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Steven Minnikin
RECRUITER ROUTE · ABOUT 60 SECONDS

Steven Minnikin

Founder & Principal AI Architect, Minibit Ltd

I have 11 years’ experience in regulated financial services, spanning financial advice, software development and technology leadership. I design and build agentic AI systems for regulated industries. I built and run Autocalls, a regulated structured-products investment platform now live with its first investors. Before that I spent seven years running technology at Lowes Financial Management, an FCA-regulated financial advisory firm with over £1bn of assets under management. Earlier, I spent ten years in teaching and teacher training, including four as Head of Computer Science, and before teaching I spent seven years in software and financial services.

Looking forPrincipal AI ArchitectContract rolesFrom 30 Nov 2026Remote or Newcastle

Track record

Minibit LtdFounder & Principal AI ArchitectOct 2025 to present · Newcastle upon Tyne
  • Designed, built and now operates Autocalls for Hamilton Thomas, a UK structured-products investment platform for retail investors and advisers. Delivered in under a year and live on the web with its first investors.
  • Builds permissioned MCP integrations and supports AI adoption, client-data reconciliation and management information for UK advice firms.
Lowes Financial ManagementHead of Software Development2018 to Sep 2025 · FCA-regulated financial advice
  • Led a team of five, reporting to the managing director; owned software, infrastructure and data for 80+ staff, 5,000+ clients and a firm with £1bn+ in client assets. Also served as Deputy Data Protection Officer.
  • Delivered onboarding that cut application processing time by over 90% and removed paper applications; consolidated 44 applications and 45 databases in stages.
  • Accountable for six-monthly client valuation reports and annual costs and charges reporting for over 4,000 clients, ensuring accuracy before issue.
  • Led the Lowes side of post-acquisition migration, integration and legacy decommissioning; subsequently retained as a consultant by the former managing director.
Before that: PGCE placements (2008 to 2009), teaching computer science and mathematics at Excelsior Academy (2009 to 2014), then Head of Computer Science and New Technologies at Thomas Hepburn (2014 to 2018). Before teaching, seven years in software (2001 to 2008): regulated and safety-critical software engineering at Capita, Rolls-Royce and Microsol, then three and a half years in my father's financial advice and property business, covering mortgages, life and general insurance, where I looked after the software and IT infrastructure and worked on the advice side too.

Three selected AI projects

See how they fit an agent stack
Ship KeysPrivate betaLaunch-readiness checks for AI-built apps.Proves MCP and OAuth 2.1, independent review, quality gates and agents in CI
Mini StepsPrivate betaPersistent goals and end-to-end voice interaction through the MCP connector.Proves memory, owner-approved actions, per-call metering and spending limits
Mini EnginePrototypeReview-pack drafting with RAG and LangGraph on synthetic data.Proves retrieval, human approval checkpoints and evaluation
Explore the wider AI portfolio and architecture

The real numbers

>90%reduction in application processing time
£1bn+client assets at the firm whose technology I led
5technical team members led
6MCP servers built across my work

Questions people ask

Who is Steven Minnikin?

I’m Steven Minnikin, a Principal AI Architect in Newcastle upon Tyne, UK, with 11 years’ experience in regulated financial services, spanning financial advice, software development and technology leadership. I design and build agentic AI systems, MCP servers and Claude connectors for regulated industries. I founded Minibit Ltd, and before that I spent seven years running technology at Lowes Financial Management, an FCA-regulated financial advisory firm with over £1bn of assets under management.

Are you available for contract work?

Yes. I’m available for contract roles as a Principal AI Architect from 30 November 2026, working remotely or in Newcastle upon Tyne. Email steve@minibit.co.uk.

Who builds MCP servers and Claude connectors in the UK?

I do. I’m a Principal AI Architect in Newcastle upon Tyne, and I’ve built MCP servers and Claude connectors for Ship Keys, Mini Steps and Mini Navigator, and MCP clients in Mini Calls.

Is there an AI engineer with FCA-regulated experience?

Yes. I have 11 years’ experience in regulated financial services, spanning financial advice, software development and technology leadership. This includes seven years running technology at Lowes Financial Management, an FCA-regulated financial advisory firm with over £1bn of assets under management. I built Autocalls, a UK structured-products investment platform, and my earlier experience includes working as an FSA-regulated financial adviser, with CeMAP and CeRGI.

What agentic AI have you built?

MCP servers and Claude connectors; end-to-end voice interaction through MCP with owner-approved actions (Mini Steps); autonomous agents in customers’ CI pipelines (Ship Keys); multi-agent handoff and a phone and web voice agent with secured actions (Mini Calls); model choice by query complexity (Mini Navigator); scheduled AI reports (Mini Ops); and RAG and LangGraph pipelines with human approval checkpoints and evals (Mini Engine).

How do you keep AI safe in regulated work?

A person stays in control. My AI safety work covers human approval steps, audit trails, personal-data redaction, spend caps, prompt-injection defence, guardrails and evals.

CV and contact

Download CVBook a call
EMAIL
steve@minibit.co.uk
LINKEDIN
linkedin.com/in/steven-minnikin
LOCATION
Newcastle upon Tyne, UK · remote
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