Applied AI Engineer

Company: Arena Department: Engineering Location: London or Remote Level: Graduate – 2 Years Experience

About Arena

Arena is a digital entertainment company building platforms people genuinely love and we build them differently. Since 2021, our portfolio has grown to include MetaWin, WOW Vegas, BetZoo Media, Hit.com, and Rolla, with further brands in development. Our teams operate across London, Malta, Gibraltar, and Miami.

AI isn't something we bolt on it's the foundation we build from. We're not constrained by legacy systems or legacy thinking. We design and build AI-first platforms from the ground up, using modern infrastructure, distributed systems, and emerging AI tooling to move faster and build better products.

The Role

We're growing our core engineering team with new opportunities for Applied AI Engineers and we're deliberately hiring at an early-career level.

We want engineers who have grown up building with AI. Who reach for LLM tooling instinctively. Who use it to punch above their weight on complexity and who haven't yet developed habits that slow them down.

This is a frontline engineering role. You'll be embedded directly in the product and engineering team, deploying AI capabilities into the core of our platforms not prototyping in isolation, but shipping into production fast.

This is not a research role. This is not a corporate engineering job.

You'll move from concept → prototype → production, often within days. You'll work directly with product and engineering leads, own what you build, and be trusted to make real decisions without hand-holding.

What You'll Work On

Building AI-powered product features used by real users at scale
Developing LLM-powered systems, internal tooling, and automation workflows
Deploying AI agents that solve real operational and product problems
Integrating multiple model providers and AI infrastructure layers
Building backend services that support AI-driven applications
Rapid prototyping and shipping new ideas into production quickly
Improving engineering velocity through AI-native development workflows

What We're Really Looking For

Beyond technical skills, three things matter most to us:

1. Agency & Product Sense You don't wait to be told what to do. You understand what users want, you understand what the business needs, and you connect those two things without being asked. You get things done independently, decisively, and with genuine ownership of outcomes.

2. AI as a Force Multiplier You use AI to move faster and take on problems that would otherwise be beyond reach not as a crutch, but as a genuine tool for expanding your capability. When you hit a blocker, AI is one of the first places you look. You're already experimenting with LLM tooling, AI workflows, and multi-model orchestration in your own time.

3. Quality Without Compromise Fast doesn't mean sloppy. You think things through before you ship. You don't blindly delegate reasoning to AI you use it to accelerate your thinking, not replace it. You hold yourself to a high bar and it shows in everything you build.

AI Tooling We Work With

We actively experiment with modern AI engineering ecosystems. Familiarity with any of the following is a strong signal:

Engineering Tools: Claude Code · Codex · OpenRouter · OpenCode · Cursor

Models: Claude · Kimi · Qwen · Frontier and open-source LLMs

Experience with multi-model orchestration and applied AI systems is particularly valuable. If you've built something using these tools even outside of work tell us about it.

Technical Foundation

You likely have:

A strong software engineering foundation CS degree, bootcamp, or self-taught, we don't mind
Comfort working across backend systems and APIs
Experience shipping real software, not just writing it
1–2 years of professional or serious personal project experience
Genuine curiosity about how AI systems work in production

We care far more about what you've built than where you've worked or studied.

This Role Is Probably NOT For You If

You prefer slow-moving, highly structured environments
You want rigid processes and detailed briefs before you can start
You're primarily interested in AI research rather than shipping products
You rely on AI to do your thinking for you rather than sharpen it

What We Offer

Competitive salary for level of experience
A genuine learning environment at the frontier of applied AI engineering
Direct access to senior engineers and product leadership
Freedom to experiment with new tooling and the trust to ship
International team culture across London, Gibraltar, and Miami

Arena is an equal opportunities employer. We are committed to building diverse, inclusive teams and welcome applications from people of all backgrounds, regardless of where or how they learned to build.

Applied AI Engineer