Lead AI Engineer

Role details

Joining Capco means joining an organisation that is committed to an inclusive working environment where you’re encouraged to #BeYourselfAtWork. We celebrate individuality and recognize that diversity and inclusion, in all forms, is critical to success. It’s important to us that we recruit and develop as diverse a range of talent as we can and we believe that everyone brings something different to the table – so we’d love to know what makes you different. Such differences may mean we need to make changes to our process to allow you the best possible platform to succeed, and we are happy to cater to any reasonable adjustments you may require. You will find the section to let us know of these at the bottom of your application form or you can mention it directly to your recruiter at any stage and they will be happy to help. About Capco Capco is a global technology and business consultancy, focused on the financial services sector. We are growing at fast pace in our Italian office, the opportunity for growth is large, accessible, and immediate. We are passionate about helping our clients succeed in an ever-changing industry. Capco is going through a significant growth journey, now is a very good time to join us as we expand our consulting team in Italy. Role Description: We are looking for a Lead AI Engineer to join our Capco AI Lab and help design and build production-grade AI solutions for our clients. This is a senior , hands-on engineering role for someone with a strong software engineering background who has developed deep expertise in Generative and Agentic AI. You will make technical and architectural decisions, guide other engineers and, importantly, continue to write and review production code yourself . You will work on complex AI systems covering LLM orchestration, AI agents, RAG, tool and function calling, evaluation and observability, taking solutions from early prototypes through to scalable production environments. The role also involves working directly with clients, translating business requirements into robust technical solutions and advising on AI architecture, platforms and technology choices. Responsibilities Design and own the end-to-end architecture of Generative and Agentic AI solutions , including orchestration, AI agents, tool/function calling, RAG, memory and state management. Remain hands-on with software development , building complex components and taking prototypes through to production-grade solutions. Define engineering standards and best practices for AI applications, including reference architectures, testing and evaluation strategies, guardrails, observability and CI/CD. Design scalable, secure and reliable AI systems, considering performance, latency, cost, monitoring and production requirements. Evaluate and select appropriate LLMs, frameworks, platforms and tools based on technical and business requirements. Lead technical design and code reviews, mentor other engineers and contribute to raising engineering standards across the team. Work directly with clients and senior stakeholders to translate business requirements into technical architectures and clearly communicate technical decisions and trade-offs. Contribute to technical documentation, reference architectures and thought leadership around Generative and Agentic AI. Skills and Experience Essential skills to succeed 8+ years of professional experience in Software Engineering, Backend Engineering, or similar engineering roles, including experience designing and building enterprise-grade systems. Strong hands-on software engineering skills and experience writing high-quality production code, with Python or an equivalent programming language. Demonstrable experience designing and developing LLM and Agentic AI applications, including AI agents, LLM orchestration and tool/function calling. Strong understanding of RAG architectures, retrieval approaches and vector-based search. Experience with agentic frameworks and integration approaches such as LangChain, LangGraph, MCP or comparable technologies. Understanding of how to test and evaluate non-deterministic AI systems, including LLM/agent evaluation, monitoring and observability. Strong software architecture and engineering fundamentals, including APIs, distributed systems, integration patterns and production reliability. Strong experience with at least one major cloud platform (AWS, Azure or GCP) and cloud-native engineering practices. Experience with modern software engineering and DevOps practices, including containers and CI/CD. Experience with Infrastructure as Code and observability is highly valued. Experience providing technical leadership through architecture/design reviews, code reviews and mentoring, while remaining actively involved in engineering and development. Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly and confidently to both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Solid professional English. Bonus points Experience with multi-agent architectures, advanced RAG, AI evaluation frameworks or LLMOps. Experience with NLP and production applications based on Large Language Models. Experience taking AI prototypes through to secure, scalable and production-grade applications. Experience with AI governance, risk or assurance frameworks, such as the EU AI Act, ISO/IEC 42001 or NIST AI RMF. Experience working in Financial Services or Energy. Previous consulting or client-facing delivery experience. Open-source contributions, technical publications, conference speaking or other contributions to the engineering community. Why join Capco? You will work on engaging projects with some of the largest banks in the world, on projects that will transform the financial services industry. We offer a competitive, people-first benefits package designed to support every aspect of your life: Comprehensive health benefit coverage Meal Vouchers Welfare allowance Access to internal and Tier 1 learning platforms In Capco you will find: A work culture