Lead Principal Software Engineer - AI Solutions

Job description
Title: Lead Principal Software Engineer - AI Solutions

Salary: £140,000 - £170,000

Tech: Python, JavaScript, Azure, AWS, AI

Industry: AI Consultancy

We are seeking a highly experienced and hands-on Lead Principal Software Engineer to play a pivotal role in designing cutting-edge AI solutions and guiding our innovative projects. In this senior position, you will take the lead in crafting AI solution designs, constructing advanced prototypes, and confidently advising high-level customer stakeholders.

You will work closely with CTOs, chief architects, and engineering leaders to understand their challenges, develop intelligent solutions, and oversee AI delivery from inception to deployed systems.

Key Responsibilities
• Strategic Technical Leadership
• Serve as the primary AI technical expert in client settings.
• Facilitate discovery sessions with senior technical stakeholders to pinpoint impactful AI opportunities.
• Design and architect comprehensive AI systems leveraging LLMs, RAG pipelines, and robust evaluation frameworks.
• Make strategic decisions regarding model choice, fine-tuning, and deployment methodologies.
• AI System Development
• Create production-quality prototypes with a deep understanding of AI system limitations.
• Leverage advanced knowledge of transformer architectures to address real-world applications.
• Establish effective evaluation systems to assess performance, bias, and business effectiveness.
• Prioritize scalability and maintainability from the outset of project design.
• Customer AI Enablement
• Conduct workshops to align AI strategies and implementation plans with clients.
• Lead assessments of AI readiness and architecture design.
• Address complex objections with calm and authoritative technical insight.
• Foster enduring partnerships that position us as the trusted AI consultant.
• Internal Capability Building
• Mentor engineers and elevate team skills throughout the organization.
• Contribute to the development of reusable components, design patterns, and best practices.
• Initiate internal discussions on the latest GenAI tools and advancements.
• Establish quality standards for designing, implementing, and evaluating AI systems.

What We're Looking For
• GenAI Mastery
• Extensive experience with transformer-based models and GenAI pipelines.
• Deep understanding of prompt engineering, model fine-tuning, and toolchain integration.
• Hands-on experience with leading GenAI tools (ChatGPT, Claude, Copilot, Cursor).
• Ability to create AI systems that are measurable, explainable, and ethically deployed.
• Bonus: Familiarity with classical ML techniques (clustering, classification, embeddings) integrated with GenAI.
• Engineering Leadership
• 8+ years of experience in building scalable, maintainable, enterprise-grade software.
• Comfortable steering architectural decisions and overseeing full-stack implementation.
• Proven success in delivering systems that go live and operate at scale.
• Adept at guiding and mentoring engineering teams in dynamic settings.
• Customer-Facing Expertise
• Experience engaging directly with senior stakeholders, including C-level executives.
• Skilled in navigating intricate client environments and establishing long-term technical trust.
• Capable of leading workshops to align initiatives and facilitate technical strategies.
• Recognized for calmness, clarity, and credibility in high-pressure situations.