Principal AI Engineer (Forward Deployed)

Ocho People; Belfast City District; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

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Job summary

Ocho People is seeking a Principal AI Engineer (Forward Deployed) to work directly with customers, embedding with teams to solve live operational problems using Python, large language models, and agentic workflows.

As the technical authority, you will define architectural patterns, drive retrieval and prompting strategies, and mentor engineers while delivering rapid, production-grade AI solutions in real-world settings.

Qualifications

• 8+ years building software or AI systems in production.
• Deep Python expertise and substantial hands-on large language model experience.
• Track record of shipping quickly in ambiguous, under-specified situations.
• Experience setting technical direction that other engineers then follow.
• Confident working directly with customers, including in operational settings.
• Eligible for UK security clearance.

Responsibilities

• Embed with customer teams to understand operational problems first hand.
• Build working AI solutions rapidly against real data and real constraints.
• Set the technical approach and architectural patterns used across deployments.
• Own the hardest problems, the ones nobody else has managed to crack.
• Design and tune retrieval, prompting and agent behaviour for demanding use cases.
• Establish the standard for how output quality is validated before it is relied upon.
• Convert successful deployments into repeatable product capability.
• Mentor senior engineers and act as the technical voice with senior customer stakeholders.

Skills

Python

LLMs

AI systems

Customer facing

Architecture leadership

Security clearance

Job description

Principal AI Engineer (Forward Deployed)

At-a-Glance

• Principal-level individual contributor role embedded directly with customers
• Building AI capability against live operational problems, at pace
• Python, large language models, agentic workflows, data integration
• Set the technical standard for how AI gets deployed across every customer
• Share options and an unusually short distance between idea and impact

About the Company

My client is a UK technology company building an AI operating and orchestration layer that puts intelligent systems to work inside large, complex organisations where accuracy and accountability really matter. The platform is already live and in daily operational use with major customers. The engineering group is small, senior and unusually fast moving, with AI tooling built into how the team genuinely works rather than bolted on afterwards.

The Role

This is a forward deployed role in the truest sense. You go to where the problem is, work alongside the people who have it, and build against it in days rather than quarters. At principal level you are also the technical authority for how that work gets done, setting the patterns, calling the hard architectural questions, and lifting the engineers around you. It suits a very experienced engineer who wants real influence without moving into people management, and who is motivated by problems that matter rather than problems that scale neatly.

Key Responsibilities

• Embed with customer teams to understand operational problems first hand
• Build working AI solutions rapidly against real data and real constraints
• Set the technical approach and architectural patterns used across deployments
• Own the hardest problems, the ones nobody else has managed to crack
• Design and tune retrieval, prompting and agent behaviour for demanding use cases
• Establish the standard for how output quality is validated before it is relied upon
• Convert successful deployments into repeatable product capability
• Mentor senior engineers and act as the technical voice with senior customer stakeholders

What You'll Need

Essential:

• 8+ years building software or AI systems in production
• Deep Python expertise and substantial hands-on large language model experience
• Track record of shipping quickly in ambiguous, under-specified situations
• Experience setting technical direction that other engineers then follow
• Confident working directly with customers, including in operational settings
• Eligible for UK security clearance

Desirable / Nice to Have:

• Previous forward deployed, field engineering or embedded consulting experience
• Background delivering into a heavily regulated or operationally critical domain
• Open source contribution, patents or published technical work

Why Apply?

• The shortest possible distance between a real problem and a working solution
• Genuine principal-level scope, not a senior role with a better title
• Share options as part of the package
• Almost no bureaucracy between you and shipping
• Flexible working pattern
• Direct line to founders and senior leadership
• Shape how an entire engineering function operates while it is still being built