AI Engineer

Principal AI Engineer Location: London, UK Work Arrangement: Hybrid – 3 Days per Week Contract Type: Inside IR35 About the Role We are looking for an experienced Principal AI Engineer to play a key role in designing, building and delivering AI-driven solutions across a global enterprise. This is a high-impact opportunity for an engineer who enjoys working with emerging AI technologies, rapid development cycles and solving complex business problems through practical AI solutions. You will work at the forefront of Agentic AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), cloud AI services and modern software engineering practices. You will help build scalable, reliable and secure AI systems while influencing engineering standards and best practices across the organisation. Key Responsibilities * Design, develop and deliver AI-enabled features, applications and agent-driven workflows. * Build production-grade AI solutions using LLM APIs, cloud AI services and modern AI frameworks. * Design agentic AI architectures incorporating reasoning loops, tool use, memory, guardrails and observability. * Integrate LLM platforms such as OpenAI and Anthropic into enterprise applications. * Develop robust backend services and AI applications using Python. * Collaborate with engineering, product and business teams to understand requirements and deliver practical AI solutions. * Design and implement evaluation frameworks to measure AI model quality, reliability, safety and performance. * Develop RAG-based solutions using vector databases, embeddings and retrieval pipelines. * Identify and engineer for AI failure modes, latency, cost, security and operational risks. * Implement monitoring and observability for AI systems after deployment. * Apply security, testing and compliance practices throughout the AI development lifecycle. * Use AI-assisted development tools to improve engineering productivity and code quality. * Conduct code reviews and contribute to engineering standards, reusable frameworks and best practices. * Support the transition of AI solutions from experimentation and prototyping into production. * Work closely with distributed engineering teams and stakeholders across different locations. * Provide technical leadership and contribute to continuous improvement initiatives. Essential Skills and Experience * Strong software engineering background with extensive hands-on Python development experience. * Proven experience developing and deploying production-grade AI or machine learning applications. * Strong experience integrating LLM APIs, particularly OpenAI or similar platforms. * Hands-on experience building Agentic AI or tool-using AI systems. * Experience with AI agent orchestration, memory, tools and workflows. * Experience designing and implementing AI evaluations (evals). * Strong understanding of LLM reliability, safety, quality and regression testing. * Experience with Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG). * Experience with vector databases, embeddings and retrieval technologies. * Strong understanding of cloud-based AI services and modern AI frameworks. * Experience designing resilient and scalable production systems. * Strong understanding of software engineering, testing, security and DevOps practices. * Ability to work across backend services and modern application environments. * Strong analytical and problem-solving skills. * Excellent communication and stakeholder collaboration skills. Desirable Skills * Experience with AWS Bedrock, Azure AI Foundry or similar managed AI platforms. * Knowledge of AI interoperability standards such as MCP and A2A. * Experience with Docker and Kubernetes. * Experience with CI/CD and modern DevOps tooling. * Experience with cloud-native application development. * Experience with AI-assisted coding tools. * Knowledge of AI governance, security, guardrails and responsible AI practices. * Experience working in enterprise or regulated environments. * Active interest in emerging AI technologies and engineering practices. What We're Looking For We are looking for a hands-on technical leader who combines strong software engineering fundamentals with practical experience in modern AI development. You should be comfortable moving between architecture, hands-on development, technical design and production support. You will be expected to take ownership, challenge existing approaches, mentor engineers and help establish high standards for the development and operation of AI systems. If you are passionate about Agentic AI, LLMs, Python and building AI solutions that deliver measurable business value, we would like to hear from you. Pay: From £400.00 per day Work Location: Hybrid remote in London W1F 9BF