Chief Data & Artificial Intelligence Officer

important technological projects for the financial sector in the world. Santander AI Lab (CDAIO) is looking for an Applied AI Engineer based out of Madrid, Spain. The AI Lab is the applied innovation engine of one of the world's largest banks. We detect emerging opportunities, build working prototypes, validate them with real data, and transfer them to scale. We work with Anthropic, Sakana AI, AWS, ICMAT, CMU, INRIA and other world-class partners. Designing, building and deploying production-grade agentic AI systems - multi-agent orchestration with real memory, planning, tool use and error recovery. Developing and fine-tuning small and medium language models (SLMs) for regulated banking use cases, including custom evaluation frameworks and domain-specific benchmarks. Architecting and implementing MCP servers, A2A protocols, and federated API layers that allow AI agents to operate across the group's multi-country infrastructure. This is the lab's operating rhythm - you need to thrive in

it. Collaborating with researchers, data scientists and business stakeholders to translate complex technical concepts into tangible bank value - Alchemy-style transformations of legacy assets. Keeping the lab at the frontier: monitoring emerging research, evaluating new tools (Harness Engineering, Kiro, Windsurf, Devin), and integrating them into the lab's workflow when they add real value. Producing clean, tested, observable code that can be handed off to the AI Science team for production scaling. 4-8 years of software engineering or AI engineering experience, with at least 2 years building and maintaining LLM-powered systems in production environments - not in notebooks. (Demonstrated hands-on experience designing and deploying multi-agent AI systems with real-world complexity: memory management, stateful orchestration, tool use, multi-step planning, and graceful failure recovery. (Experience building and consuming REST APIs and integrating AI systems with enterprise data sources, cloud services and third-party platforms. (Prior experience in banking, fintech, or other regulated industries. (Exposure to Harness Engineering methodologies: spec-driven development, AI-assisted software creation at scale. (Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Mathematics, Physics, or equivalent technical field. (Master's degree or equivalent advanced qualification in AI, Machine Learning or related discipline. (English: professional working proficiency - all technical documentation, papers and partner communications are in English. (Spanish: professional working proficiency - day-to-day team communication and stakeholder collaboration. (Python: advanced proficiency. Clean, tested, production-grade code. You understand cost, latency and quality trade-offs. (Cloud infrastructure: AWS (Bedrock, Lambda, SageMaker, S3). Comfortable deploying and monitoring AI systems in cloud environments. (FastAPI or equivalent. DevOps basics: Docker, Git, CI/CD pipelines. MCP (Model Context Protocol) server design and implementation. (Kubernetes, Terraform or equivalent for production-scale deployment. (You don't wait to be told what to build - you propose it. Builder's mindset: when you encounter an interesting idea, your first instinct is to build a proof of concept, not write a slide about it. Speed with judgment: you can deliver a functional demo in two weeks and know when a prototype is ready to transfer versus when it needs more work. You have opinions about what Anthropic, Sakana AI and AWS are building. Communication across roles: you can explain a complex agentic architecture to a business stakeholder and write a technical one-pager for the bank's leadership team. You document your decisions not because someone told you to, but because future you - and your teammates - will need it. Your contribution matters, and it's recognized. We're enabling our teams to go beyond through global

Applied AI Engineer IT STARTS HERE Santander ( is evolving from a global, high-impact brand into a technology-driven organization, and our people are at the heart of this journey. Together, we are driving a customer-centric transformation that values bold thinking, innovation, and the courage to challenge what's possible. This is more than a strategic shift. It's a chance for driven professionals to grow, learn, and make a real difference. We embrace a strong risk culture and all our professionals at all levels are expected to take a proactive and responsible approach toward risk management. Our Chief Data & Artificial Intelligence Officer (CDAIO) division is building a world-class AI & Data team to make a difference in the lives of over 170 million people worldwide, through one of the largest banks in the world. We are undergoing one of the biggest transformations in our history and technology is at the heart of our strategy. Join our team to play a part in one of the most