Principle AI Engineer

About the Opportunity

We're partnering with a rapidly growing European technology company that is making AI a core part of how its engineering organisation operates and builds software.

This is not a customer-facing AI product role. Instead, you'll be responsible for building the internal AI platforms, tooling and agentic systems that enable hundreds of engineers to work faster, smarter and more effectively.

As the most senior technical contributor within the AI Engineering function, you'll take ownership of the company's most complex AI challenges while remaining deeply hands-on with architecture and development.

What You'll Be Doing

• Architect and build AI platforms used across the engineering organisation
• Lead the development of LLM infrastructure, AI agents and retrieval systems
• Define engineering standards and best practices for applied AI
• Own AI evaluation frameworks, testing strategies and quality controls
• Drive technical direction for the adoption of AI across the software development lifecycle
• Mentor senior engineers and help solve complex architectural challenges
• Collaborate with platform, security and engineering leadership teams
• Build reusable frameworks and patterns that accelerate AI adoption at scale

What We're Looking For

Essential

• 10+ years of software engineering experience
• Previous Staff Engineer, Principal Engineer or equivalent level experience
• Hands-on experience building and deploying production AI systems
• Strong expertise with:
• Large Language Models (LLMs)
• AI Agents
• RAG architectures
• Applied Machine Learning
• Deep understanding of distributed systems and backend architecture
• Cloud experience with Azure and/or GCP
• Proven track record of technical leadership through influence rather than direct management
• Excellent communication and stakeholder management skills

Nice to Have

• Multi-cloud experience
• AI governance or responsible AI experience
• Privacy, security or regulated industry exposure
• Developer advocacy, community leadership or conference speaking experience
• Founder, CTO or startup leadership background

Who You'll Be

You're the type of engineer who enjoys solving the hardest technical problems while helping others raise their game.

You combine deep technical expertise with strong communication skills and have a track record of driving engineering excellence across organisations. You're comfortable operating in ambiguity, building from first principles, and turning emerging AI technology into robust production systems.

What's on Offer

• Opportunity to shape AI strategy across a large engineering organisation
• High-impact Principal-level position with significant autonomy
• Access to cutting-edge AI technologies and experimentation
• Strong engineering culture focused on innovation and craftsmanship
• Competitive compensation package
• Flexible hybrid working model

If you're interested in building the internal AI capabilities that will define the future of software engineering, we'd love to hear from you.