Principal AI Engineer

Principal AI Engineer – London (Remote) We're looking for an experienced Principal AI Engineer to lead the next generation of AI-powered learning experiences. You'll play a pivotal role in defining our AI strategy, architecting scalable solutions, and bringing innovative products to millions of learners. This is an opportunity to join a fast-growing online learning platform where your work will directly influence how people develop new skills, advance their careers, and achieve their goals. The Role As a Principal AI Engineer, you'll provide technical leadership across AI initiatives while remaining hands-on in the design and delivery of production systems. You'll collaborate with product, engineering, data, and learning specialists to create intelligent features that improve learner outcomes and drive innovation across the platform. You'll help shape the future of our technology, mentor talented engineers, and establish best practices for building responsible, scalable AI solutions. What You'll Do * Define and deliver the technical vision for AI across our learning platform. * Architect and build scalable AI services using large language models, machine learning, and modern cloud technologies. * Develop intelligent learning experiences including personalised learning journeys, AI tutors, content generation, assessment, recommendations, and learner support tools. * Build production-ready AI systems with a strong focus on quality, reliability, security, and performance. * Collaborate closely with Product, Learning Design, Data Science, and Engineering teams to deliver customer-focused solutions. * Evaluate emerging AI technologies and identify opportunities to improve learner engagement and educational outcomes. * Establish engineering standards, AI governance, and best practices across the organisation. * Mentor senior engineers and help grow a high-performing AI engineering capability. What We're Looking For Essential * Extensive experience building and deploying AI or machine learning products in production. * Expert-level software engineering skills, particularly in Python. * Strong experience with LLMs, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), AI agents, prompt engineering, and model evaluation. * Experience building cloud-native applications on Azure, AWS, or Google Cloud. * Strong understanding of MLOps, CI/CD, Kubernetes, containerisation, and scalable system architecture. * Experience integrating AI into customer-facing products. * Excellent communication skills with the ability to influence technical and non-technical stakeholders. * Proven experience leading technical teams and mentoring engineers. Desirable * Experience within EdTech, SaaS, or digital consumer products. * Knowledge of adaptive learning, recommendation systems, or educational analytics. * Experience with LangChain, LlamaIndex, vector databases, and AI orchestration frameworks. * Understanding of responsible AI, privacy, and ethical AI development. * Passion for improving education through technology.