Senior data and AI engineering · Remote across the UK and Europe

Senior Python, Data and AI Engineering

Open to remote contracts and fixed-scope projects.

I’m Luke McLeary, ex-Deloitte and Accenture. I help businesses and consultancies automate complex processes, connect systems and deploy reliable AI. My previous roles and production work span regulated financial services, enterprise data platforms and applied AI.

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Senior-led

The person who scopes the work is the person who delivers it.

Embedded

I work in your repos, tools, data and operating rhythm rather than from a detached backlog.

Production-owned

A deployment is not finished when the demo works. It is finished when the workflow works.

DELIVERY BACKGROUND

Ex-Deloitte · ex-Accenture · regulated financial systems · production AI platform built and operated end to end

Prior senior delivery experience. Not Enable FDE client engagements.

For consultancies and agencies

Senior delivery capacity for client work.

Python, FastAPI, PostgreSQL, Redis, Celery, AWS and production AI integrations. Open to engagements of 2–5 days per week, remote from Barcelona, in UK hours. White-label delivery is fine. CV and references on request.

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Why FDE

The gap is rarely the model. It is the last mile.

AI pilots, data projects and integrations usually become difficult where software meets a real organisation: permissions, legacy systems, exceptions, operational ownership and the people who must use the result.

AI pilot → production

Evaluation, guardrails, integrations, observability and the workflow around the model.

Manual operation → internal system

Replace repetitive coordination, reconciliation and reporting with software that fits the team.

Fragmented data → decision surface

Connect sources, model the data and put trustworthy metrics where decisions happen.

Integration blocker → working flow

Connect APIs, legacy systems and supplier platforms so a commercial process can actually complete.

Different operating model

Senior capacity, with delivery ownership.

For contract work I join your engineering team and deliver in your backlog. For fixed-scope projects I own a defined outcome from discovery to deployment. Both are hands-on engineering.

Consultancy

Recommends what should change

Often ends at strategy, specification or programme layer

Contract engineering

Adds experienced delivery capacity

I join your team, ship code and take ownership of agreed work

Forward deployed engineering

Owns a defined deployment outcome

Discovers, builds, integrates, measures and transfers

Prior delivery

The last mile has been crossed before.

Forward deployed engineering is a claim about accountability, so it needs evidence. These are anonymised outcomes from prior senior delivery roles, each mapped to a service on this site.

Sectors worked in

Financial services & trading
Automotive & aerospace
Travel & marketplaces
Professional services

Financial services · prior employmentProduction automation

Automated interest calculations for additional market coverage and, separately, FX reconciliation that saved around two days of manual operations per month.

Evidence for: Operational automation

Regulated financial servicesFirm-wide AI

A retrieval-augmented knowledge system shipped with standardised ingestion, indexing and access controls, so the whole firm could use it safely.

Evidence for: AI productionisation

Trading operations13:00 → 08:00

Automated liquidity pipelines put lender estimates in front of the team five hours earlier and removed roughly half a day of manual work.

Evidence for: Data & decision systems

Automotive & aerospaceMulti-terabyte

Performance migration and standardisation across large PySpark pipelines on Palantir Foundry and AWS, with deployment status analysis automated for an SAP migration.

Evidence for: Technical rescue

Professional servicesThousands of users

Firm-wide financial and sales reporting with standardised KPIs and a faster month-end close, adopted from executive level through to partners.

Evidence for: Decision surfaces at scale

Financial servicesOwned after handover

Expiry tracking and exception monitoring reduced operational risk, and the data function moved out of Operations into Technology with the roadmap owned there.

Evidence for: Transfer

Anonymised outcomes delivered in prior senior permanent and programme roles. They are evidence of engineering capability rather than Enable FDE client engagements.

Proof of execution

Built in production, not in a slide deck.

MyEscapePlan is a production travel-intelligence platform built from zero across AI decisioning, data pipelines, consumer and advisor applications, APIs, SDKs and third-party travel integrations, with customer and partner requirements carried through to production implementation.

See the case study

0 → productionAI, data, applications, APIs, integrations and infrastructure delivered end to end

Real usersConsumer and advisor workflows running against live supplier systems

Measured searchCandidate generation, ranking and shopping reduction measured with deterministic benchmarks

Remote delivery

Remote by default, in UK hours.

Enable FDE is based in Barcelona and works remotely with teams across the UK, Spain and Europe. Discovery and delivery run in English or Spanish, and on-site sessions in Barcelona are available if they help.

Process automation in Barcelona

Start with the problem

Tell me what should work better.

A useful first message is simple: what happens today, where it breaks, what systems are involved and what a successful result would change.

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