Multiverse has opened a technology hub in Edinburgh and appointed former Amazon executive Colin Mackenzie as vice president of AI engineering to lead the site.
The move expands Multiverse's engineering presence beyond London following its recent USD $70 million funding round.
Mackenzie is the company's first senior engineering leader focused on AI at vice-president level. He will lead the Edinburgh operation, oversee work on what Multiverse describes as agentic products, and contribute to its AI talent development programme.
Multiverse plans to create 200 jobs across its Edinburgh office and London headquarters over the next year as it expands its engineering and product teams.
Mackenzie brings more than a decade of engineering leadership experience. Before joining Multiverse, he spent six years at Amazon, including the past three building the generative AI platform used in the company's AI advertising products.
Earlier in his career, he held senior engineering roles at Virgin Money and Clydesdale Bank. He has also helped lead a startup to an exit and founded his own business.
Hiring push
The Edinburgh base gives Multiverse a second engineering centre in the UK as many technology companies reassess where they locate technical talent. For Multiverse, the new office complements its London headquarters and gives it access to Scotland's engineering and AI talent pool.
The expansion comes as employers and governments place greater emphasis on AI adoption in the hope of boosting productivity and economic growth. Multiverse works with employers on apprenticeship and upskilling programmes focused on AI, data and technology skills.
More than 1,500 companies have used its programmes, according to Multiverse. Recent customers cited by the company include BT, Pan Macmillan, Capita, Keltbray, Evri and Addison Lee, which together launched more than 750 AI, data and engineering apprenticeships over the past six months.
Alongside the Edinburgh launch, Multiverse is introducing an internal upskilling model for its technology staff. The approach will pair junior AI engineers with senior engineering leaders, with mentorship built into day-to-day engineering work.
It is intended to help develop practical AI skills through on-the-job learning and will sit alongside Multiverse's external apprenticeship offering in AI product and data engineering.
Mackenzie set out the challenge he sees in the labour market.
"AI is changing how people work faster than they can retrain for it, and without equitable access to AI skills a lot of people get displaced and left behind. We need to innovate at pace to solve this problem, and thankfully Scotland has the world-class AI talent required to help us do it. When we get it right, we change lives at a national scale," said Mackenzie.
Growth plans
Multiverse has raised about USD $600 million in venture funding to date, according to the company, from backers including Schroders Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, Index Ventures and General Catalyst. Its latest funding round totalled USD $70 million.
The business positions itself around workforce training for AI and technology adoption rather than consumer education. It says its apprenticeships are aimed at learners at different career stages and designed to help employers improve productivity and measurable performance.
Jay Richman, chief product and technology officer at Multiverse, linked the Edinburgh launch to employer demand for technical depth and the need to close skills gaps as AI tools spread across workplaces.
"We're building the AI adoption layer for UK and European employers. That requires depth in the product, and in the team building it. The market problem is significant: AI capability is advancing faster than workforces can absorb it, and employers are under real pressure to close that gap. Edinburgh gives us access to additional world-class engineering talent, Colin brings the track record to lead it, and our model of pairing high-agency junior engineers with senior practitioners means we're building capability as well as headcount," said Richman.
The new Edinburgh engineering base puts Multiverse among UK technology businesses expanding outside the capital in search of specialist talent. It plans to use the hub alongside its London base to support the next phase of hiring, with 200 new roles planned across the two offices.