Principal Engineer in AI

Our ‘black belt’ specialists are leaders in their domains: digital pioneers, engineering excellence advocates, AI innovators, and enterprise problem‑solvers trusted to deliver when the challenges are complex and the stakes are high. With a global footprint and deep local insight, Software at Scale delivers cutting‑edge technology solutions that power mission‑critical platforms. We help organisations build intelligent systems at scale—driving performance, resilience, and breakthrough capability through the strength of our people. Empower Your Career at the Highest Level We’re seeking a Principal Engineer in AI to lead the technical direction of our most sophisticated AI initiatives. This role blends deep architectural thinking with hands‑on engineering. You’ll define how modern AI capabilities integrate into large‑scale platforms, build foundational patterns, and solve the hardest problems alongside our engineering teams. You will be the person who turns AI experimentation into enterprise‑grade delivery. Key Responsibilities Lead from the front Design and engineer end‑to‑end AI systems, including model integration, orchestrators, vector search, data flows, and service‑layer patterns. Stay hands‑on Prototype AI capabilities, validate architectural decisions, explore model behaviours, and contribute to critical‑path engineering work. Define technical excellence Establish engineering standards for AI integration — performance, security, latency, observability, reliability, cost governance, and safety. Shape AI‑enabled product capabilities Work with Product and Engineering to identify, analyse, and prioritise high‑value AI use cases across complex platforms. Drive architectural clarity Design modular, vendor‑agnostic, multi‑model architectures that allow models and providers to be swapped with minimal effort. Lead architectural reviews, deep technical investigations, performance tuning, safety assessments, and engineering governance for AI components. Mentor and influence Guide Staff and Senior Engineers, uplift capability, and embed a culture of craftsmanship, ownership, and engineering depth. Operate across all levels Partner with technical leaders, architects, product owners, and executives to align AI engineering with long‑term strategic goals. What You Bring Proven experience as a senior/principal engineer delivering production‑grade AI and ML systems . Expertise in LLM integration, Retrieval, grounding, and vector search, Orchestration and agent patterns, Multi‑model and multi‑provider architectures, Prompt management and guardrail frameworks. Deep engineering capability across backend or platform stacks (Node.js, Python, TypeScript, Go, or similar). Strong architectural thinking with the ability to simplify complexity and design for scale. Hands‑on coding ability with a passion for building, testing, and validating real systems. Strong understanding of enterprise non‑functional requirements, including security, observability, and resilience. Exceptional communication and leadership skills with the ability to influence stakeholders at all levels. What We Offer The opportunity to define how AI is engineered across large‑scale enterprise platforms. A balance of strategic influence and hands‑on technical execution. A high‑performance environment filled with top‑tier engineers and architects. Competitive remuneration with performance‑based incentives. The chance to shape one of the most transformative capability areas in modern engineering. Seniority level Mid‑Senior level Employment type Full‑time Job function Engineering and Information Technology Industries IT Services and IT Consulting Referrals increase your chances of interviewing at Software at Scale by 2x Get notified about new Principal Engineer jobs in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia . Sydney, New South Wales, Australia #J-18808-Ljbffr