Principal Engineer Applied AI

Job Description Roles & Responsibilities Discover the Role We are seeking a Principal Engineer Applied AI to serve as one of the definitive technical voices with one of our clients. In this high-impact, non-managerial role, you will set system-wide technical direction, make high-stakes architectural decisions across multiple engineering teams, and continuously raise our engineering ceiling through hands-on leadership and mentorship. If you thrive on solving the hardest cross-system problems, establishing production AI standards, and building resilient architecture for frontier AI applications, this role is for you. Discover the Responsibilities • Technical Direction & Applied AI Architecture • Define Enterprise Standards: Establish technical direction for system architecture, API interfaces, evaluation strategies, and deployment patterns that govern how our engineering teams build. • Make Mission-Critical Calls: Lead high-consequence architectural decisions that transcend individual team scopes taking ownership to define, document, and defend the technical vision. • Architect for Production AI Realities: Build robust systems designed for the unique challenges of AI at scale including non-determinism, model drift, evaluation-as-engineering, cost/latency tradeoffs, and novel failure modes. • Domain Expertise: Serve as a trusted authority on frontier model evaluation, RAG/retrieval architectures, multi-agent design, and state-of-the-art AI infrastructure, distinguishing battle-tested tools from research hype. 2. Hands-On Technical Leadership • Lead from the Front: Stay deeply active in the technical work reading code, running benchmarks, writing prototypes to resolve architectural debates, and building reference implementations. • Tackle Unowned & Complex Problems: Own cross-system redesigns, resolve multi-component production incidents, and fix stubborn performance bottlenecks that elude standard debugging. • De-risk Core Decisions: Pressure-test high-stakes choices including model selection, build vs. buy infrastructure, sovereign deployment trade-offs, and long-term architectural commitments. 3. Engineering Quality & Mentorship • Set the Bar: Lead deep design reviews, architecture evaluations, and post-mortems as a standard-setting function where your approval establishes the baseline for production readiness. • Multiply Engineering Talent: Mentor Senior and Staff Engineers, accelerating their growth and permanently elevating technical standards across the organization. Discover the Requirements: • 12+ Years of Software Engineering Experience: A proven track record operating successfully at the Staff or Principal level. • Deep Technical Authority: Demonstrated experience designing, launching, and maintaining mission-critical production systems relied upon by other engineering teams. • Multi-Team Architectural Leadership: Proven ability to define long-term architectural visions, clean APIs, and engineering practices that shape organizational execution. • Current Hands-On Technical Depth: Active, day-to-day engagement with code and systems, maintaining the credibility required to solve complex bugs alongside senior engineers. • Track Record as a Technical Multiplier: A history of elevating surrounding engineers, establishing enduring practices, and resolving the hardest cross-domain architectural challenges. • Executive & Technical Communication: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills - capable of drafting comprehensive RFCs/architecture docs, facilitating design reviews, and articulating technical realities to executive leadership clearly and concisely. Desired Candidate Profile 12+ Years of Software Engineering Experience: A proven track record operating successfully at the Staff or Principal level. Deep Technical Authority: Demonstrated experience designing, launching, and maintaining mission-critical production systems relied upon by other engineering teams. Multi-Team Architectural Leadership: Proven ability to define long-term architectural visions, clean APIs, and engineering practices that shape organizational execution. Current Hands-On Technical Depth: Active, day-to-day engagement with code and systems, maintaining the credibility required to solve complex bugs alongside senior engineers. Track Record as a Technical Multiplier: A history of elevating surrounding engineers, establishing enduring practices, and resolving the hardest cross-domain architectural challenges. Executive & Technical Communication: Exceptional written and verbal communication skills - capable of drafting comprehensive RFCs/architecture docs, facilitating design reviews, and articulating technical realities to executive leadership clearly and concisely. Company Industry RecruitmentPlacement FirmExecutive Search Department / Functional Area Engineering Keywords Principal Engineer Applied AI Get real-time job updates only on our App