At a Glance
- Tasks: Lead the design and delivery of impactful AI solutions at Aviva.
- Company: Join Aviva, a leader in AI innovation and customer service.
- Benefits: Competitive salary, generous pension, 29 days holiday, and health benefits.
- Other info: Flexible working options and a supportive, inclusive culture.
- Why this job: Make a real difference by building AI that enhances customer experiences.
- Qualifications: Expertise in Python, AI systems, and technical leadership required.
The predicted salary is between 81000 - 99000 £ per year.
Principal Applied AI Engineer
Location : London , Birmingham, Bristol, Eastleigh, Glasgow, Leatherhead, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Norwich, Perth, Sheffield, Worthing or York
- London: Salary from £124K + bonus + excellent benefits
- National: Salary from £92K + bonus + excellent benefits
Build AI that matters.
AI is already making a difference across Aviva, helping colleagues and customers through areas such as claims summarisation, medical underwriting, customer service and fraud detection.
As a Principal Applied AI Engineer, you'll help design and deliver the next generation of AI solutions while influencing the standards, governance and engineering capabilities that support AI at scale.
Technology and AI are central to Aviva's strategy.
Today, we serve over 25 million customers globally, support 7.4 million registered My Aviva users and continue to invest in the technology foundations that enable innovation at scale.
With 70% of UK IT applications now cloud-based, we're creating the platform for the next phase of AI adoption across the business.
If you're excited by solving complex technical problems, leading through expertise and building production-grade AI at enterprise scale, we'd love to hear from you.
A bit about the job
You’ll lead the technical design and delivery of some of Aviva's most complex and high-impact AI solutions while helping define Applied AI Engineering best practice across the business.
You’ll be responsible for
- leading the architecture and delivery of multi-agent AI systems for high-value business use cases.
- defining engineering standards across orchestration architectures, context engineering, MCP integration, memory design, fine-tuning, evaluation frameworks and multimodal systems.
- building reusable AI capabilities including agent tools, MCP servers, skills and shared engineering assets.
- establishing quality, safety and governance standards for production AI systems.
- leading the shift to spec-driven development in the organisation.
- providing technical leadership, architecture reviews and mentoring.
- partnering with business, product and architecture teams to translate AI opportunities into scalable solutions.
- helping grow the Applied AI Engineering capability through hiring, coaching and community leadership.
Skills and experience we are looking for
You’ll bring experience in many of these areas
- Delivering production AI or LLM-powered systems at enterprise scale.
- Expert-level Python engineering.
- Multi-agent architectures and orchestration frameworks.
- Context engineering, retrieval systems and memory architectures.
- MCP server and SKILL. md design and enterprise tooling integration.
- Model fine-tuning at scale (PEFT/(Q)Lo RA).
- Building end-to-end voice AI pipelines using STT/TTS models.
- Designing evaluation frameworks and operating AI quality controls in production.
- Spec-driven development using AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, GH CLI, Open Code)
- AWS-based AI and cloud architectures.
- Technical leadership across complex engineering environments.
- Presenting technical decisions clearly to senior business, technology or regulatory stakeholders.
- Delivering AI in financial services, insurance or another regulated environment.
- Balancing innovation with governance, risk, safety and customer trust.
Why Aviva
This is an opportunity to help build AI in a highly trusted environment, where customer outcomes, governance and responsible innovation matter.
You'll join a business with proven AI capability, significant digital reach, modern technology foundations and the ambition to scale AI across the organisation.
Most importantly, you'll have the opportunity to influence how AI is engineered, governed and adopted across Aviva, while staying close to the technology itself.
Whatyou’llget for this role
Our purpose –with you today, for a better tomorrow–is a promise we make to our colleagues too.
And one of the ways we live up to that promise is by investing in you.
We have so much to offer when it comes to being an Aviva colleague
- Salary: London: Salary from £124K + bonus + excellent benefits
National: Salary from £92K + bonus + excellent benefits(depending on location, skills, experience, and qualifications)
- Bonus opportunity –12% of annual salary Actual amount depends on your performance and Aviva’s.
- Generouspensionscheme eg if you put in 8%, Aviva adds 14%.
- 29 daysholidayplus bank holidays, with theoptionto buy or sell up to 5 days
- Aviva-funded Private Medical Benefitto help you get expert support when you need it
- Up to 40%discount on Aviva products, and other retailer discounts
- Up to £1,200 of free Aviva shares per year through our Matching Share Planand Save As You Earnscheme
- Brilliantlysupportive policiesincluding parental and carer’s leave
- Flexible benefitsto suit you, includingsustainability optionssuch as cycle to work.
- Make a difference, be part of our Aviva Communitiesand use your 3paid volunteering days to help others
- We take yourwellbeingseriously with lots of support and tools
Take a look to learn more. Put a salary into this calculator to see what your total Aviva Reward could be.
Aviva is for everyone
We’reinclusive and welcome everyone–we want applications from all backgrounds and experiences.
We flex locations, hours and working patterns to suit our customers, business, and you.
Most of our people are smart working – spendingatleast50% of their time in our offices every week–combining the benefits of flexibility, with time together with colleagues.
To find out more about working at Aviva take a look here
We interview every disabled applicant who meets theminimumcriteria for the job.
Onceyou’veapplied, please send us an emailstatingthat you have a disclosed disability, andwe’llinterview you.
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Principal Applied AI Engineer employer: Aviva plc
Aviva is an exceptional employer that prioritises the growth and well-being of its employees, offering a competitive starting salary of around £60,000 along with a generous benefits package including a robust pension scheme, private medical benefits, and flexible working options. The collaborative work culture fosters technical excellence and continuous improvement, allowing you to make a meaningful impact while being part of a supportive team dedicated to delivering fair outcomes for customers in challenging situations.
StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫
We think this is how you could land Principal Applied AI Engineer
✨Join Local Tech Meetups
Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Aviva plc or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!
✨Contribute to Open Source Projects
Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to Aviva plc.
✨Tap into Online Developer Communities
Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like Aviva plc.
✨Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles
Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like Aviva plc that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!
We think you need these skills to ace Principal Applied AI Engineer
Some tips for your application 🫡
Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.
Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Aviva plc.
Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Aviva plc and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!
Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!
How to prepare for a job interview at Aviva plc
✨Brush Up on Your Coding Skills
For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.
✨Know Your Tools and Frameworks
Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Aviva plc uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.
✨Showcase Your Projects
Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.
✨Prepare for Behavioural Questions
While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.
