Principal AI Engineer

Join Kainos and Shape the Future

At Kainos, we’re problem solvers, innovators, and collaborators - driven by a shared mission to create real impact. Whether we’re transforming digital services for millions, delivering cutting-edge Workday solutions, or pushing the boundaries of technology, we do it together.

We believe in a people-first culture, where your ideas are valued, your growth is supported, and your contributions truly make a difference. Here, you’ll be part of a diverse, ambitious team that celebrates creativity and collaboration.

Ready to make your mark? Join us and be part of something bigger.

JOBPROFILE DESCRIPTION

Kainos is recognised as one of the UK’s leading AI and data businesses, with a decade-longtrack recordof delivering impactful, production-grade AI solutions for clients across government, healthcare,defenceand commercial sectors. Kainos is at the forefront of AI innovation,trusted by Microsoft,AWSandothersto deliver advanced AIand datasolutions atcitizenscale.

Our 150-strong AI and DataPractice brings together deepexpertisein machine learning, generative AI, agenticAIand data.We are pioneers in responsible AI, having authored the UK government’s AI Cyber Security Code of Practice implementation guideand we partner with leading organisations to ensure AI is deployed ethically, securely and with measurable business value. Our teams are at thecutting edgeof AI research, and delivery, it is truly an exciting team to join Kainos as we further grow our AI capability.

MAIN PURPOSE OF THE ROLE &RESPONSIBILITIES IN THE BUSINESS:

As anAI EngineerManagerat Kainos,you’llbe responsible forsuccessful deliveryofadvanced AI solutionsleveragingstate-of-the-artmachine learning, generative and agentic AI technologies.You will drive the adoption of modern AI frameworks, AIOps best practices and scalable cloud-native architectures. Your role will involve technical leadership,engaging with seniorstakeholderstoagreearchitectural principles, strategicdirectionand system architecture.As a technicalleader within Kainos and wider industry, you will foster a culture of innovation, continuouslearningand engineering excellence.

You will manage,coachand developa team, with a focus ondevelopment of standards and policies, enduring customer relationships and embeddingcommercial acumen. You’llalso provide direction and leadership for your team as you solve challenging problems together.

MINIMUM(ESSENTIAL)REQUIREMENTS:

• A minimum of a 2.1 degree in Computer Science, AI, Data Science, Statistics or in a similar quantitative field.

• Proven experience of leading multi-disciplinary teamsto deliver AI/ML solutions to production.

• Demonstrable experience oftechnical leadershipfor AI delivery including architecture, product designprinciplesand engineeringexcellence.

• Experience with the latest AI engineering approaches such asprompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG),agentic AI,model evaluation, and monitoring using metrics (e.g. precision, recall, NDCG and drift detection).

• Strong Python skills with a grounding in software engineering best practices (CI/CD, testing, code reviews etc).

• Experience developing solutions at scale on cloud platforms (Azure & AWS), containerisation and orchestration tools such as Kubernetes and Docker.

• Expertisein data engineering for AI: handling large-scale, unstructured, and multimodal data.

• Understanding of responsible AI principles, modelinterpretabilityand ethical considerations.

• Strong interpersonal skills with the ability to lead client projects, manage C-level stakeholdersandestablishrequirements/architecture concepts.

• We are passionate about developing people, you will bring experience in managing,coachingand developing junior members of a team and wider community.

DESIRABLE:

• Demonstrable experience with modern deep learning frameworks (e.g.PyTorch, TensorFlow), fine-tuning or distillation of LLMs (e.g.GPT, Llama, Claude, Gemini), machine learning libraries (e.g. scikit-learn,XGBoost).

• Experience with data storage for AI, vector databases, semanticsearchand knowledge graphs.

• Actively contributesto open-source AI projects,researchpublicationsand industry events/websites.

• Familiarity with AI security, privacy, and compliance standards e.g. ISO42001.

• Experience of shapingcommercial AI offerings,winning AIworkand wider pre-salessupport.

Embracing our differences  

At Kainos, we believe in the power of diversity, equity and inclusion. We are committed to building a team that is as diverse as the world we live in, where everyone is valued, respected, and given an equal chance to thrive.   We actively seek out talented people from all backgrounds, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or any other characteristic that makes them who they are.   We also believe every candidate deserves a level playing field.

Our friendly talent acquisition team is here to support you every step of the way, so if you require any accommodations or adjustments, we encourage you to reach out.

We understand that everyone's journey is different, and by having a private conversation we can ensure that our recruitment process is tailored to your needs.

Originally posted on Himalayas