Forward Deployed AI Engineer

Background

Hugh James is a Top 100 UK law firm headquartered in Cardiff with offices in London, Manchester, Southampton, and Plymouth. We employ more than 700 people and provide a full range of legal services. We are building a dedicated AI team to deliver transformative solutions across the firm.

The role

You will embed directly within one of the firm's legal divisions Individual Clients or Business Clients or within Central Services, working side-by-side with lawyers, paralegals, and business professionals.

Reporting directly to the CAIO, your mandate is to close the gap between AI capability and real-world legal and business practice: observe workflows, identify opportunities, prototype solutions rapidly, validate with users, and deploy into production.

You will operate as part of a delivery pod with support from data engineering, cyber security, and quality & risk.

Key Responsibilities

• Embed and observe. Spend the majority of your time with the teams you serve, building deep understanding of their work
• Identify use cases. Proactively uncover opportunities where AI can save time, reduce risk, or improve outcomes
• Apply the build/buy/extend framework. Default to existing platforms; escalate Build proposals to the CAIO for review
• Prototype rapidly. Build working solutions using the firm's technology stack within days, not months
• Validate with users. Test prototypes on real workflows, iterating based on direct feedback
• Deploy to production. Navigate governance gates; work with the pod to ensure security, compliance, and integration
• Drive adoption. Train users, create documentation, champion the solution, measure adoption
• Contribute to the platform. Feed generalisable patterns into the central AI team for firm-wide reuse
• Bridge the gap. Translate between technical and legal language; ensure AI solutions respect professional obligations and ethical walls
• Stay current. Evaluate new tools and techniques; advise the CAIO on technology strategy

Skills & Qualifications

• 3+ years in software engineering, AI/ML engineering, solutions architecture, or a forward-deployed / consulting engineering role
• Production AI delivery. Proven track record of building and deploying AI solutions end-to-end in a regulated or enterprise environment
• AI application development. Hands-on experience building applications using LLMs (OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, or equivalent)
• Technical depth. Strong Python; experience with RAG design and evaluation; orchestration and workflow design (N8N, Power Automate, LangChain, or similar)
• Evaluation and testing. Experience evaluating AI outputs for accuracy, relevance, and safety not just prompt engineering, but systematic testing and grounding
• Integration and full-stack capability. Experience with Microsoft 365 APIs, SharePoint, and enterprise system integration. Ability to build end-to-end solutions from data extraction to user-facing interfaces
• Secure deployment. Understanding of threat modelling, data governance, GDPR/DPIA requirements, and production security practices
• Stakeholder communication. Comfortable presenting to partners and senior leadership; able to translate between technical and legal language
• Empathy and curiosity. Genuine interest in understanding how legal professionals work; comfort working in ambiguity with ill-defined problems

Desirable

• Experience with legal practice management systems
• Knowledge of document management systems and legal document workflows
• Experience with Microsoft Azure, particularly Azure AI Services and Azure OpenAI
• Understanding of SRA regulatory requirements and legal confidentiality obligations
• Previous experience in an embedded, forward-deployed, or consulting engineering role
• Experience guiding and developing other engineers

Life at Hugh James

We never shy away from a challenge

We are a leading, full-service UK law firm. Since our beginning, we have been led by the things that matter. We care about fighting for the right outcomes. Solving the seemingly unsolvable. Protecting businesses, individuals and livelihoods. Supporting our people, our communities. Safeguarding our planet. Looking for a way forward? At Hugh James, challenges - of all sizes - are readily accepted.

The Hugh James difference

Our law firm has always been guided by the idea that self-belief is just as important as skillset. Our pursuit of righting wrongs and protecting what's important keeps us driving forwards. It's in our roots! We won't stop until we find the answers; the outcomes that are needed.

We are focused on the work we do, the business we run, and our culture. Our entrepreneurial spirit has taken us from humble beginnings to a strong presence across the UK with offices in Cardiff, London, Manchester, Southampton and Plymouth - servicing clients from businesses, individuals and banks to public sector organisations, property companies, education establishments and utilities providers. Our collegiate culture, our forward-looking ethos, our values serve to make us bigger, better, bolder than ever before.

A positive force in the community

Our work with charities on a local and national level plays a huge part in our day-to-day lives. We work with a large range of charities, some of which we support through fundraising, donations, volunteering and others we partner with where our areas of work cross paths. Staff, clients everyone comes together through a shared passion to do good in the community and support those in need.

Some of our benefits on offer include

Minimum of 25 days holiday plus bank holidays

Two Corporate Social Responsibility days

Birthday day off

Death in service equivalent to twice annual salary

Auto enrolment pension scheme

Hybrid working

Employee Assistance Programme

Discounts for local businesses

Professional fees paid (subject to requirement for your role)

Employee recruitment incentive scheme

Hugh James is an equal opportunities and disability confident committed employer.

Thank you for taking the time to consider this opportunity. If you have questions, please contact Jo Herbert

We reserve the right to close our vacancies earlier than the given deadline if we receive sufficient applications for the role.