Principal AI-Native Systems Engineer: Cloud & AI Architect

BT Group; West of England; On-site; GBP 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Bonus 15%

Car allowance

Private healthcare

BT Pension

Parental leave

25 days annual leave

Flexible benefits

Training & development

BT Shares

Discounts

Job summary

BT Group is seeking a Principal AI-Native Systems Engineer to lead the design and delivery of cloud-native, data-intensive, AI-enabled systems across RAN, Core, data and automation domains. The role is hands-on and accountable for outcomes from concept to production, working with users, architects, product owners and engineers to ensure secure, testable and value-driven solutions.

You will shape end-to-end architecture, set standards, and drive AI-assisted delivery while maintaining human

Qualifications

• Experience designing complex software systems and distributed architectures.
• Practical use of AI-assisted engineering tools or agents.
• Strong fundamentals in algorithms, data structures, concurrency, networking, APIs.
• Knowledge of cloud platforms and security, observability, cost considerations.
• Ability to translate user needs into clear specs and acceptance criteria.

Responsibilities

• Define end-to-end AI-native, cloud-native system architecture.
• Turn business problems into deterministic technical specifications and acceptance criteria.
• Orchestrate AI agents to accelerate design, coding, testing and deployment while maintaining accountability.
• Set reusable engineering patterns, governance and review criteria for AI-assisted delivery.
• Design scalable, secure, observable data pipelines and systems across cloud platforms.
• Partner with test engineers to ensure production readiness and compliance.
• Communicate complex concepts to senior stakeholders and users.
• Coach engineers in AI-native practices and accountable decision-making.
• Drive continuous improvement from delivery feedback and production signals.

Skills

Systems engineering

AI-native engineering mindset

Cloud platforms

Go

Rust

C/C++

Java

Python

Architecture leadership

Quality & governance

Communication

Learning agility

Distributed systems

AI-assisted tooling

CI/CD / IaC

Security controls

Requirements gathering

Tools

AWS

CI/CD

Terraform

Kubernetes

Observability tooling

Job description

BT Group is seeking a Principal AI-Native Systems Engineer to lead the design and delivery of cloud-native, data-intensive, AI-enabled systems across RAN, Core, data and automation domains. The role is hands-on and accountable for outcomes from concept to production, working with users, architects, product owners and engineers to ensure secure, testable and value-driven solutions.

You will shape end-to-end architecture, set standards, and drive AI-assisted delivery while maintaining human