Lead Backend Engineer (Python & AI)

ABOUT TIDE At Tide we help SMEs save time (and money) in the running of their businesses by not only offering business accounts and related banking services, but also a comprehensive set of highly usable and connected administrative solutions from invoicing to accounting. Tide is transforming the small business banking market with over 1.8 million members globally across the UK, India, Germany and France. Using advanced technology, all solutions are designed with SMEs in mind. With quick onboarding, low fees and innovative features, we thrive on making data-driven decisions to serve our mission: to help SMEs save both time (and money) so they can get back to doing what they love. Tide facts: Tide is available for UK, Indian, German and French SMEs Over 1.8 million members: 800,000 UK and 1,000,000 in India and growing rapidly Over $300 million raised in funding Over 2,500 Tideans globally - we’re diversity champions! We have offices in Central London, with a member support and technology centre in Sofia, Bulgaria, technology centres in Serbia, Romania, Lithuania and Hyderabad and offices in Gurugram and New Delhi, and in Berlin, Paris and Luxembourg. ABOUT THE ROLE We are seeking a highly skilled and motivated ML Engineer to join our dynamic team. This is a unique opportunity to work on cutting-edge generative AI and agentic applications, while also building the foundational platform that will power these systems across the company. The ideal candidate will possess a strong background in backend software engineering, coupled with a passion for and experience in building and deploying AI/ML models, particularly in the Generative AI space. As a ML Engineer you’ll be: Design, build, and maintain scalable and robust Generative AI and Agentic-powered products and systems. Collaborate with data scientists and other engineers for the development of our internal Agentic Platform, creating reusable components and services. Implement and optimize data pipelines for training and evaluating AI models. Ensure the reliability, observability and performance of our AI-powered systems through robust testing, CI/CD pipelines, and monitoring. Stay up-to-date with the latest advancements in AI, large language models (LLMs), and agentic systems, and apply them to solve real-world business problems. WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR Proven experience in designing, building, and operating enterprise-scale distributed systems and microservices. A seasoned software engineer with a strong foundation in backend development and experience with Python. A strong interest in and practical experience with machine learning and Generative AI, including: Familiarity with LLMs and their applications. Experience with prompting techniques and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG). Knowledge of frameworks and libraries like LangChain, LangGraph or similar. Understanding of the lifecycle of an AI/ML model, from data collection to deployment, testing and monitoring. Hands-on experience with cloud platforms (we use AWS and GCP) and containerization technologies (e.g., Docker, Kubernetes). Solid understanding of CI/CD principles and experience with relevant tools (we use GitHub Actions). Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to work effectively in a collaborative, fast-paced environment. Familiarity with data storage technologies, including relational databases and data warehouses (we use BigQuery) A passion for innovation and a desire to build cutting-edge, impactful products. Nice to have Experience with event-driven architectures and message queues (we use Kafka and AWS SNS/SQS). Familiarity with vector databases. Experience with MLOps tools and practices. OUR TECH STACK (You don’t have to excel in all, but willing to learn them): Databricks on AWS Python Flask Snowflake Tecton - feature store Fiddler - model observability platform WHAT YOU’LL GET IN RETURN: Competitive Compensation - competitive salary and share options ... (truncated, view full listing at source)