Senior Technical AI Lead

Job Description:

Senior Technical AI Lead

Location: Cork (preferred) / Dublin

Department: AI & Automation Hub

Industry: Healthcare & Insurance Technology

Lead the Next Generation of Enterprise AI

Laya Healthcare is expanding its AI Hub and is seeking a Senior Technical AI Lead to help shape the future of AI across the organisation.

This role suits a highly technical AI professional who has evolved from a strong software engineering background into AI and Machine Learning. You'll act as the technical leader within the AI development team, partnering closely with the AI Architect to drive technical excellence, governance, innovation and delivery.

You'll be the go-to expert for complex AI challenges while helping define how AI engineering is adopted and scaled across the business.

The Opportunity

You'll play a key role in developing AI-powered products and core AI platform capabilities including:

Agentic AI solutions

Large Language Models (LLMs)

AI-powered claims solutions

AI platform services and reusable components

Machine Learning and decisioning frameworks

Enterprise AI governance and deployment standards

This is a highly influential position where you'll help shape ways of working, establish best practices and guide AI engineering teams as new technologies emerge.

Key Responsibilities

Provide technical leadership across AI initiatives and product teams

Support and mentor AI Developers through solution design and delivery

Partner closely with the AI Architect on enterprise AI solutions

Lead technical reviews and maintain high engineering standards

Drive best practices in MLOps, model lifecycle management and AI delivery

Design and oversee AI agents, MCPs and LLM-powered systems

Support teams in taking AI solutions from proof-of-concept through to production

Influence architectural decisions and technology direction

Collaborate with cloud, infrastructure, testing and governance teams

Define monitoring, observability and performance standards for AI platforms

Evaluate emerging technologies and identify opportunities for adoption

Ensure solutions align with business objectives, risk requirements and governance standards

What We're Looking For

Strong software engineering background with progression into AI/ML

5+ years' experience delivering AI solutions into production environments

Advanced Python development expertise

Deep understanding of LLMs, NLP, Machine Learning and Generative AI

Experience building and deploying agentic AI systems

Strong Azure cloud experience

Hands-on experience with Kubernetes, Docker and cloud-native architecture

Experience implementing MLOps, monitoring and observability frameworks

Strong API and backend engineering experience

Ability to lead technical discussions and influence stakeholders

Experience providing technical guidance, mentorship and code reviews

Highly Desirable

Azure AI Foundry expertise

Experience working in Financial Services, Insurance or regulated environments

Understanding of AI governance, risk and compliance frameworks

Exposure to Copilot, Claude Code and AI-assisted software engineering approaches

Experience leading innovation and adoption of emerging technologies

Why This Role?

Be a key technical leader in a growing AI function

Influence enterprise-wide AI strategy and delivery

Work with cutting-edge GenAI and Agentic AI technologies

Collaborate directly with Architects and senior leadership

Opportunity to build and scale AI engineering capabilities from the ground up

Highly visible role with significant business impact

If you're excited by the opportunity to build enterprise-grade AI solutions, lead innovation, and help define the future of AI engineering within a major Irish healthcare organisation, we'd love to hear from you.