Senior Principal AI Engineer

We are seeking a Senior Principal AI Engineer to design, build, and deliver production‑grade AI solutions for complex client environments. This role blends hands‑on AI engineering, technical leadership, and client‑facing consulting, with a strong focus on scalable, secure, and responsible AI delivery. You will work closely with clients and internal teams to translate business problems into engineered AI solutions, covering the full lifecycle from data ingestion through to deployment, monitoring, and optimisation.

Responsibilities

• AI Engineering & Delivery
  • Design, develop, and deploy end‑to‑end AI/ML solutions, including classical ML and generative AI use cases.
  • Build and maintain production‑ready AI pipelines (data ingestion, feature engineering, model training, evaluation, deployment, monitoring).
  • Apply MLOps best practices, including CI/CD for models, versioning, automated retraining, monitoring, and rollback.
  • Ensure AI solutions are scalable, secure, performant, and reliable in real‑world environments.
• Architecture & Technical Leadership
  • Define AI solution architectures aligned to client needs, constraints, and long‑term sustainability.
  • Set and uphold engineering standards for AI development, testing, deployment, and monitoring.
  • Evaluate and introduce emerging AI technologies (e.g. GenAI, LLMs, vector databases) where they deliver clear value.
• Client Engagement
  • Engage directly with clients to understand AI use cases, data readiness, risks, and success criteria.
  • Lead technical workshops and solution design sessions with client stakeholders.
  • Act as a trusted technical adviser, guiding AI feasibility, trade‑offs, and implementation strategy.
• Responsible AI & Governance
  • Embed Responsible AI principles including explainability, bias mitigation, auditability, and data privacy.
  • Ensure compliance with data protection regulations (e.g. GDPR) and industry standards.
• Team & Capability Development
  • Mentor AI engineers and data scientists, providing technical guidance and code/model review.
  • Contribute to internal accelerators, reusable components, and AI delivery playbooks.

Essential Skills

• Solid software engineering background (Python required; additional languages a plus).
• Ability to communicate complex technical concepts clearly to non‑technical stakeholders.

Experience

• Strong experience as an AI Engineer, ML Engineer, or similar role delivering production AI systems.
• Experience with ML frameworks (e.g. PyTorch, TensorFlow, scikit‑learn).
• Proven experience with MLOps and deploying models into live environments.
• Cloud experience (Azure, AWS, or GCP).

Benefits

• Collaborative working environment – we stand shoulder to shoulder with our clients and peers through good times and challenges.
• Empowerment to expand skills and take part in inspiring projects.
• Expleo Academy – suite of accredited training courses to acquire and develop the right skills.
• Competitive company benefits.
• Whole‑team mindset, encouraging bold ideas and challenging the status quo.

As a Disability Confident Committed Employer we are committed to inclusivity:

• Ensuring recruitment process is inclusive and accessible.
• Communicating and promoting vacancies.
• Offering an interview to disabled people who meet the minimum criteria for the job.
• Providing reasonable adjustments as required.
• Supporting any existing employee who acquires a disability or long‑term health condition, enabling them to stay engaged.

We are an equal opportunities employer and welcome applications from all suitably qualified persons regardless of race, sex, disability, religion/belief, sexual orientation or age. We treat everyone fairly and equitably across the organisation, including providing any additional support and adjustments needed for everyone to thrive.