Principal Software Engineer

Moody; Montbonnot-Saint-Martin; On-site; EUR 120,000 - 210,000; Full time

Job summary

Moody's is seeking a Principal Software Engineer to lead the strategy, architecture, and delivery of secure, scalable agentic AI across the AXIS Cloud platform. You will shape multi-agent architectures, define MCP-based tool registries, and work hands-on with engineers while guiding technical direction.

The role focuses on production AI systems, risk governance, and collaboration across Grenoble, Edinburgh, and Toronto, ensuring responsible AI adoption and strong system modernization.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in software engineering with leadership.
• Experience building enterprise AI apps on large language models.
• Designing multi-agent architectures and production deployment.

Responsibilities

• Lead strategy, architecture, development, and delivery of secure, scalable agentic AI.
• Co-define the AXIS Cloud AI orchestration layer architecture.
• Hands-on design and leadership for AI orchestration platform.
• Drive key technical decisions translating direction into engineering solutions.
• Prototype and scale agentic AI patterns and tools.
• Prioritize end-to-end vertical solutions with customer value.
• Design secure AI systems with audit, logging and recovery.
• Modernize LLM apps onto shared orchestration layer.
• Deploy and operate AI services in Kubernetes with observability and costs.
• Collaborate with architecture, product, security, and compliance teams.
• Promote adoption of agentic AI patterns across teams.

Skills

Hands-on AI apps

Multi-team leadership

Agentic AI design

Model Context Protocol

LangChain/LangGraph

Python

Docker/Kubernetes

Production AI systems

Technical influence

Responsible AI governance

Education

Bachelors/Masters in CS/AI or related

Tools

LangChain

LangGraph

Langfuse

Docker

Kubernetes

APIs & tooling governance

Job description

Let's begin! Principal Software Engineer (15583)

At Moody's, we unite the brightest minds to turn today's risks into tomorrow's opportunities. We do this by striving to create an inclusive environment where everyone feels welcome to be who they are—with the freedom to exchange ideas, think innovatively, and listen to each other and customers in meaningful ways. Moody's is transforming how the world sees risk. As a global leader in ratings and integrated risk assessment, we're advancing AI to move from insight to action—enabling intelligence that not only understands complexity but responds to it. We decode risk to unlock opportunity, helping our clients navigate uncertainty with clarity, speed, and confidence.

Skills and Competencies

• 10+ years of software engineering experience, including delivering complex, multi-team initiatives with
  measurable business impact, and experience setting technical direction as a principal, staff or lead engineer, with
  a strong track record of remaining hands-on in software design, development and delivery while providing
  technical leadership.
• Strong hands-on experience building enterprise AI applications on large language models, including agents,
  orchestration frameworks, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), tool use, and evaluation frameworks.
• Experience designing multi-agent or subagent architectures and successfully taking agentic systems from
  prototype to production deployment.
• Knowledge or practical experience with the Model Context Protocol (MCP), tool-based architectures, tool
  registries, and governance controls including guardrails, permissioning, auditing, and human approval workflows.
• Hands-on experience with modern AI frameworks such as LangChain, LangGraph, Langfuse, or equivalent
  technologies.
• Strong proficiency in Python and experience with cloud-native technologies including Docker, Kubernetes, API
  gateways, event-driven architectures, and relational or vector data stores.
• Experience running AI systems in production environments, including observability, cost management, regression
  detection, robustness testing, and incident response.
• Demonstrated ability to influence technical direction across teams, communicate complex architecture to
  technical and non-technical audiences, and drive adoption of new engineering tools and practices.
• Deep expertise in artificial intelligence, with a track record of implementing advanced AI solutions to drive
  strategic transformation and operational efficiency. Strong experience using AI tools to lead innovation initiatives.
• Demonstrated leadership in managing AI-related risks, ensuring ethical governance, and fostering a culture of
  responsible AI adoption across the organization.

Education

• Bachelor's or master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, or a related discipline, or
  equivalent professional experience.

Responsibilities

• Lead the strategy, architecture, development, and delivery of secure, scalable agentic AI capabilities that power
  the Insurance Life platform.
• Co-define and drive the technical architecture and roadmap for the AXIS Cloud AI orchestration layer, including
  dynamic tool selection, subagent orchestration patterns, decision APIs, and a governed MCP-based tool registry,
  in close collaboration with the broader architecture team.
• Actively contribute to the design, implementation, and delivery of the AI orchestration platform, working hands-on
  alongside the engineering team while providing technical leadership and guidance.
• Drive key technical decisions and translate architectural direction into pragmatic engineering solutions and
  implementation guidance for the team.
• Lead innovation in agentic AI by prototyping emerging technologies and patterns, including agent harnesses,
  generative user interfaces, skills, and long-running workflows, and advancing successful concepts into
  production-ready solutions.
• Prioritize pragmatic, end-to-end vertical solutions that demonstrate customer value while progressively building
  the broader orchestration platform.
• Design secure and transparent AI systems through security middleware, audit capabilities, logging, metrics,
  human approval checkpoints, and recovery mechanisms including retry and resume capabilities.
• Refactor and modernize existing large language model applications and frameworks onto a shared orchestration
  layer while partnering with platform, authentication, and integration teams.
• Deploy, operate, and optimize AI services in Kubernetes environments, establishing observability, evaluation
  frameworks, guardrail testing, and cost and capacity management practices.
• Collaborate closely with architecture, engineering, actuarial, product, information security, legal, and compliance
  stakeholders to align AI solutions with platform strategy and regulatory requirements.
• Promote the adoption of agentic AI patterns and practices across engineering teams, sharing expertise beyond
  the immediate team and helping other teams leverage the orchestration platform effectively, while ensuring
  alignment with secure development lifecycle standards and compliance frameworks.
• Provide technical leadership through architecture reviews, hands-on development, code reviews, mentoring, and
  engineering best practices while building organizational capability in AI engineering.

About the Team

The CoreGenAI team is part of the Insurance Business Unit Life platform and is responsible for building the secure,
governed AI capabilities that sit at the center of the AXIS Cloud AI strategy. The team develops the orchestration
layer that connects applications, intelligently selects tools, and automates complex workflows while keeping people
in control.
The Principal Software Engineer will work in close partnership with the existing technical leadership of the team,
combining hands-on engineering with architectural guidance and technical decision-making. The role also involves
extensive collaboration with architecture, product, and engineering teams across Grenoble, Edinburgh, and
Toronto, reflecting the distributed nature of the AXIS Cloud organization.
By joining the team, you will collaborate with architects, engineers, product partners, and domain experts to deliver
trusted, production-ready agentic AI solutions, enable concrete customer-facing use cases, and help shape the
future of AI adoption across the Insurance Life business.

Moody's is an equal opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to race, color, religion, sex, national origin, disability, protected veteran status, sexual orientation, gender expression, gender identity or any other characteristic protected by law.
Candidates for Moody's Corporation may be asked to disclose securities holdings pursuant to Moody's Policy for Securities Trading and the requirements of the position. Employment is contingent upon compliance with the Policy, including remediation of positions in those holdings as necessary.