Principal AI Engineer: Lead AI Solutions & Deployment

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

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.