Principal Software Engineer - AI

UpperGround by Hudson; Sydney; Hybrid; AUD 180,000 - 260,000; Full time

Job summary

Hudson Recruitment partners with a pioneering Australian technology leader to recruit a Principal Software Engineer for a new Sydney AI engineering team.

This hands-on leadership role anchors a team delivering AI-powered data enrichment and agentic capabilities, shaping target-state architecture and secure, high-performance systems across SaaS and on-prem environments.

Qualifications

• Degree in computer science/engineering/ML or related field.
• At least 10 years of software engineering experience at scale.
• Experience developing an AI/ML product desirable.
• Strong backend Java and Spring; 80/20 backend/frontend with TypeScript/React.
• Python exposure valuable for ML workflows.
• Experience across on-prem and SaaS/cloud delivery (Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, AWS).
• Experience building or integrating AI/LLM-backed features or agentic workflows.
• Familiarity with NLP or data-enrichment technologies is a plus.
• Hands-on, strategic, strong communicator across teams and tech stacks.
• Self-driven with initiative for technical improvements.

Responsibilities

• Take a leading role in application architecture with the Architecture function.
• Set and uphold engineering standards across code quality and security.
• Improve reliability and performance; troubleshoot complex problems.
• Contribute production code and perform thoughtful PR reviews.
• Mentor engineers across levels in a distributed team.
• Contribute to innovation and ways of working for AI agents in the platform.

Skills

Java

Spring Framework

TypeScript

React

Python

Education

Degree in CS/Engineering/ML

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Helm

AWS

Job description

Position: Principal Software Engineer - AI

Job Type: Permanent, Full-Time

Location: Sydney CBD

Working Arrangement: 2-3 days per week in the office

Work Rights: Full Australian working rights required

Job Summary

Hudson is partnering with a pioneer and market leader in the Australian technology space to find a Principal Software Engineer to join their new Sydney AI engineering team. This is a key technical leadership role, acting as the technical anchor for a team that owns an AI-powered data enrichment product and builds the next generation of AI and agentic capabilities. The product uses AI to find, identify and codify information from unstructured documents, including NER, PII extraction, document classification, compound lexeme and skills analysis. The team combines proprietary models with leading open-source tools and delivers solutions across both SaaS and locally deployed environments. You'll own technical excellence: taking a leading role in application architecture in partnership with our dedicated Architecture function, converging the team's technology toward target state, and lifting reliability, performance and security. This is a hands-on individual-contributor role with broad cross-team influence - you'll write code and review PRs while mentoring engineers and setting the standards the team is held to.

Main responsibilities

• Take a leading role in application architecture, partnering with the Architecture function to define and converge on target-state technology and patterns.
• Set, refine and uphold engineering standards across code style, code quality, security, and secure-by-design practices.
• Improve reliability and performance across the product, and guide others to do the same; troubleshoot, triage and resolve complex customer problems.
• Contribute production code and provide thoughtful, pragmatic reviews on complex PRs.
• Mentor engineers across levels, growing the technical capability of a distributed team.
• Contribute to innovation, technical planning and ways of working - including how we design, evaluate and ship AI agents and agentic workflows in the platform.

Key requirements

• Degree, or equivalent, in a relevant field such as computer science/engineering, software engineering, machine learning, mathematics or a related quantitative discipline.
• At least 10 years' software engineering experience, with a track record of providing technical solutions to complex problems at scale.
• Experience developing an AI / ML product is highly desirable - familiarity with the realities of shipping AI features, agents or model-backed products.
• Strong backend Java and experience with Spring framework; ideally full-stack (≈80/20 backend/frontend) with TypeScript and React front end. Backend essential, frontend nice-to-have.
• Python exposure valuable given our model-backed components; comfort working alongside data scientists and ML workflows.
• Experience across on-prem and SaaS/cloud delivery (Docker, Kubernetes, Helm, AWS) is desirable.
• Experience building or integrating AI/LLM-backed features, agents or agentic workflows is highly desirable.
• Familiarity with NLP, document intelligence or data-enrichment technologies (or adjacent) is a strong plus.
• Hands-on and strategic, a strong communicator and consensus builder, comfortable operating across multiple teams and tech stacks and driving clarity in ambiguity.
• Self-driven, autonomous and able to demonstrate initiative for technical improvements.

Why apply with Hudson Recruitment?

Looking for your next role? At Hudson, we genuinely care about people and value long-term relationships over transactional hiring. Our focus on service, reputation, and quality ensures we find the best opportunities in the architecture space for both you and our clients.

Diversity, Equity & Inclusion at Hudson

Hudson is committed to helping you find a workplace where you feel respected, supported, and free to thrive. We welcome applications from all backgrounds, identities, and lived experiences - because when different voices come together, amazing things happen.

Casual Loading

Please note for all Australian based contract and temporary roles only, the pay rate is inclusive ofmandatory 25% casual loading. This excludes permanent and fixed term roles.

Due to current Victorian labour hire licence restrictions, Hudson is not advertising, offering or accepting applications for contract, temporary or labour hire roles that are based in Victoria or otherwise connected to Victoria. This includes contract, temporary or labour hire roles where the candidate resides in Victoria, even if the role is based in another state. These restrictions do not apply to permanent or fixed term employment opportunities.