Lead AI Engineer | Hybrid, Utrecht - Amsterdam | Full time
Salary up to 101k including HA
About the client
Our client is an AI engineering company that builds production-grade machine learning systems, data infrastructure, and agentic AI solutions for fast-growing European tech companies. They have a deliberate focus on climate and energy, working with scale-ups in areas like grid software, energy forecasting, and climate infrastructure. Rather than delivering a solution and walking away, they embed directly with their partners’ engineering teams and own the full technical lifecycle: from the first architecture decision to a production system that keeps performing long after go-live.
About the role
As Lead AI Engineer, you are the technical owner of client engagements. You design the solution, ship it to production, and make sure it still performs a year later. Together with the other Leads, you help shape the engineering team and the way they build.
In your first months, you’ll join a client project alongside an experienced engineer, supported by a dedicated coach. Within six months, you’ll own the technical roadmap of at least one engagement, mentor engineers, and have a recognised voice in the company’s technical strategy.
Why this role stands out: you’ll work across more stacks, clouds, and frontier frameworks in a year than most engineers see in five, backed by the collective knowledge of a strong team. On top of that, you’ll build real domain expertise in energy and climate systems.
What you will be doing
- Designing AI roadmaps with client leadership and owning them through to production
- Creating and implementing AI solution architectures to deliver on those roadmaps
- Setting and upholding Data Platform and MLOps standards across your client portfolio, so systems stay healthy after handover
- Mentoring engineers and contributing to hiring, team growth, and account management
- Pushing the engineering practice forward, including the use of agentic coding workflows to build faster without compromising reliability
- Bringing a strong product mindset, making sure the team builds the right things, not just more things
Requirements
Most importantly: you think in systems, own outcomes end to end, and help the people around you grow.
- 5+ years of experience building and scaling data and AI solutions in production
- Strong software engineering fundamentals: production-grade code and solid infrastructure knowledge (Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, data pipelines)
- Mastery of at least one major cloud platform (AWS, Azure, or GCP) and experience leading MLOps/LLMOps architectures
- Proven experience taking LLM-based or agentic systems to production
- Experience mentoring engineers, overseeing delivery, and managing client accounts
- Ability to translate technical complexity into clear decisions for non-technical stakeholders
- Fluent in English and eligible to work in the Netherlands
Compensation and benefits
- €5,950 to €7,800 gross per month (excluding holiday allowance, pension, bonus, and equity)
- Annual performance bonus of 1.5 months’ salary
- Equity participation (VSOP)
- Structured development programme with a dedicated certification budget and a specialised track for Leads
- 1-on-1 mentoring with the founders plus external coaching
- 28 vacation days
- Hybrid setup with an office in central Utrecht
- Monthly team events and an annual two-day company summit
- Public transport travel fully covered
- MacBook Pro and all the tools you need