Director of AI

About Cleo

At Cleo, we're not just building another fintech app. We're embarking on a mission to fundamentally change humanity's relationship with money. Imagine a world where everyone, regardless of background or income, has access to a hyper-intelligent financial advisor in their pocket. That's the future we're creating.

Cleo is a rare success story: a profitable, fast-growing unicorn with over $200 million in ARR and growing over 2x year-over-year. This isn't just a job; it's a chance to join a team of brilliant, driven individuals who are passionate about making a real difference. We have an exceptionally high bar for talent, seeking individuals who are not only at the top of their field but also embody our culture of collaboration and positive impact.

If you’re driven by complex challenges that push your expertise, the chance to shape something truly transformative, and the potential to share in Cleo’s success as we scale, while growing alongside a company that’s scaling fast, this might be your perfect fit.

Follow us on LinkedIn to keep up to date with new product features and insights from the team.

About the Role  

We are looking for an AI Director to spearhead our AI campaign, making us a truly world recognised AI superpower. 

Key Responsibilities

• Set the AI Vision: Strategically establish and own the ML/AI roadmap, ensuring alignment of AI advancements with business objectives and translating cutting-edge research into concrete, user-focused products.
• Lead Applied Research: Spearhead advanced work in LLMs and AI agents, not only pushing the boundaries of what’s possible but also executing tasks that ensure practicality and scalability of products.
• Build & Inspire Teams: Lead, inspire, and actively participate in the growth of a large, elite team of ML researchers across product squads and our dedicated research group, fostering a high-performance, results-oriented culture.
• Foster Collaboration: Work closely with Product Directors, leadership and cross-functional teams to integrate AI capabilities seamlessly with product goals, actively building features that users will love and trust.
• Stay Cutting-Edge: Ensure Cleo remains at the forefront in ML by actively engaging with the latest trends in NLP, reinforcement learning, and generative AI, and applying them to our products.
• Communicate at All Levels: Translate insights for senior leadership and bridge the gap between technical and non-technical teams, actively contributing to strategic decisions with clarity and understanding.

What We’re Looking For

• Proven Experience: Have proven experience leading and executing on cutting edge AI and having impact on companies products and performance. You should have also been hands-on building ML/AI products.
• Strategic Vision: Ability to think strategically about the development and implementation of advanced AI capabilities, aligning them with company goals.
• Technical Mastery: Deep expertise in LLMs, AI agents, and advanced ML techniques.
• Academic Pedigree: Ph.D. or Master’s in Computer Science, ML, or related field from a top-tier institution.
• Active Collaboration: Demonstrated ability to foster collaboration across functions, working seamlessly with product, engineering, and research teams.
• Execution Excellence: Proven track record of actively executing tasks and driving projects to completion, not just promoting ideas.
• Cross-functional Leadership: Skilled in partnering with product leaders to bring AI ideas to life.
• Clear Communicator: Ability to explain and champion complex AI concepts to diverse stakeholders.

What do you get for all your hard work?

• A competitive compensation package (base + equity) with bi-annual reviews, aligned to our quarterly OKR planning cycles. You can view our public progression framework and salary bandings here: https://cleo-ai.progressionapp.com/ 
• Work at one of the fastest-growing tech startups, backed by top VC firms, Balderton & EQT Ventures
• A clear progression plan. We want you to keep growing. That means trying new things, leading others, challenging the status quo and owning your impact. Always with our complete support. 
• Flexibility. We can’t fight for the world’s financial health if we’re not healthy ourselves. We work with everyone to make sure they have the balance they need to do their best work
• Work where you work best. We’re a globally distributed team. If you live in London we have a hybrid approach, we’d love you to spend one day a week or more in our beautiful office. If you’re outside of London, we’ll encourage you to spend a couple of days with us a few times per year. And we’ll cover your travel costs, naturally.
• Other benefits;
• Company-wide performance reviews every 6 months 
• Generous pay increases for high-performing team members
• Equity top-ups for team members getting promoted
• 25 days annual leave a year + public holidays (+ an additional day for every year you spend at Cleo, up to 30 days)
• 6% employer-matched pension in the UK
• Private Medical Insurance via Vitality, dental cover, and life assurance
• Enhanced parental leave
• 1 month paid sabbatical after 4 years at Cleo
• Regular socials and activities, online and in-person
• We'll pay for your OpenAI subscription
• Online mental health support via Spill
• Workplace Nursery Scheme 
• And many more!

We strongly encourage applications from people of colour, the LGBTQ+ community, people with disabilities, neurodivergent people, parents, carers, and people from lower socio-economic backgrounds.

If there’s anything we can do to accommodate your specific situation, please let us know.

UK App access: The Cleo app is no longer downloadable in the UK (but only until next year). If you’re an existing user, you’ll still have access to the app. But some features won’t be available (just for a little while). Why? 99% of our users are based in the US – where financial health is often overlooked. We’ve decided to shift our focus to where we can provide the most value and make the greatest impact for users who need it most. Then we’ll be able to apply what we learn to better support our UK users in the future.