Principal Microsoft AI Consultant in Basildon

Principal Microsoft AI Consultant

£95,000–£110,000 | Remote | Permanent | Very Occasional UK Client Travel

SR2 is partnering with an exciting UK technology consultancy to hire a Principal Microsoft AI Consultant who can take enterprise AI solutions from discovery and prototype through to secure, supported production.

This is a hands-on senior role for someone who wants to build real AI solutions rather than remain focused on proofs of concept, presentation-led architecture or Copilot configuration. The consultancy works across technology consulting, digital transformation, cyber security, applications, data & AI, networking and infrastructure.

What you'll be doing

• Lead AI discovery workshops with clients, identifying high-value and technically viable use cases.
• Design and deliver production-grade generative AI and agentic solutions using Microsoft Foundry / Azure AI Foundry, Azure OpenAI and Foundry Agent Service.
• Build RAG solutions using Azure AI Search and enterprise data sources.
• Work across model selection, prompt orchestration, grounding, memory, tool calling and agent workflows.
• Develop application and integration components using Python, C#, .NET or TypeScript.
• Integrate AI services with enterprise applications, APIs, data platforms and business workflows.
• Architect secure Azure environments using Entra ID, RBAC, managed identities, Key Vault, private networking and Azure Policy.
• Establish evaluation frameworks covering groundedness, relevance, safety, task completion, latency, cost and user outcomes.
• Implement monitoring, tracing, observability, CI/CD and infrastructure-as-code so solutions remain supportable after go-live.
• Contribute to pre-sales, demonstrations, technical proposals and reusable AI reference architectures.
• Mentor and support other engineers when needed.
• Work directly with clients while remaining highly hands-on technically.

What we're looking for

• Evidence of taking at least one substantial Microsoft Foundry, Azure AI Foundry, Azure AI Studio or Azure OpenAI solution into production.
• Strong software engineering capability in Python, C#, .NET or TypeScript.
• Practical experience with RAG, vector search, agents, tool calling or modern generative AI patterns.
• Experience evaluating AI quality beyond manual demonstrations.
• Strong understanding of enterprise Azure architecture, security, identity, networking and operational support.
• Experience moving AI solutions from prototype into secure, maintainable production environments.
• Confidence discussing architecture, models, security, cost and data trade-offs with senior stakeholders.
• Consultancy, professional services or similarly demanding client-facing delivery experience.

Useful additional experience

• Semantic Kernel, Microsoft Agent Framework, LangChain or LangGraph.
• Azure AI Search, Document Intelligence or Content Safety.
• Microsoft Fabric or Databricks.
• Azure Container Apps, Functions, App Service or AKS.
• MLOps / LLMOps and production AI monitoring.
• Healthcare, public sector or other regulated environments.

The environment

• Join a consultancy of around 100 people, operating through a number of smaller specialist teams.
• UK remote working with occasional client-site travel around the UK - this is not expected to be frequent.
• Report directly to the COO, giving the role strong visibility and influence.
• Help shape technical standards, reusable accelerators and the organisation's wider Microsoft AI capability.
• Mentor other team members when required.
• Within six months, success means establishing a repeatable Microsoft AI delivery approach, leading a client engagement and delivering or materially progressing a secure production AI solution.

Interview process

• 30-minute initial conversation with the COO / CTO
• 1-hour technical test
• Final-stage interview