Job: AI Team Lead
Location: Hybrid – Portugal
Salary: Competitive
Reporting to: CTO
Kallidus is a leading SaaS provider of learning, performance, and talent management solutions. Our award-winning platform helps hundreds of organisations worldwide empower their people to perform at their best — from simplifying compliance to driving skills development and measurable business outcomes.
We are a technology company, not just a company that "does technology". We build it ourselves, we own it entirely, and the people who lead that work have real influence over how it evolves. Come build, grow and make a difference!🚀
The Role:
Lead the Future of AI at Kallidus, you will define and execute Kallidus’s AI strategy while remaining actively involved in the design, development, and deployment of AI solutions.
You’ll lead a growing multidisciplinary team of AI Engineers, Data Scientists, and Machine Learning Specialists, working closely with Product, Engineering, and UX teams to bring innovative AI capabilities into production.
We’re looking for someone who has successfully led and developed a team of approximately 10 or more technical professionals and can balance strategic leadership with hands-on technical contribution.
You’ll play a critical role in shaping AI initiatives across areas including:
- Conversational AI and AI-powered coaching experiences
- Personalised learning recommendations
- Skills intelligence and skills mapping
- Predictive analytics and performance forecasting
- Intelligent insights that connect employee performance to business outcomes
- Generative AI and Large Language Model (LLM) applications
Key Responsibilities:
Leadership & Team Development
- Lead, mentor, and inspire a multidisciplinary AI team of approximately 10+ professionals
- Build a culture of innovation, accountability, collaboration, and continuous improvement
- Establish clear objectives, development plans, KPIs, and performance measures
- Coach team members and support their technical and professional growth
AI Strategy & Delivery
- Define and execute the AI roadmap in alignment with business and product objectives
- Lead end-to-end AI project delivery from ideation and research through to production deployment
- Manage priorities, backlogs, and delivery plans within Agile environments
- Ensure AI initiatives deliver measurable business value and customer impact
Technical Leadership
- Architect, develop, and deploy scalable AI and machine learning solutions
- Drive the adoption of Conversational AI, LLM-based applications, and intelligent automation
- Collaborate with Engineering teams to integrate AI models into production systems
- Champion MLOps best practices, model monitoring, testing, and continuous improvement
- Ensure robust governance, responsible AI practices, explainability, and compliance standards
Innovation
- Stay current with emerging AI technologies, frameworks, and industry trends
- Encourage experimentation and the evaluation of new approaches and technologies
- Identify opportunities to leverage AI to enhance customer experience and product value
Required Skills, Experience and Behaviours
We’re looking for a proven AI leader with a strong machine learning background and significant experience delivering AI solutions in a SaaS environment.
Leadership Experience
- 3+ years leading AI, Machine Learning, Data Science, or Applied AI teams
- Demonstrable experience managing teams of approximately 10 or more technical professionals
- Proven ability to recruit, develop, mentor, and retain high-performing teams
- Strong stakeholder management and cross-functional leadership experience
Technical Expertise
- Strong background in Machine Learning and predictive modelling
- Hands-on experience developing and deploying AI solutions into production environments
- Significant experience with Conversational AI, chatbots, virtual assistants, or AI coaching solutions
- Deep understanding of Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), prompt engineering, and modern NLP techniques
- Strong Python and SQL skills
- Experience with modern MLOps practices, CI/CD pipelines, model monitoring, and model lifecycle management
- Experience deploying AI solutions using Azure AI, Azure Machine Learning, Azure OpenAI, and related Azure services
Delivery & Collaboration
- Proven track record of delivering AI initiatives from concept to production
- Experience working closely with software engineering teams in Agile environments
- Comfortable operating in a fast-paced, dynamic SaaS organisation
- Ability to communicate complex technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders
Desirable Experience
- Responsible AI, AI governance, and ethical AI frameworks
- Integration of AI capabilities into commercial software products
- A/B testing and experimentation frameworks
- Data and model versioning practices
- Software engineering background with knowledge of modern development practices
- Experience within Learning, Talent, HR Technology, or Employee Experience platforms
What we offer:
🌴27 days of annual leave
🏥Private health insurance
💸Annual bonus opportunity
💻 Full tech setup
🎈Birthday Off
🙋Volunteering Day
📈Support for your ongoing growth & development
🫂Enhanced Family Leave
🕖Flexible, hybrid approach to work
🎉Annual Company party
Equal Opportunities
Our people are the heart of our success, and diversity is what drives that. Kallidus positively encourages applications from suitably qualified and eligible candidates regardless of sex, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender reassignment, region or belief, marital status, pregnancy or maternity.
Diversity brings innovation and creativity through different views, backgrounds, and opinions; as a people-first organisation, it’s crucial that our teams reflect global diversity.
Kallidus is a proud member of the Disability Confident Employer scheme. We work hard to build an explicitly inclusive space where everybody belongs. Kallidus is a supportive, caring, and enjoyable working environment for all our people, and we are committed to furthering the diversity of our teams.