Principal Engineer | Head Of Engineering in London

Our Mission at Janus Henderson is to help clients define and achieve superior financial outcomes through differentiated insights, disciplined investments, and world-class service. Our Values are key to driving our success, and are at the heart of everything we do:Clients Come First - Always | Execution Supersedes Intention | Together We Win | Diversity Improves Results | Truth Builds TrustIf our mission, values, and purpose align with your own, we would love to hear from you!Your opportunityThis is a hands-on engineering leadership role. Janus Henderson is undertaking a firm-wide AI transformation to become the most technologically sophisticated asset manager in the industry. Our AI capability sits in a single centralised function under the Head of AI, and Forward Deployed Engineering is the part of it that embeds with the business and builds what business units cannot stand up alone. Reporting to the Head of AI Technology, you set the technical bar, own the team’s deliverables and outputs, and are accountable for what it ships and runs — while still embedding with business units yourself.It works across every AI technology remit — AI Platforms, AI Architecture, AI Engineering, and AI Governance Implementation — keeping them aligned so the firm has one coherent plan rather than four competing ones. It also decides what we adopt: you will review new models, tools, and vendors, test their claims against our own workloads, and judge whether they are feasible here, technically, commercially, and against the constraints a regulated asset manager operates under.The balance of the role will shift, and we would rather be explicit than discover a mismatch later. As the team grows, the weight moves towards strategy, roadmap, and management, and your technical contribution shifts from writing most of the code to setting direction and holding the standard. What success looks likeYour team ships. Engineers bring you the hard problems, and you are close enough to the work to help.The Forward Deployed Engineering roadmap is sequenced, agreed with the AI Technical Leadership Team, and lines up with the JHI strategic roadmap.Your responsibilitiesLead the team and own its deliverablesLine-manage Forward Deployed Engineers as the team grows: hiring, onboarding, objectives, development, and performance.Hold the engineering bar through design and code review, and grow engineers into owning engagements themselves.Report progress, risk, and capacity to the Head of AI Technology and to business stakeholders honestly, including when delivery is off track.Work across the AI technology remits — AI Platforms, AI Architecture, AI Engineering, and AI Governance Implementation — owning the Forward Deployed Engineering deliverables and keeping them aligned to enterprise architecture.Expose data and capability through Accio, our centralised MCP server, and as skills, tools, and connectors on Nexus, building reusable components rather than one-off integrations.Co-build enterprise core-stack deliverables with Percepta and AI Engineering, and represent Forward Deployed Engineering in architecture and design authority forums.What to expect when you join our firmHybrid working and reasonable accommodationsGenerous Holiday policiesExcellent Health and Wellbeing benefits including corporate membership to WellhubPaid volunteer time to step away from your desk and into the communitySupport to grow through professional development courses, tuition/qualification reimbursement and moreMaternal/paternal leave benefits and family servicesAll employee events including networking opportunities and social activitiesLunch allowance for use within our subsidized onsite canteenMust have skillsAt minimum eight years in technical, business-facing engineering roles — forward deployed engineering, solutions engineering, consulting-side software engineering, or engineering embedded in a business unit — including time as the most senior engineer on the work. Strong Python and SQL, and a track record of shipping production applications, with hands-on delivery recent enough to still be real.Production experience with LLMs — prompt and context engineering, agent development, evaluation, deployment at scale — including agentic capability such as MCP servers, tools, or connectors.Experience building data pipelines from APIs and enterprise systems, and working knowledge of a major cloud, ideally Azure, with CI/CD, containers, and infrastructure as code.High agency, genuine interest in the business problem, and willingness to move from building towards leading as the team grows.Experience in a regulated environment where governance, compliance, and data sensitivity shape how solutions are built.Nice to have skillsExperience standing up a new engineering team or function from scratch, including hiring and defining how it works.Asset management or financial services domain knowledge, particularly the investment process, front office workflows, or fixed income.Snowflake, Microsoft Fabric / OneLake, Azure AI Foundry, model gateways, or AI observability in production.Vendor selection, commercial negotiation, or licensing at enterprise scale, or contributing to architecture and technology governance forums.Until then it carries technical leadership and delivery accountability for Forward Deployed Engineering.We believe diversity improves results and we welcome applications from candidates from all backgrounds. We understand everyone has different commitments and while we can’t accommodate every flexible working request, we’re happy to be asked about work flexibility and our hybrid working environment. If you need any reasonable accommodations during our recruitment process, please get in touch and let us know at recruiter@janushenderson.com#LI-LN2 #LI-HYBRIDAnnual Bonus Opportunity: Position may be eligible to receive an annual discretionary bonus award from the profit pool. Individual bonuses are determined based on Company, department, team and individual performance. Benefits: Janus Henderson is committed to offering a comprehensive total rewards package to eligible employees that includes; competitive compensation, pension/retirement plans, and various health, wellbeing and lifestyle benefits. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability or veteran status. You will be expected to understand the regulatory obligations of the firm, and abide by the regulated entity requirements and JHI policies applicable for your role.