Principal AI Engineer — Embedded Innovation Lead

relx; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Job summary

RELX is seeking a Principal AI Engineer/Principal Software Engineer to lead an embedded Innovation Squad, taking ownership from discovery through production. You will validate AI prototypes, architect scalable patterns, and guide tool usage, memory, and retrieval within enterprise-grade systems.

You will collaborate with stakeholders to finalise requirements, set architectural direction, and codify solutions into reusable starter kits and reference implementations across functions.

Qualifications

• 10+ years in software engineering with hands-on AI system design, build or integration, and a track record of taking AI prototypes to production in enterprise environments.
• BS in Engineering, Computer Science or equivalent; advanced degree preferred.
• Agentic AI / LLMs: orchestration, prompt engineering, context-window management and production guardrails; MCP, tool-augmented agents at enterprise scale.
• Enterprise integration: APIs and data pipelines with security, data governance and residency practices.
• Cloud: AWS, Azure or GCP with managed AI/ML services.
• Delivery: Agile, CI/CD, modern SDLC and TDD.
• Data and architecture: Relational, columnar and vector stores.
• Ways of working: Ambiguity resilience; focus on shipping validated outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Own technical execution from discovery to production; build, assess, and harden prototypes and proofs of concept.
• Design and govern reusable agentic AI patterns (orchestration, memory, retrieval).
• Ensure delivery meets architecture, security and data-governance standards; recommend infrastructure and data residency.
• Codify validated solutions into patterns, reference implementations, and starter kits for scaling across functions.
• Provide design input, finalise requirements, and work with internal stakeholders and end users.
• Write specifications, fix complex bugs, and design complex data models.
• Act as primary technical contact for external resources and the squad's go-to on coding and AI.
• Establish baselines and report measurable outcomes for initiatives.
• Maintain visibility of AI pilots and surface candidates for reuse.
• Ensure alignment with enterprise security, compliance and tech standards.

Skills

AI system design

LLM orchestration

Python

TypeScript/JavaScript

Cloud platforms

Education

BS in Engineering/Computer Science

Tools

APIs

CI/CD

Job description

RELX is seeking a Principal AI Engineer/Principal Software Engineer to lead an embedded Innovation Squad, taking ownership from discovery through production. You will validate AI prototypes, architect scalable patterns, and guide tool usage, memory, and retrieval within enterprise-grade systems.

You will collaborate with stakeholders to finalise requirements, set architectural direction, and codify solutions into reusable starter kits and reference implementations across functions.