Principal Engineer – Applied AI

DISCOVERED; Abu Dhabi; On-site; AED 350,000 - 500,000; Full time

Job summary

DISCOVERED is seeking a Principal Engineer – Applied AI to set system-wide technical direction, make high-stakes architectural decisions, and mentor across multiple engineering teams in Abu Dhabi. This non-managerial role emphasizes hands-on leadership, production AI standards, and building resilient architectures for frontier AI applications that scale and adapt to evolving requirements.

If you thrive solving cross-system problems and guiding technical strategy at scale, this is a high-impact

Qualifications

• 12+ years of software engineering experience at senior staff/principal level.
• Deep technical authority in production systems for AI.
• Proven multi-team architectural leadership and long-term vision.
• Active hands-on depth with code and systems.
• History of elevating engineers and establishing enduring practices.
• Strong written and verbal communication for executive audiences.

Responsibilities

• Technical direction and AI architecture across enterprise systems.
• Lead from the front with prototypes, benchmarks and reference implementations.
• Mentor Senior and Staff Engineers to raise technical standards.

Skills

Senior influence

Architectural leadership

Cross-team collaboration

System design

RFCs/architecture docs

Executive communication

Job description

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

1. 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.