Staff Backend Engineer (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 Be at the forefront of the AI revolution, working on cutting-edge projects that shape the future of financial services. You’ll join a passionate team focused on building high-quality, scalable products with real-world impact. We’re looking for a Staff-level Backend Engineer (AI) to bridge robust backend systems with Generative AI. You’ll design the frameworks, standards, and platforms that allow AI capabilities to scale securely, reliably, and efficiently across the enterprise, going beyond feature delivery to influence long-term technical direction. As a Staff Engineer you’ll be: Technical Leadership Strategy System Architect: You have a proven track record of designing, building, and operating enterprise-scale distributed systems. You think in terms of long-term scalability, maintainability, and subsequent operations. Strategic Execution: You excel at managing multiple high-priority initiatives, balancing "building it right" with "building it fast." You can translate vague business goals into concrete technical roadmaps. Cross-Functional Influence: You act as a technical partner to product, design, and non-engineering stakeholders, ensuring that our AI capabilities drive genuine business value. Generative AI Machine Learning Excellence Production-Grade GenAI: You have experience deploying Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and Agentic workflows (e.g. LangGraph) in production environments. Evaluation, Monitoring and Optimization: You understand that GenAI is only as good as its evaluation. You are familiar with ways to quantify and track the quality of outputs (e.g. via RAGAS) and optimizing for latency and cost. End-to-End Lifecycle: You possess a deep understanding of the AI/ML lifecycle—from data curation and vector database indexing to model monitoring and guardrail implementation. Backend Engineering Mastery Python Expert: You are a seasoned Python developer with a deep understanding of its ecosystem, asynchronous programming, and performance tuning. Infrastructure as Code: You are comfortable in cloud-native environments (AWS/GCP), leveraging Docker, Kubernetes, and GitHub Actions to create seamless CI/CD pipelines. Data Architecture: You have a solid foundation in both relational databases and modern data warehouses like BigQuery, specifically how they interface with AI/ML workloads. Mindset Mentorship Force Multiplier: You enjoy mentoring senior and mid-level engineers, conducting high-impact code reviews, and raising the bar for engineering excellence across the team. Pragmatic Innovator: You are passionate about the latest AI trends but remain grounded in solving real-world problems with the most effective (and sometimes simplest) tool. WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR: 10+ years of experience building and operating scalable backend ... (truncated, view full listing at source)