Bally's Interactive
Lead Ai Engineer (AI/ML/R&D)
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Lead Ai Engineer (AI/ML/R&D)
Lead AI Engineer
Location: Hybrid working (3 days a week in the Manchester Office)
Who We Are
Bally’s Interactive is the digital arm of one of the world’s leading entertainment providers, with tens of millions of players globally and an unmatched ecosystem of products spanning sports betting, iGaming, free-to-play, and daily fantasy.
Our brands and platforms—such as Bally Bet, Vera&John, Virgin Games, and Jackpotjoy—define excellence by embracing a global team’s diversity, challenging the status quo, and delivering exceptional player experiences.
About the Role
As Lead AI Engineer, you’ll shape the future of AI across our products by bridging cutting-edge research with production engineering. You’ll lead Bally’s new AI Engineering function, ensuring innovative AI features—such as personalisation, recommendations, intelligent search, AI agents, and content discovery—scale efficiently and are seamlessly used by millions of players.
This hands-on leadership role blends technical expertise with team development. Your responsibilities include:
- Mentoring and growing engineers
- Influencing architecture and technical strategy
- Leading complex technical challenges by example
- Collaborating closely with product, engineering, and data teams to deliver AI-powered solutions at scale
Key Responsibilities
- Serve as the technical visionary for AI-driven features across platforms
- Transition AI solutions from research/proof-of-concept to production-ready, reliable systems
- Define technical direction, establish best practices, and inspire a culture of engineering excellence
- Foster a high-performing team that thrives on innovation while maintaining scalability, performance, and maintainability
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What You’ll Need: Experience & Skills
Technical Proficiency
- Significant commercial experience in software engineering, preferably leading teams or engineering functions
- Deep expertise in TypeScript and Python, with a track record of deploying AI/ML/data-driven solutions (e.g., recommendation engines, intelligent search, LLM-powered applications)
- Extensive experience architecting cloud-native applications on AWS, leveraging:
- CI/CD pipelines
- Infrastructure as Code (IaC)
- Observability tools
- Modern engineering best practices
- Ability to design high-performance, real-time systems with strict scalability and latency requirements
- Proven success in transitioning research-grade AI into robust, impactful production services
Leadership & Team Development
- Experience mentoring engineers and shaping high-performing, collaborative teams
- Knowledge of technical standards and maturity models for AI/ML engineering
- Confidence in technical decision-making across stakeholder silos
Soft Skills
- Technical leadership with a passion for innovation and continuous improvement
- Balance between experimentation and engineering discipline
- Strong communication and collaboration, merging engineering, product, and data teams
- Willingness to stay hands-on while driving strategic technical direction
What We Offer
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(Note: Benefits vary by location, but may include the following—all tailored to support your success!)
- Annual leave entitlements
- Competitive pension plan
- Comprehensive health insurance options
- Company share scheme
- Volunteering days and community engagement programmes
- Home office allowance (for hybrid workers)
- Wellness or gym allowance
Our DNA: Core Values
At Bally’s Interactive, our operational principles—our DNA—guide every decision:
- Always Ready: Embrace change, adapt ruthlessly, and deliver excellence to delight customers.
- You Make the Difference: Belief that our teams’ unique contributions drive unmatched player experiences.
- All One Team: Celebrate diversity, foster inclusion, and unite around a shared mission.
- Learning Every Day: Cultivate curiosity, learn from challenges, and grow through collaboration.
- Love to Lead: Challenge norms, innovate boldly, and persistently raise the bar.
Equal Opportunities
We are committed to equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) and actively cultivate workplaces where everyone can thrive.
Bally’s Interactive does not tolerate discrimination based on:
- Race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
- Age, sex, gender reassignment, or sexual orientation
- Religion or belief, marital/civil status, pregnancy/maternity
- Political opinion or disability
Our diverse workforce is our greatest strength. Every perspective enriches how we play to our core purpose: delivering a better experience for our players, worldwide.
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