Translabour is looking for a strong hands-on AI Engineer to help us build a production-ready corporate AI infrastructure from scratch.
Who we are:
Translabour.com is a UK-based B2B AI startup (HQ: Oxford, UK). We automate processes in the UK insurance sector (working with insurance brokers and underwriters). We build deep AI pipelines, RAG systems, and autonomous agents. We already have 2 major paying clients in the UK and confirmed revenue.
Nature of the engagement (Fractional to Full-time):
- Pilot Project (first 1–1.5 months): You join us in a fractional capacity (20-25 hours per week, flexible schedule). You don't need to quit your current job immediately. We will secure a starting stock option package for you ( 0.75% – 1.0% with vesting and cliff) and pay a supporting cash retainer (negotiable).
- Full-time Transition: We will evaluate each other during real-world operations. Upon mutual match and achievement of upcoming milestones (investment or launch of new clients), we will reconfigure the contract for a full-time role as Lead AI / CTO-track, with a salary increase to $6,000 – $8,000 / month and an increase in your equity stake to 1.75% – 2.5% total.
What you will work on:
- Translate AI prototypes into production-ready solutions.
- Design and build Translabour's enterprise AI infrastructure.
- Work with OpenAI API, Azure OpenAI, Azure AI Search, and the Microsoft ecosystem.
- Build RAG systems: ingestion, chunking, embeddings, vector/hybrid search, reranking, citations, evals.
- Design AI agents and agentic workflows: tool calling, orchestration, memory, retries, permissions, human-in-the-loop.
- Configure MCP servers and MCP integrations to connect AI agents to external systems, data, and workflows.
- Integrate with CRM, ATS, email/calendar, documents, internal tools, external APIs, and enterprise SaaS.
- Build middleware, API endpoints, webhooks, and backend services.
- Be responsible for logging, monitoring, alerting, tracing, quality evaluation, and production reliability.
- Optimize latency, cost, rate limits, retries, and failure handling.
- Consider enterprise security: access control, data isolation, auditability, PII handling, permissions.
- Document architecture and technical solutions so that knowledge is not confined solely to the founder.
- Help define the technical roadmap for 30/60/90 days.
What we expect from the candidate:
- 5+ years of experience in Backend / Platform / Software / Applied AI Engineering.
- Proven experience in taking LLM / GenAI systems to production.
- Strong Python and/or TypeScript skills.
- Experience with OpenAI API, Azure OpenAI, or similar platforms.
- Hands-on experience with RAG (embeddings, vector search, retrieval, evals).
- Experience with cloud deployment, APIs, webhooks, and production debugging.
- Understanding of agent architecture, MCP, and enterprise automation.
- Autonomy, ability to make architectural decisions independently.
- English - B2 (for reading technical documentation, written communication with clients)
Will be a plus:
- Azure AI Search, Microsoft Graph, Entra ID, Microsoft 365.
- LangChain, LlamaIndex, Semantic Kernel, AutoGen, CrewAI.
- Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD.
- Experience with HR-tech, ATS, CRM.
What we offer:
- Real Startup Upside: Your equity stake in the company's capitalization growth is the main benefit of the role. We are looking for a partner and co-founder, not just an employee for a salary.
- Safe Test Drive: An opportunity to try out the project and work with the founders (20-25 hrs/week) without immediately quitting your current job.
- Freedom of Decision: No corporate bureaucracy
