Principal AI Engineer

Department for Transport Group; Birmingham; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 85,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Civil Service Pension 28.97%

25 days annual leave (plus 1 per year)

8 Bank Holidays + Privilege Day

Staff discount portal

Career development opportunities (CIPD

Diversity and inclusion initiatives

Employee Assistance Programme

Flexible working options

Job summary

Department for Transport is seeking a Principal AI Engineer to lead the technical delivery of AI and data science solutions. You will own projects end-to-end, design and deploy AI systems, and collaborate with internal teams and external partners across the government ecosystem.

The role requires strong software engineering practices, experience with cloud platforms (GCP/AWS), and proficiency in Python. Hybrid working options are available across multiple UK locations.

Qualifications

• Experience leading end-to-end AI or data science product delivery in production.
• Strong software engineering practices with version control and testing.
• Experience deploying on cloud platforms and using CI/CD pipelines.
• Ability to advise on architecture and governance within a large organisation.
• Experience maintaining AI products in production using MLOps.

Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and deployment of AI solutions with technical leadership.
• Own projects end to end with partners and internal/external stakeholders.
• Write and review high-quality code using established software practices.
• Deploy and manage products across development, test, and production on cloud platforms.
• Apply statistical rigour to evaluate AI models and systems.

Skills

AI architecture

Technical leadership

Python programming

MLOps

Tools

Terraform

GCP

AWS

CI/CD

Job description

Principal AI Engineer

Department for Transport

Apply before 11:55 pm on Sunday 15th November 2026

Location: Birmingham, Hastings, Leeds, London (This role is suitable for hybrid working)

Salary: £59,816 - £84,911

London Base Salary: £64,515

National Base Salary: £59,816

The salary of £84,911 includes a basic salary of £59,816 and a Digital and Data allowance of up to £25,095.

The value of allowance awarded will be based on an assessment of your technical skills and experience against the Principal Date Scientist Government Digital and Data Profession Pay Framework as demonstrated through the selection process.

A Civil Service Pension with an employer contribution of 28.97%

Contract Type: Permanent – Flexible working, Full-time, Job share, Part-time

Available Positions: 7

We’re looking for Principal AI Engineers to lead the technical delivery of innovative, well-designed solutions that inform high-stakes decisions, transform complex processes and operations, and support critical policy objectives.

You will use your technical expertise to design, build, deploy, and maintain AI solutions – providing technical ownership through all phases of the product lifecycle. This involves effectively collaborating with colleagues within DfT, across government and with external partners.

You will join the AI and Data Science Team, which owns the technical development of AI products and solutions in DfT’s AI Programme.

Top Responsibilities

• Lead the design, development, and deployment of impactful AI solutions - including classical ML and agentic/LLM-based systems - providing technical leadership and ensuring solutions meet user and organisational needs.
• Own projects end to end with minimal supervision, working with partners, internal teams, and external stakeholders to address challenges and ensure your technical work achieves its intended impact.
• Write and review high-quality, maintainable code using established software development practices and tools, including version control and testing. Proficiency in Python or a willingness to learn is expected.
• Deploy and manage products across development, test, and production environments on cloud platforms (DfT uses GCP), using CI/CD pipelines with automated testing and Terraform (IaC).
• Build responsibly by applying statistical rigour to design and implement evaluation frameworks, datasets, and metrics that reliably measure the performance, capabilities, and limitations of AI models and agents.

Benefits

• Employer pension contribution of 28.97% of your salary. Read more about Civil Service Pensions here
• 25 days annual leave, increasing by 1 day each year of service (up to a maximum of 30 days annual leave).
• 8 Bank Holidays plus an additional Privilege Day to mark the King’s birthday.
• Access to the staff discount portal.
• Excellent career development opportunities and the potential to undertake professional qualifications relevant to your role paid for by the department, such as CIPD, Prince2, apprenticeships, etc.
• Joining a diverse and inclusive workforce with a range of staff communities to support all our colleagues.
• 24-hour Employee Assistance Programme providing free confidential help and advice for staff.
• Flexible working options where we encourage a great work-life balance.

About You

• Leading the end-to-end technical delivery of impactful AI or data science products, including design, development, deployment, monitoring, assurance, incident response and continuous improvement in production environments (lead criterion).
• Programming and software engineering to design and develop high-quality, scalable and maintainable solutions, applying strong engineering practices including version control, testing and code review.
• Deploying and managing products across development, test, and production environments on cloud platforms (e.g., GCP/AWS), using CI/CD pipelines with automated testing and Terraform or similar infrastructure-as-code (IaC) tools to ship changes safely, reproducibly, and with rollback.
• Using your credibility and expertise in AI architecture to advise and challenge colleagues on architecture design choices, ensuring proposals align with the organisation's technology landscape and strategy, establishing reusable patterns and working closely with the DfT Architecture team to support proposals through technical governance processes.
• Maintaining multiple AI products in production using MLOps practices, including monitoring, versioning, automated evaluation and CI/CD.
• Building and deploying agentic services using enterprise platforms such as Copilot and Gemini Enterprise, integrating backend services, APIs and organisational data to deliver secure, scalable solutions at pace.

Additional Information

• The role is part of the Government Digital and Data (or Government Security Profession Career Framework) profession and utilises an enhanced Capability–Based Pay Framework which provides access to a Digital and Data allowance.
• The base pay is £59,816. In addition to this the role includes a Digital and Data allowance of up to £25,095.
• The value of allowance awarded will be based on an assessment of your technical skills and experience as demonstrated through the selection process.

This vacancy closes at 23:55 on Sunday 15th November 2026