VP - AI Engineering Lead

hackajob is collaborating with Barclays to connect them with exceptional professionals for this role.

Embark on a transformative journey as a VP - AI Engineering Lead. At Barclays, our vision is clear –to redefine the future of banking and help craft innovative solutions, AI-powered solutions at scale. In this role, you will lead the design and deployment of Generative AI and agentic systems that transform customer servicing, automate complex workflows, and significantly reduce operational demand. This is a unique opportunity to shape how LLM-driven capabilities are embedded into production platforms, delivering measurable impact across millions of customer interactions.

To be successful as a VP - AI Engineering Lead, you should have:

• Proven experience designing and deploying production-grade Generative AI systems, including LLM-based applications leveraging frameworks such as retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), prompt orchestration, and tool/agent integration

• Considerable hands-on expertise in building scalable AI/ML platforms in cloud environments (AWS or Azure), including model deployment, monitoring, and lifecycle management aligned to MLOps best practices

• Deep experience architecting end-to-end AI pipelines, including data ingestion, feature engineering, real-time/streaming architectures (Kafka, Kinesis, Spark), and low-latency inference systems

• Solid proficiency in Python-based AI/ML development (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit-learn) with ability to extend to GenAI-specific tooling and frameworks

• Demonstrated ability to lead engineering teams and deliver complex AI programs, partnering across product, architecture, and operations to drive real-world impact

Other highly valued skills include:

• Experience with LLM platforms and ecosystems (e.g., AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI), including evaluation, fine-tuning, safety guardrails, and cost/performance optimization

• Familiarity with agentic orchestration and multi-step reasoning systems, particularly in customer-facing or enterprise automation use cases (e.g., virtual assistants, workflow automation)

• Practical experience with containerization and scalable deployment (Docker, Kubernetes) for GenAI and ML workloads

• Good grounding in Responsible AI, model risk management, and governance, including explainability, bias mitigation, and auditability in regulated environments

• Ability to translate ambiguous business problems into AI-driven solutions, with focus on measurable outcomes such as cost efficiency, CX improvement, and automation at scale

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

This role is located in our Whippany, NJ office or Henderson, NV.

Salary for Whippany, NY:

Minimum Salary: $170,000

Maximum Salary: $230,000

The minimum and maximum salary/rate information above includes only base salary or base hourly rate. It does not include any other type of compensation or benefits that may be available.

Barclays employees are eligible for a suite of competitive and generous employee benefits, including medical, dental and vision coverage, 401(k), life insurance, and other paid leave for qualifying circumstances.

This position is eligible for an incentive award.

Salary for Henderson, NV:

Minimum Salary: $150,000

Maximum Salary: $210,000

The minimum and maximum salary/rate information above includes only base salary or base hourly rate. It does not include any other type of compensation or benefits that may be available.

Purpose of the role

To use innovative data analytics and machine learning techniques to extract valuable insights from the bank's data reserves, leveraging these insights to inform strategic decision-making, improve operational efficiency, and drive innovation across the organisation. 

Accountabilities

• Identification, collection, extraction of data from various sources, including internal and external sources.
• Performing data cleaning, wrangling, and transformation to ensure its quality and suitability for analysis.
• Development and maintenance of efficient data pipelines for automated data acquisition and processing.
• Design and conduct of statistical and machine learning models to analyse patterns, trends, and relationships in the data.
• Development and implementation of predictive models to forecast future outcomes and identify potential risks and opportunities.
• Collaborate with business stakeholders to seek out opportunities to add value from data through Data Science.

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.