Principal AI Platform Engineer

Leonardo UK Ltd; City of Edinburgh; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 125,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Leave (up to 12 flexi-days)

Pension scheme with employer contrib.

Mental health support

Access to 4,000+ online courses

Hybrid working

Job summary

Leonardo UK Ltd is recruiting a Senior or Principal AI Platform Engineer to shape, build and operate the infrastructure and services underpinning our AI platform. You will provide engineers with secure, reliable access to AI models and inference services, while owning the platform layer above managed GPU infrastructure.

You will deploy scalable inference services using containers, Kubernetes, and AI gateways, improve observability, and enforce security, performance and availability.

Qualifications

• Experience operating shared or business-critical platforms.
• Familiarity with large language models and running them.
• Experience troubleshooting distributed systems and performance issues.
• Familiarity with infrastructure as code and CI/CD.
• Effective communication and stakeholder engagement.
• Curiosity and a drive for continuous improvement.

Responsibilities

• Own the platform layer above our managed GPU infrastructure, incl. model serving and inference runtimes.
• Deploy and operate scalable inference services with containers and Kubernetes.
• Improve observability and performance across the platform.
• Establish engineering standards for operating AI services in secure enterprise env.
• Address cases with no internet access and maintain security controls.

Skills

Platform ownership

LLMs familiarity

Distributed systems troubleshooting

Infrastructure as code

CI/CD

Communication

Curiosity/continuous improvement

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

vLLM

AI gateways

LiteLLM/Bifrost

Job description

Job Description: Your Impact

We are recruiting for a Senior or Principal AI Platform Engineer to help shape, build and operate the infrastructure and services that underpin our AI platform, providing engineers with secure, reliable access to AI models and inference services.

What you’ll do

Take ownership of the platform layer above our managed GPU infrastructure, including model serving, inference runtimes, AI gateways and supporting services. You will help make these capabilities easy for engineering teams to consume while maintaining appropriate controls around security, performance and availability. Using technologies such as containers, Kubernetes, vLLM and AI gateway platforms, you will deploy and operate scalable inference services, improve observability and performance, and investigate complex technical issues across the platform. You will also help establish engineering standards for operating AI services within a secure enterprise environment, including cases where the target system has no route to the internet. We are a multidisciplinary team looking for candidates with a broad mix of skills and experience. You do not need to meet every requirement. What matters most is sound engineering judgement, adaptability and the ability to make a meaningful contribution.

What you’ll bring

• Experience operating shared or business-critical platforms
• Familiarity with large language models and the practical considerations of running them
• Experience troubleshooting distributed systems and performance issues
• Familiarity with infrastructure as code and CI/CD
• Effective communication and stakeholder engagement
• Curiosity and a drive for continuous improvement

Key areas we value experience in

• Linux, application and server administration
• Containers and container orchestration, such as Docker and Kubernetes
• AI inference and model serving platforms, such as vLLM, SGLang or similar AI gateways and API management, such as LiteLLM, Bifrost or similar
• GPU workloads, including performance, utilisation and resource management
• Programming and scripting, such as Python, Bash or Go
• Monitoring, observability and SRE practices
• Secure, resilient and scalable service design
• Authentication, access control, rate limiting and service integration
• Technical documentation and operational guidance

Security Clearance

You must be eligible for full security clearance. For more information and guidance please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vettingclearance-levels

Why join us

At Leonardo, our people are at the heart of everything we do. We offer a comprehensive, company-funded benefits package that supports your wellbeing, career development, and work–life balance. Whether you're looking to grow professionally, care for your health, or plan for the future, we’re here to help you thrive.

• Time to Recharge: Enjoy generous leave with the opportunity to accrue up to 12 additional flexi-days each year.
• Secure your Future: Benefit from our award-winning pension scheme with up to 15% employer contribution.
• Your Wellbeing Matters: Free access to mental health support, financial advice, and employee-led networks championing inclusion and diversity (Enable, Pride, Equalise, Armed Forces, Carers, Wellbeing and Ethnicity).
• Rewarding Performance: All employees at management level and below are eligible for our bonus scheme.
• Never Stop Learning: Free access to 4,000+ online courses via Coursera and LinkedIn Learning.
• Refer a friend: Receive a financial reward through our referral programme.
• Tailored Perks: Spend up to £500 annually on flexible benefits including private healthcare, dental, family cover, tech & lifestyle discounts, gym memberships and more.
• Flexible working: Flexible hours with hybrid working options.
• For part time opportunities, please talk to us about what might be possible for this role.
• For a full list of our company benefits please visit our website.

Leonardo is a global leader in Aerospace, Defence, and Security. Headquartered in Italy, we employ over 53,000 people worldwide including 8,500 across 9 sites in the UK. Our employees are not just part of a team—they are key contributors to shaping innovation, advancing technology, and enhancing global safety.

At Leonardo we are committed to building an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming workplace. We believe that a diverse workforce sparks creativity, drives innovation, and leads to better outcomes for our people and our customers. If you have any accessibility requirements to support you during the recruitment process, just let us know.

Primary Location: GB - Edinburgh

Contract Type: Permanent

Hybrid Working: Hybrid International, multicultural, innovative, technological: this is Leonardo.

The company’s passionate and talented team is strongly influenced by STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) expertise, with a diverse range of experience that enables colleagues to share knowledge and know-how across the generations. Leonardo always wants to expand its talent pool, here you can find the right opportunity for you!