AI Engineer

Location: Suite 1.09, 8 Emerson Street, London SE1 9DU (Bankside)
Salary: GBP 50,000 to GBP 55,000 per year, depending on experience
Hours: Full time, 37.5 hours per week, Monday to Friday
Contract: Permanent
Reports to: Chief Technology Officer
Closing date: Wednesday 23 September 2026

About Modem

Modem Intelligence Ltd builds artificial intelligence software for freight forwarders.

Freight forwarding still runs on legacy transport management systems, spreadsheets and email. Producing a single customer quote can take a sales team several hours, and independent research covering 86 forwarders found that only 31% of inbound quote requests received any response at all.

Our platform automates that work. It reads inbound quote requests, rate sheets and shipping documents, whatever format they arrive in, and turns them into structured, priceable data. It is in daily commercial use at a UK freight forwarder today, with further customers in contract discussions, and we have signed a term sheet with an institutional investor to fund the next stage of the product.

We are a team of three based in London Bankside. This is an early role with genuine scope.

The role

You will own the artificial intelligence components of our platform: the systems that turn messy commercial documents into accurate structured data, and the software that surrounds them.

This is a hands on engineering role. It is not a research position and it is not a management position.

What you will do

Design and build the AI systems that parse inbound quote requests, rate sheets and shipping documentation, converting unstructured emails, PDFs and images into structured data the platform can price against.
Build the retrieval and context layers that supply our language models with accurate customer, rate and shipment data, including the schemas, storage and retrieval logic that keep factual state outside the model.
Design and run evaluation harnesses that measure AI accuracy against labelled datasets, and use the results to drive model, prompt and architecture changes.
Write production back end software, including APIs, data pipelines and integrations with carrier, rate and customer systems.
Build the deterministic controls around model output: validation, guardrails, fallback logic and audit logging, so that pricing decisions are traceable and reproducible.
Write automated tests, take part in code review, and document what you build.
Work with our CTO on technical direction, and translate customer requirements into shipped software.

What we are looking for

A degree at bachelor’s level or above in computer science, engineering, mathematics or a related numerate subject, or equivalent professional software engineering experience.
At least two years of commercial experience building and shipping production software, including back end development, API integration and data pipeline work.
Demonstrable experience building applications on large language models in production, including prompt design, evaluation methodology, and separating model driven reasoning from deterministic code and stored data.
Working knowledge of Python and TypeScript, relational databases and cloud deployment.
Comfortable gathering technical requirements directly from non technical business users.
Fluent written and spoken English.

Desirable, not essential: familiarity with freight forwarding, logistics or a comparable operational industry.

What we offer

Salary of GBP 50,000 to GBP 55,000, with a contractual salary review on completion of our next funding round.
Share options under an EMI scheme, vesting over four years.
25 days holiday plus UK bank holidays.
Workplace pension.
Equipment and learning budgets.
An office in London Bankside and a small team you will help shape.

How to apply

Send your CV and a short note on a system you have built with large language models in production to claudiu@thinkmodem.com.

We review applications as they arrive and will respond to everyone who applies. Applications close on Wednesday 23 September 2026.

Modem Intelligence Ltd is an equal opportunities employer. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates regardless of age, disability, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, or sexual orientation.

Modem Intelligence Ltd. Registered in England and Wales, company number 16873209. Registered office: 17 Heath Drive, London, SW20 9BE.