Principal AI Engineer — AI Coding Agents & Platform Tools

Hyperlayer; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Performance-based bonus

25 days annual leave

Health insurance

Cycle-to-work

Referral bonus

Workplace Nursery Scheme

Job summary

Hyperlayer is seeking a Principal AI Engineer to lead AI coding agents and build the AI infra that enables secure, scalable software development for the payments space. You’ll design workflows, benchmarks, and guardrails while mentoring engineers and shaping the engineering roadmap.

UK-based, in-office culture and visa-free hiring for the right candidate. You will define rules for AI agents, benchmark open-source and enterprise tools, and drive QA/DevOps integration.

Qualifications

• 8+ years in software engineering with hands-on AI coding agents experience
• Experience designing structured AI-driven development workflows, from spec to review
• Track record building internal tooling, evaluation frameworks, or benchmarks to raise productivity
• Experience evaluating open-source vs proprietary models for enterprise safety and adoption
• Comfort with cloud platforms (AWS, GCP) and container tech (Docker, Kubernetes)
• Solid Python skills and defining rules, prompts, and guardrails for agents and engineers
• Data-driven mindset: instrumenting workflows, metrics, and iterative improvements
• Understanding security, compliance, and audit implications of AI-enabled engineering in regulated environments
• Strong communication and collaboration skills
• Curiosity and willingness to experiment with new AI coding approaches

Responsibilities

• Define and evolve AI-driven software development processes for coding agents
• Benchmark open-source tools and enterprise-grade controls and oversee adoption
• Extend AI-assisted workflows into QA and DevOps: automated testing, code review, CI/CD, deployment
• Build feedback loops to improve coding agents using session data and outcomes
• Own steering rules, prompts, and guardrails shaping agent behavior across teams
• Evaluate AI coding tools/frameworks and establish internal benchmarks
• Contribute to system-level design and architecture decisions with peers
• Ensure AI systems scale, are secure, and meet financial regulation objectives
• Mentor engineers adopting AI coding practices and share best practices
• Shape Hyperlayer's engineering roadmap with a focus on AI tooling

Skills

Python

AI coding agents

Strong communication

AI workflow design

Tools

AWS

GCP

Docker

Kubernetes

Job description

Hyperlayer is seeking a Principal AI Engineer to lead AI coding agents and build the AI infra that enables secure, scalable software development for the payments space. You’ll design workflows, benchmarks, and guardrails while mentoring engineers and shaping the engineering roadmap.

UK-based, in-office culture and visa-free hiring for the right candidate. You will define rules for AI agents, benchmark open-source and enterprise tools, and drive QA/DevOps integration.