Job Summary

Lead, AI Engineering

Join our pioneering team as a Lead AI Engineer, where your expertise will shape the future of artificial intelligence within the banking sector. This role offers a unique opportunity to own the entire lifecycle of AI solutions—from initial design and secure development through deployment, operational management, and governance—ensuring robust compliance within a regulated financial environment.

As a key driver of innovation, you will collaborate with diverse teams across the organisation, including data scientists, product managers, and business stakeholders, to build impactful AI products that enhance decision-making and operational efficiencies. You will lead by example, setting technical standards and fostering a culture of continuous improvement and excellence.

With a hybrid work environment based in Guangzhou, this role invites forward-thinking professionals passionate about advancing AI technologies and delivering tangible business value in a dynamic, global banking organisation.

Key Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

Strategic Leadership

• Define and uphold best practices for AI software engineering, including secure software development lifecycle (SDLC), architectural oversight, code quality standards, and comprehensive documentation.
• Maintain a forward-looking perspective on AI and ML advancements, integrating cutting-edge methods and tools into our AI product suite to maintain competitive advantage.
• Contribute to shaping the AI vision and roadmap aligned with broader organisational strategies, supporting long-term innovation.
• Lead AI research initiatives to explore new methodologies and technologies, fostering a culture of exploration and creativity.

Business Engagement

• Develop and execute strategies to accelerate AI and data analytics adoption within Financial Markets (FM) business, enhancing efficiency and insights.
• Build strong partnerships with technology teams and business stakeholders to deliver customised AI solutions that meet complex business needs.
• Work closely with multidisciplinary teams, including data science, product management and operations, ensuring AI initiatives drive measurable business outcomes.

Platform and Architectural Excellence

• Oversee design and implementation of advanced AI platforms, including large language models (LLMs), retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), agent orchestration, and prompt/version control systems.
• Manage data engineering components such as feature stores, vector databases, retrieval pipelines, and integration services like Text-to-SQL and tool-calling interfaces.
• Lead the development of scalable, resilient API and event-driven architectures employing REST, gRPC, Kafka, among others, ensuring seamless microservices and front-end integration using React, TypeScript, and Next.js.
• Set and maintain high standards for operational excellence concerning performance optimisation, cost management, system resilience, observability, and service level objectives.

Talent Development and Team Leadership

• Mentor and support the growth of junior AI engineers, nurturing their technical skills and professional development.
• Encourage a culture of knowledge sharing and continuous learning, staying abreast of modern data architecture trends.
• Demonstrate thought leadership in AI technologies, cultivating influential business relationships and securing strong advocacy for AI architecture and strategic direction.

Risk Management*

• Responsible for proactively seeking regular assurance that function is performing to an acceptable risk and control standards.
• Responsible to act quickly and decisively when any risk and control weakness become apparent and ensure they are addressed within an appropriate timeframe and, if necessary, escalated through the relevant committees. 
• Responsible to balance business performance delivery and cost management with risk and control matters to ensure that it does not materially threaten the Group, remaining within risk appetite.
• Responsible to work in collaboration with risk and control teams.

Skills and Experience

Skills and Experience

Educational Background

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Mathematics, or closely related discipline, equipping candidates with a strong theoretical foundation.

Technical and Domain Expertise

• Minimum 7 years’ progressive experience in AI/ML engineering, including at least 3 years in a leadership capacity managing teams or projects.
• Deep knowledge of machine learning algorithms, deep learning architectures, natural language processing (NLP), computer vision, and reinforcement learning techniques.
• Strong proficiency in programming languages such as Python, Java, and C++, enabling hands-on development and optimisation of AI models and pipelines.
• Experience working with leading AI frameworks and libraries including TensorFlow, PyTorch, and Keras to design, train, and deploy models.
• In-depth understanding of software engineering principles, data structures and algorithms ensuring robust and efficient AI system design.
• Expertise with major cloud computing platforms such as AWS, Google Cloud Platform, and Microsoft Azure, supporting scalable AI solution deployment.
• A proven history of successfully delivering AI systems into production environments with real-world impact, demonstrating accountability and reliability.
• Excellent analytic and problem-solving abilities paired with strong communication skills, facilitating collaboration between technical teams and business partners.
• Demonstrated ability to mentor and inspire engineers, creating a motivating environment that promotes innovation and continuous learning.

Leadership and Strategic Capabilities

• Track record of leading large-scale, global data and AI projects that meet complex business needs.
• Highly developed interpersonal skills for effective engagement with diverse stakeholders, from technical teams to senior executives and regulatory bodies.
• Exceptional analytical and storytelling skills to effectively advocate a data-driven transformative vision.
• Clear communicator, skilled at translating complex technical concepts into accessible language for varied audiences including regulators and decision-makers.

Key Competencies

• Strategic Thinking & Execution: Ability to conceive and deliver forward-looking AI strategies that align with organisational goals.
• Technical Leadership & Hands-on Expertise: Combine deep technical knowledge with leadership skills to guide complex projects and mentor teams.
• Stakeholder Management & Communication: Skilled in managing expectations, influencing decision-makers and effectively communicating across functions.
• Innovation & Continuous Improvement: Passion for exploring emerging technologies and fostering a culture of experimentation and learning.
• Talent Development & Team Building: Commitment to nurturing skills, fostering diversity and building cohesive, high-performing teams.
• Risk Awareness & Governance Discipline: Strong understanding of regulatory requirements and commitment to upholding governance principles in AI deployments.

About Standard Chartered

At Standard Chartered, we are an international bank with a legacy spanning more than 170 years. We combine agility with a global scale to make a meaningful difference to our clients, communities, and employees. Our culture is characterised by curiosity, a passion for challenge, and a drive for continuous improvement.

We believe in empowering our people to bring their authentic selves to work and value the strength in diversity and inclusion. Our purpose is to drive commerce and prosperity through our uniquely diverse team, supported by our brand promise, to be here for good.

Join us to experience a culture that values integrity, innovation, and collective success. We honour our commitment to ethical business conduct, celebrate diverse perspectives, and invest in the growth of all individuals to build a lasting impact together.

• Doing the right thing: We live with integrity, put our clients at the centre, and foster constructive challenge.
• Never settle: We continuously strive for better solutions, embracing learning from success and failure alike.
• Better together: We promote inclusivity and collaboration to achieve shared goals and enduring value.

What we offer

In line with our Fair Pay Charter, we offer a competitive salary and benefits to support your mental, physical, financial and social wellbeing.

• Core bank funding for retirement savings, medical and life insurance, with flexible and voluntary benefits available in some locations.
• Time-off including annual leave, parental/maternity (20 weeks), sabbatical (12 months maximum) and volunteering leave (3 days), along with minimum global standards for annual and public holiday, which is combined to 30 days minimum.
• Flexible working options based around home and office locations, with flexible working patterns.
• Proactive wellbeing support through Unmind, a market-leading digital wellbeing platform, development courses for resilience and other human skills, global Employee Assistance Programme, sick leave, mental health first-aiders and all sorts of self-help toolkits
• A continuous learning culture to support your growth, with opportunities to reskill and upskill and access to physical, virtual and digital learning.
• Being part of an inclusive and values driven organisation, one that embraces and celebrates our unique diversity, across our teams, business functions and geographies - everyone feels respected and can realise their full potential.