AI Lead

hedgehog lab has built software for twenty years. We're now building our AI practice, and we want one person to own it.

AI is changing how software gets built. We would rather shape that than watch it happen, across our client work and internally.

This is a hands-on role in our architecture function. You go into a client, listen, work out the solution, then build the early versions yourself.

You are an engineer first, who also happens to be good at organisational change and product building.

Your week splits roughly two to three days on client work, the rest on transforming how hedgehog lab runs internally.

Client work is about shaping and contributing to projects, not being locked into one build for months.

Internally, you own our AI transformation: joining up our data and systems, and making our tooling work the way it should.

Why you'd want it

You define what AI development looks like here rather than inherit someone else's playbook.

Real autonomy over the technical agenda.

Genuine variety, because no two client problems are the same, and half your week is spent reshaping how we work.

What You'll Do

• Own a portfolio of AI transformation objectives, across clients and inside the lab
• Go into discovery, look at the problem through an AI lens, then build the early versions yourself
• Set the technical direction and bring colleagues along, so the new ways of working stick
• Own our internal transformation roadmap. We have around thirty AI initiatives to run across the business. You prioritise them, take ownership, and drive them to delivery on timelines the board can back
• Move between the keyboard and the boardroom, translating between technical and business audiences

What Good Looks Like

Six months in, you are working directly with clients, building the solutions they came to us for.

Internally, you have given the board a clear plan for our AI transformation. Initiatives are owned, timelines are set, and you are driving them to done.

What Comes With The Role

• 28 days annual leave plus bank holidays
• 5 Impact Days for learning, innovation or volunteering
• Flexible working environment
• Enhanced parental leave
• Annual wellbeing budget plus 2 wellbeing days
• Mental health support
• Company Mac

What You'll Bring

Essential. The heart of the role, and where your strongest experience needs to be:

• Strong grasp of software engineering workflows built around gen-AI
• Solid hands-on experience with agentic coding tools
• You have built applications that interact with LLMs via APIs, as contributor and leader
• A track record of embedding AI practices in a team by experimenting, guiding and supporting people
• Technical team leadership
• Versatile software development (Python, AWS, JavaScript/TypeScript and similar)
• Architectural solution design

Also important. You will use these day to day, even if they are not your headline strength:

• Organisational programme management
• Agile delivery
• Stakeholder reporting
• Strategic thinking and planning

Who We Are

We make digital products that help clients do what they set out to do. We do our best work when the problem is hard and the constraints are real.

We are a certified B Corp with a Flexa-certified culture, with offices in Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester and London. Our work speaks for itself. You can see some of it here.

Where you'll be based

Hybrid: home, office, or a mix. We just ask that you are within 50 miles of one of our offices: Edinburgh, Newcastle, Leeds, Manchester or London.

Interested?

If you have built real things with LLMs and want to own how AI gets done across a business, we want to hear from you.