations for change. Plan resources, budgets, and policies; manage and maintain policies/ processes; deliver continuous improvements and escalate breaches of policies/procedures..
• If managing a team, they define jobs and responsibilities, planning for the department’s future needs and operations, counselling employees on performance and contributing to employee pay decisions/changes. They may also lead a number of specialists to influence the operations of a department, in alignment with strategic as well as tactical priorities, while balancing short and long term goals and ensuring that budgets and schedules meet corporate requirements..
• If the position has leadership responsibilities, People Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others..
• OR for an individual contributor, they will be a subject matter expert within own discipline and will guide technical direction. They will lead collaborative, multi-year assignments and guide team members through structured assignments, identify the need for the inclusion of other areas of specialisation to complete assignments. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Advise key stakeholders, including functional leadership teams and senior management on functional and cross functional areas of impact and alignment.
• Manage and mitigate risks through assessment, in support of the control and governance agenda.
• Demonstrate leadership and accountability for managing risk and strengthening controls in relation to the work your team does.
• Demonstrate comprehensive understanding of the organisation functions to contribute to achieving the goals of the business.
• Collaborate with other areas of work, for business aligned support areas to keep up to speed with business activity and the business strategies.
• Create solutions based on sophisticated analytical thought comparing and selecting complex alternatives. In-depth analysis with interpretative thinking will be required to define problems and develop innovative solutions.
• Adopt and include the outcomes of extensive research in problem solving processes.
• Seek out, build and maintain trusting relationships and partnerships with internal and external stakeholders in order to accomplish key business objectives, using influencing and negotiating skills to achieve outcomes.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.