Job Title: AI Engineer

Department: Core - IT

Reports to: Head of IT

Grade and Salary: £47,500 - £50,000 p/a

Contract: 18-months

Location: Hybrid / London, EC4A and homeworking

The opportunity:

As a Full Stack Engineer transitioning to AI, you will play a pivotal role in designing, building, and scaling AI-driven applications. Working alongside members of Better Society Capital’s teams, you’ll bridge the gap between complex AI systems and practical, user-facing solutions.

We’re not looking for somebody who is already an expert on all aspects of AI but we are looking for somebody that has a good breadth of IT expertise, the ability to translate complex technical language into something that non-experts can easily understand alongside a willingness to quickly learn and master new technologies and tools that will help Better Society Capital pragmatically implement suitable AI solutions to help our staff in delivering on our mission and goals. You’ll need to be a self-starter who is willing to investigate technologies and systems without requiring a great deal of technical oversight and steer as well as being capable of writing suitably targeted reports and deliver engaging content and initial training in new tools and techniques as we adopt them for all levels of staff with varying levels of traditional IT expertise.

What you will do:

Investigate AI tools and technologies

• Assess new AI tools for suitability.

• Continually learn about new AI technologies that are likely to be of use to Better Society Capital.

• Extend use of existing AI and conventional development tools already used at BSC (e.g. Copilot, ChatGPT, Anthropic Claude, Python, Power BI) as appropriate.

• Determine where decisions need to be taken regarding standardisation of tools and software.

Liaise with teams to determine and action suitable use cases

• Work closely with teams in quickly identifying what areas of their work are likely to be suitable for full or partial replacement with AI systems and which areas are less likely to be appropriate.

• Where AI can quickly be put to work in helping teams and the use case is sufficiently well understood, has value and can be quickly implemented, work with the team in doing so.

• Where good use cases are identified by you and the relevant teams, but these are large-scale or have legal, regulatory etc. implications; document at a high level how these could be implemented in future.

• Work with members of the team that are examining and improving existing data quality as well as in their efforts to ensure that collected future data is of high quality.

Work with BSC’s AI Taskforce in promoting AI use

• Champion throughout the organisation how all levels of staff can use AI to enhance their productivity.

• Develop suitable training materials and documentation (technical and user level) for adopted BSC AI systems.

• Present informal “How To” advice sessions on AI usage to staff.

• Contribute easily understood and directly useful AI usage techniques to suitable internal forums.

Assess and improve staff AI take up

• Survey staff for their views on what AI tools and techniques they are finding to be useful and where not.

• Use reporting tools to determine whether and where AI is being used at BSC in order to inform decisions as to the suitability of implemented AI systems/tools.

• Use reporting results to provide more training opportunities where appropriate, improve the usage experience, coverage and capabilities of useful AI related tools. Where tools are not proving to be useful for staff ether improve the implementation and training on the tools, replace them with alternative AI systems that are more suitable or if AI is not suitable in the relevant area, decommission the tool and replace it with conventional technologies as appropriate.

What you will bring:

Skills, Abilities and Attributes

• Ability to learn new AI and general IT tools and technologies without requiring supervision.

• Be able to explain complex tools and terminology to non-technical staff in a form that they will readily understand.

• Be able to identify suitable opportunities for standardising on the most useful tools and technologies.

• Be a self-starter with considerable interest and full-stack level background in technologies.

• Be enthusiastic regarding the potential of AI tools and technologies in helping Better Society Capital to deliver on its mission and goals.

Embody Better Society Capital core values:

Ø  Purposeful –We are passionate and energetic in our work to bring about our long-term vision of a thriving social investment market that enables positive social impact.

Ø  Pioneering Spirit - We give our team the autonomy and flexibility to be entrepreneurial and creative. We have the courage to push boundaries and a restless drive for change

Ø  Openness - We listen, learn, experiment and collaborate.  And we are adaptive and flexible in responding to what we learn.

Ø  Rigorous - We take a rigorous approach in all we do.  We expect the highest standards and continually strive for excellence

Ø  Respectful - We are genuine in both our approach and aspiration.  We value each member of our team and our partners for what they bring.

Experience (essential)

• Breadth of knowledge of IT tools and techniques, e.g. in areas such as database systems (e.g. SQL in general, SQL Server in particular), cloud platforms such as Microsoft 365 (e.g. in SharePoint) and programming skills (e.g. Python, PowerShell, VBA). Ultimately the specific systems listed are less important than understanding the relevance of IT systems and how to apply them to real-world issues.

• Demonstrable exposure to AI systems in general.

• Experience of working in close conjunction with non-IT staff, e.g. in IT support, software/systems development including direct collaboration with non-technical teams (preferable).

Don’t meet every requirement? Studies have shown that women and people from racialised communities are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. If you’re excited about this role but your past experience doesn’t align perfectly with every qualification in the job description, we encourage you to apply anyways. You may be just the right candidate for this or other roles.

Other terms

Location: We are a UK-based business with an office in the Chancery Lane area of London, accessible to a number of public transport links. Our current approach allows colleagues to spend 40% - 60% of their working hours in the office, and the remainder from home. We hope that this working pattern encourages Better Society Capital employees to achieve a healthy balance between work and personal life, as we continue to adapt to the changing needs of our diverse workforce.

Right to work: Candidates must have existing right to work in the UK for this role.

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion: Better Society Capital is committed to being a diverse organisation that is truly representative of the communities we serve. We therefore welcome applications from candidates of all backgrounds, particularly those under-represented in the social impact investment sector (e.g. people from LGBTQIA+; racialised; disabled; under-served communities)

 We are an equal opportunities employer with an inclusive environment where all employees can contribute to their fullest potential. We want every colleague to be able to deliver their work with dignity, equality, comfort and independence. Our office is fully accessible with step-free access and an open-plan set up. We are open to accommodation requests regarding assistive technologies, accessibility tools, flexible working or any other reasonable adjustments that will make working or visiting here more accessible for you. If you have a disability or other access needs and require any support to assist you through the recruitment process, please get in touch with Nica Gordon (People and Talent Officer) at ngordon@bettersocietycapital.com

How to apply:

Please apply via Applied by 23:59pm on Sunday 12th January 2024.

Applied is a platform designed to minimise unconscious bias in recruitment. You will be asked some work-based questions which are reviewed anonymously by the hiring panel. Please note, while you will upload your CV, it will not be viewed by panel members at this stage, so we ask that you give full consideration to each answer.

Please note: we screen for answers generated by Chat GPT. To get a 5 star score, we ask that your Applied answers are authentic and reflect your own knowledge, skills and motivations.

As a Disability Confident employer, we guarantee an initial telephone interview for all candidates with disabilities who meet the minimum criteria for the job. We are defining a disability in accordance with the Equality Act 2010, as a person who has a physical or mental impairment, and the impairment has a substantial and long-term adverse effect on their ability to carry out normal day-to-day activities. You will be asked in your Applied application whether this applies to you. If we receive an exceptionally high volume of applicants, we may not be able to facilitate interviews for everyone.

Interviews

Round 1 interviews will be held approximately w/c 20th January 2025

Round 2 interviews will be held approximately w/c 27th January 2025

You can find out more about our recruitment approach here