Principal AI Engineer

This is a fully remote position, open to applicants in United Kingdom.

📋 Description

• Establish the technical vision for AI Engineering, encompassing architectural principles, engineering standards, delivery methodologies, and technical capabilities.

• Ensure the technical integrity of significant AI projects that involve architecture, scale, complexity, and delivery risks.

• Oversee multiple projects and technical workstreams, defining priorities and strategic direction.

• Design and evaluate production AI architectures, which include retrieval and knowledge layers, agentic pipelines, evaluation systems, and multilingual solutions.

• Manage trade-offs related to cost, latency, reliability, and scalability.

• Review code, prototype solutions, address architectural challenges, and collaborate directly with engineers on complex issues.

• Conduct thorough design reviews and elevate engineering standards within the practice.

• Serve as the senior technical liaison to clients, including C-level executives and architecture leaders.

• Ensure the technical quality of major AI proposals, converting concepts into architectures, scopes, delivery models, team structures, estimates, and commercial assumptions.

• Collaborate with commercial and account leadership to define technical propositions and uncover opportunities.

• Mentor senior engineers and technical leads.

• Shape the AI Engineering capability strategy, including recruitment priorities, skills enhancement, team structure, and standards for senior technical talent.

⛳️ Requirements

• Minimum of 10 years of experience in AI, data, and software engineering.

• Over 3 years of experience leading engineering teams or a significant technical function in consulting or professional services.

• Proven experience operating beyond single project leadership, with accountability for technical direction, engineering quality, or capabilities across multiple teams.

• Proficiency in production Python.

• Experience managing substantial codebases and API-driven systems that demonstrate reliable performance at scale.

• Recent hands-on experience in architecting and developing production AI systems.

• Familiarity with retrieval strategies, caching, context economics, serving constraints, evaluation, observability, and practical production challenges.

• Strong systems thinking abilities and capacity to navigate unfamiliar platforms and problems.

• Experience leading intricate programs or multiple concurrent engineering workstreams.

• Accountability for technical direction, planning, resource allocation, risk management, and delivery outcomes.

• Sound judgment in knowing when to personally intervene and when to delegate leadership to others.

• Experience in mentoring senior engineers and technical leaders.

• Proven ability to enhance team capability and improve engineering standards across a broader organization.

• Commercial insight to translate technical solutions into feasible scopes, team configurations, estimates, and delivery strategies.

• Experience contributing to account growth, technical propositions, or go-to-market strategies within a consulting environment.

• Confidence in engaging with senior clients and executives while maintaining credibility with engineers at the code and architecture level.

• Aptitude for making challenging technical decisions, creating clarity in ambiguous situations, and taking responsibility for outcomes.

• Extensive experience with Databricks and Azure OpenAI.

🏝️ Benefits

• Employees have the option to work remotely.

• Recognition as a Great Place To Work across various office locations.

• Commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives, with a focus on promoting representation.