AI Engineer

How to apply

Don't send a CV! Send us something that shows who you actually are: a video, a voice note, or something you built with AI. Anything, as long as it isn't a CV, and a real person will read, watch or listen to it and come back to you.

About Us

The way we work has changed forever.

AI is transforming every industry. Expectations are higher than ever. Skills have the shortest shelf life they've ever had. Yet most businesses are still relying on disconnected systems, outdated technology and workplace learning that people simply don't want to use.

We think that's broken.

So we built something better.

Thrive is the AI platform that's reinventing how modern businesses connect people, knowledge, skills and communication in one place. It's where work starts, learning happens and people get the answers they need to do their best work.

Today, more than 3 million people across 60+ countries use Thrive every day. Over 500 ambitious organisations, including Vodafone, Volvo, British Airways and Krispy Kreme, trust us to power their people.

But this is only the beginning.

We're building the future of work, and we're looking for curious people who want to build it with us.

People who challenge convention. Who move fast. Who care deeply about creating products customers genuinely love. People who aren't afraid to ask, "Why has it always been done this way?" and then go and build something better.

If you want to solve meaningful problems, shape technology used by millions of people around the world and do the best work of your career alongside ambitious, supportive teammates, you'll thrive here.

The Role

As an AI Engineer at Thrive, you'll design and build AI-powered features and infrastructure for our enterprise learning platform. We serve hundreds of enterprise customers, each with thousands of learners, so what you build will operate at real scale from day one.

This is a hands-on builder role, but it's not just about making things work, it's about making things work brilliantly. We care deeply about the end-user experience. Our learners aren't power users or developers; they're people trying to grow in their careers, and the AI features we build should feel intuitive, fast, and genuinely useful. We're not interested in shipping AI for AI's sake, we want to ship things that make people's experience of learning measurably better.

You'll work closely with Product, Design, and Engineering to turn ambitious ideas into production features, and you'll have a real voice in shaping what we build and why.

Core Responsibilities

• Build and ship AI-powered features end-to-end, from prototype through production deployment.

• Design and implement integrations with LLMs and AI services, including tool use, agents, and orchestration patterns.

• Develop and maintain backend services and APIs that power AI features, with a focus on reliability and scalability in a multi-tenant environment.

• Collaborate with product and engineering teams to identify where AI can meaningfully improve the platform.

• Contribute to internal tooling, developer experience, and knowledge sharing around AI development practices.

• Stay current with a fast-moving field and help the team make pragmatic technology choices.

What We're Looking For

We're open to candidates at all experience levels. If you don't tick every box but you're curious, build things, and learn fast, we'd love to hear from you.

Essentials

• Practical experience building software with LLMs — whether that's LangChain, LlamaIndex, Semantic Kernel, or direct API integration with providers like OpenAI or Anthropic.

• Strong backend development skills, ideally with TypeScript/Node.js.

• Comfort working across the stack when needed — you don't need to be a frontend specialist, but you can wire up a React component when the job calls for it.

• Familiarity with REST APIs, async patterns, and working with databases (MongoDB, PostgreSQL, or similar).

• A general understanding of how modern software gets built, tested, and deployed.

• Genuine curiosity about AI and a habit of experimenting with new tools and techniques.

• Builder mentality: you can whip up a quick prototype when the job calls for it, and know what it takes to productionise it when necessary.

• AI-driven development: you understand how to use AI to write, test, and deploy high quality codebases.

• Experience with the Model Context Protocol (MCP) or similar tool-use / agent protocols.

• Familiarity with AWS services (Lambda, SQS/SNS, SageMaker, Bedrock, S3).

• Experience with vector databases, embeddings, or retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) patterns.

• Understanding of prompt engineering, evaluation, and the practical challenges of getting LLMs to behave reliably.

• Familiarity with containerisation (Docker, ECS) and CI/CD pipelines.

• Experience building in a multi-tenant B2B SaaS environment.

• Knowledge of AI safety, governance, or responsible AI practices.

Benefits

• Unlimited Holiday to support work-life balance

• Thrivedays—a reduced workday every Friday (10:00–15:00), with no internal meetings

• Flexible Working Hours within core hours (10:00–16:00)

• Birthday & Christmas Off, including festive shutdown between Christmas & New Year

• Work From Anywhere—fully remote-friendly (4 weeks a year)

• Health Cash Back Plan with Health Shield

• Employee Assistance Program for confidential support

• Financial support program via Maji

• Salary Sacrifice Pension Scheme

• Death in Service (4x annual salary)

• Green Car Scheme through salary sacrifice

• Cycle to Work Scheme—save up to 42% on a new bike

• Perks at Work—30,000+ national & local employee discounts via CharlieHR & Health Shield

What to Expect

We believe that finding a new job should be an enjoyable process. We’re passionate about bringing our whole selves to work, so what you see is what you get. All we ask from you, is that you show us your authentic self. We’re looking for people who bring something new to the team, who add to our culture and make it even greater. Our interview stages will be:

• Initial Screening Call: If we think you're a great addition to the team, you'll be invited to an introductory call with a member of our People Team. This is a chance to tell you about Thrive and give you an opportunity to ask questions.

• First-Stage Interview: Following the initial call, you will have a first-stage interview with a member of the team you'd be joining. This is a chance for us to get to know you better and for you to ask any questions about the role. We'll also discuss why Thrive interests you and what you feel you can add to our team.

• Assessment Task: We may ask you to complete a practical assignment or case study between interview stages.

• Final Stage Interview: You will meet with the Hiring Manager and/or a senior team member for a final interview. This stage is typically used for a more in-depth discussion and may involve a review of your assessment.

At Thrive, we’re on a mission to build an inclusive, welcoming culture that encourages and actively supports diversity. Our race, gender, religion, background, sexuality and beliefs are what make us unique. Our people are expected to always treat each other with respect, care and compassion. This starts from the moment you apply for a role at Thrive Learning, so we want you know we’re an equal opportunity employer. We will always strive to be as inclusive as possible in all aspects of employment and have a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination of any kind.

If you require any assistance, accommodations, or support during the application or interview stages, please don't hesitate to contact Ella Holland at ella.holland@thrivelearning.com. We're happy to help!

#LI-Remote