Senior AI Engineer - Centre of Excellence

Job Title: Senior AI Engineer - Centre of Excellence

Location: Home-based with travel to client site or Columbus offices as required 

Salary: Negotiable (We aim to improve your current package)

Bonus: Yes 

Holiday: 25 Days, Plus Bank Holidays (Increasing with Service)

Medical Insurance: Yes (terms apply) plus additional Health Cashback Plan

Hours: Full time (36.5 hpw)

Travel/Expenses: A car is required for travel to client sites - expensed at 55p per mile from home address (excluding travel to any Columbus Office within 35mi)

THRIVE, GROW and SHAPE THE FUTURE

People always come first at Columbus. We’re a global digital consultancy with a local presence, helping businesses transform and thrive through technology, data, and human insight. Just as importantly, we’re a workplace where careers are nurtured, and development is supported through clear, structured career paths.

Our culture is built on trust, collaboration, curiosity, and a shared commitment to delivering customer success. Whether you're an experienced professional or just starting out, you’ll find the freedom to explore ideas, challenge convention, and shape your own path.

Diversity and Inclusion are close to our hearts.

By joining our team, you will be part of a supportive network that values your voice, respects your ideas, and promotes a healthy work-life balance. Our average length of service in the UK is 8 years, as we are committed to cultivating an inclusive workplace culture that celebrates and supports career growth and advancement in becoming a Trusted Advisor. We provide equal opportunities for everyone, ensuring a level playing field for all candidates. We actively encourage applications from all backgrounds to apply for positions across our organisation, and in return, we will give you the tools and support to Thrive with us, Grow your Skillsets, and be empowered to Shape the Future.

The role of Senior AI Engineer

Enterprise software is going through its biggest shift in decades. Applications are moving from deterministic workflows to intelligent, agentic systems that understand context, remember preferences, and act on behalf of users. This isn't a future prediction; it's happening now, and Columbus is building at the frontier of it.

We're hiring three Senior Engineers to form the core of our group AI engineering team. Together, you'll design and build the next generation of AI-powered systems that will transform how thousands of people work, across the Nordics and beyond. You'll work directly with the VP of Group AI.

This is not a consulting engagement or a proof-of-concept. It's production engineering at enterprise scale, on the Microsoft platform, using the most advanced AI models available today.

Travel and Hybrid Working

We have an environment that gives you the flexibility to achieve an effective work-life balance for you and your family, whether you want to work from home or at one of our luxury Cubo offices around the UK.  

We continue to offer our customers onsite consultancy time if requested, so flexibility around travel and overnight stays is expected, depending on the project requirements. Onsite time is planned ahead of time, within 2-week blocks, so you know well in advance where you will be working.

We encourage those in customer-facing roles to aim to come into the office at least once a month, and also for team meetings and client meetings; however, you can work from Nottingham HQ or any Cubo office regularly if you prefer, whichever suits you.

About you (The Essentials)

• Strong expertise in LLM application design, including prompt engineering, agent frameworks, and evaluation

• Good understanding of data as a foundation for AI-driven insights

• Experience building scalable, production-grade AI systems, with focus on context management, cost optimisation, and real-world deployment

• Proven ability to design multi-agent architectures where AI systems collaborate effectively

• Hands-on experience with Microsoft 365 ecosystem (Graph, Teams, SharePoint) and cloud-native platforms like Azure

• Solid background in data and retrieval systems, including vector search, embeddings, document databases, and RAG architectures

• Skilled in building robust, event-driven and API-based systems with strong focus on reliability, security, and enterprise compliance

• Full driver's licence and access to a vehicle

• Curious, looking to challenge the status quo and improve

• Collaborates well with both internal and external colleagues

• Committed to personal development and becoming a Trusted Advisor in your field.

If you don't match all these qualifications above but are an expert in either of the three, don't hesitate to apply:

AI Application
You bring deep experience in LLM application architecture, including prompt engineering, agent frameworks, tool integration, and model evaluation. You have a strong understanding of context window management, cost optimisation, and model behaviour at scale, combined with expert knowledge of AI Security and AI Governance.

AI Automation & Integration
You have hands-on experience with Microsoft Graph, Teams, SharePoint, and the broader Microsoft 365 ecosystem. In addition, you possess expert knowledge of AI Security and AI Governance as they relate to automation, integrations, and enterprise-scale AI solutions.

AI Infrastructure
You bring extensive experience with document databases, vector search technologies, and embedding models. You understand RAG architectures, including chunking, reranking, hybrid search, and citation grounding, and can design data governance frameworks that meet enterprise compliance requirements such as DLP, auditing, and retention. You have experience building scalable knowledge retrieval systems, supported by expert knowledge of AI Security and AI Governance.

What we can offer

You will be a part of both a local and global team, where you not only share knowledge but also a laugh or two. We value our employees and leave room for flexibility so that you can enjoy a work-life balance.

At Columbus, you will get;-

• 25 Days Annual Leave (Increasing with Service)

• Columbus Benefits Hub – Discounts on Tickets, Shopping, Car leasing, Holidays, Food and More

• Enhanced Maternity Pay

• Access to Free Training Courses Delivered by Columbus Academy

• Free Microsoft Certifications and access to Microsoft Learn

• Modern air-conditioned office spaces fully managed by Cubo (multiple UK locations)

• Free Barista Coffee and hot drinks made in-house

• Free Beer and Fizz every day (2 - 5pm)

• Casual Dress Code in our Offices

• Personal Pension Plan

• Life Assurance x4 Salary

• Cycle-to-Work Scheme

• £2,500 payment for successful candidate referrals (if eligible)

• Flexi-phone upgrade scheme (if eligible)

• Plus many, many more (check out our careers pages for details)

Employee Wellbeing Program (terms apply)

• Free 24/7 Access to Cubo Gym(s)

• Vitality Medical Insurance

• Westfield Health Cash plan (includes an Employee Assistance Line)

• Mental health first aiders

• Virtual suggestion boxes

Next Steps

If this sounds like the role for you, then please drop a copy of your CV over today via our website and “Apply for this job” or CV not up-to-date? Then apply using your LinkedIn profile in seconds.

You may also be prompted to "Connect with us", but please don’t worry if you don’t have the time; it does not impact your application.

In the meantime, check us out on Instagram or LinkedIn

STAY CURIOUS, COLLABORATE, BUILD TRUST, and DELIVER CUSTOMER SUCCESS

Gold Partner and Inner Circle

As a Microsoft Gold Partner for over 20 years, Columbus has access to a range of market-leading resources, training and certifications. As well as a host of awards, Columbus has twice been named partner of the year by Microsoft.

As a Microsoft Inner Circle member, Columbus has been recognised as part of an elite category of partners. This honour is only awarded to the very best in the industry for thought leadership, innovation and dedication, with Inner Circle partners representing only the Top 1% of the Microsoft ecosystem. 

With over 1,500 colleagues across more than 10 countries, we bring global perspectives and local understanding. What unites us is our belief in creating meaningful impact — for our people, our customers, and the journey ahead.