AI & Automation Engineer

About VFXVFX Financial is one of the UK’s fastest-growing FinTechs, helping complex organisations move, manage, and protect money across borders. Built for specialist sectors, multi-jurisdiction structures, and high-compliance environments, we support businesses whose needs go beyond standard banking. We’re selective about who we work with because exceptional service requires focus and commitment.With six international offices, five regulatory licences, and an 83% CAGR over the past three years, we’re scaling rapidly and earning industry recognition along the way — including the Financial Times FT1000: Europe’s Fastest Growing Companies 2026, CNBC UK’s Top Fintech Companies 2025, Wealth & Finance FinTech Awards 2026, and the Business Growth Award from Business Awards UK.Behind it all is a team of ambitious VFXers united by collective ownership, a focus on growth, and a shared passion for solving complex problems.About the RoleVFX Financial is a regulated fintech providing payments, foreign exchange, treasury services, and multi-currency accounts. We have deployed enterprise LLM tooling organisation-wide (Claude Enterprise) across all teams, but lack dedicated resource to drive adoption, govern use, and deliver production automations. This hire owns the AI adoption and automation delivery mandate.This is primarily an AI adoption and automation delivery role—not a data engineering role. The engineer will work closely with Operations, Finance, Compliance, and Technology teams to identify automation opportunities, build production-grade solutions, and ensure every deployment is safe, governed, and measurable. Data pipeline engineering and Snowflake modelling sit with the data engineering team; this role uses the data platform as a consumer and integration point.The tech stack includes Azure, Power Automate, Python, the Claude API, and Microsoft 365 integrations. The engineer operates within the AI governance framework owned by Compliance, Risk, and the DPO, contributing technical evidence and controls, not setting policy.This role can be hybrid at our office in Portimao or fully remote across Portugal.Key ResponsibilitiesAI Adoption & Use-Case DeliveryWork with business stakeholders across Operations, Finance, and Technology to identify, prioritise, and scope AI and automation use casesMaintain and manage the AI use-case register, including intake, prioritisation, status tracking, and outcomes measurementDrive adoption of deployed AI tools (Claude Enterprise and equivalents) — structured rollout, training, and usage measurement by functionStay current on enterprise LLM and AI tooling developments; advise the Data & AI Lead on relevant capabilitiesAutomation EngineeringDesign and build production-grade automations using Power Automate, Python, and API integrations, targeting operational workflows across payments, FX, treasury, onboarding, and internal operationsBuild and maintain automated workflows and AI pipelines with human-in-the-loop controls, escalation paths, and audit trailsIntegrate LLM workflows with internal systems and third-party APIs using the Claude API or equivalent enterprise LLM APIs;Document all automations with clear operational runbooks; ensure solutions are maintainable by othersProduction Controls & GovernanceApply production engineering standards to all AI deployments: secrets management, prompt and model versioning, evaluation datasets, output quality thresholds, and observabilityImplement cost monitoring and usage controls for LLM API consumptionBuild and maintain rollback and kill-switch mechanisms for all production AI workflowsApply personal data minimisation principles — no personal data in prompts unless explicitly reviewed and approvedProduce the technical input for vendor, security, privacy, and data-residency assessments for any new AI tool or integration, working with the relevant control functionsOperate within the AI governance framework; provide technical evidence and control documentation to Compliance, Risk, Security, and the DPO as requiredMaintain awareness of AI regulatory developments, including the EU AI Act timetable, and flag implications to the Data & AI Lead and ComplianceSOP & Process RedesignWork with Operations to review existing SOPs and identify where automation can reduce manual effort, error risk, or processing timeWhere automation is not yet appropriate, document improved manual processes that are automation-readyMeasure and report on automation impact — hours saved, error reduction, throughput improvementsRequirementsEssential3–6 years of hands-on software or automation engineering experienceProficiency in Python (e.g. scripting, API integration, workflow automation)Practical experience building with enterprise LLM APIs, such as Claude API, OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, or equivalentExperience with Power Automate or equivalent low-code/no-code automation platforms in a production contextAbility to gather requirements from non-technical stakeholders and translate