Principal Data & AI Architect for Secure, Scalable AI

idpp; Basingstoke; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

idpp is seeking a Principal Data & AI Engineer in the United Kingdom to own the data and AI engineering function and shape product direction. You will lead the design of scalable data platforms, collaborate with researchers and software teams, and drive governance, security, and reliability across enterprise-grade systems.

You will mentor engineers, drive technical strategy, and translate complex business challenges into scalable AI-enabled solutions, all within highly secure environments and

Qualifications

• Significant commercial experience in data/AI engineering, leadership, and platform ownership.
• Experience building AI-enabled platforms with LLMs, embeddings, vector databases and RAG architectures.
• Strong Python and SQL skills with modern software engineering principles.
• Knowledge of cloud-native architectures, containers, and orchestrations in restricted environments.
• Experience deploying AI platforms in regulated sectors and MLOps tooling.

Responsibilities

• Lead architecture and development of scalable AI and data platforms for ML and LLM workloads.
• Design data pipelines from diverse secure sources and ensure governance and observability.
• Build secure, containerised platforms using Docker/Kubernetes for restricted environments.
• Mentor engineers and drive technical strategy across AI teams.
• Collaborate with stakeholders to translate business challenges into scalable solutions.

Skills

Python

SQL

LLMs

Vector databases

RAG architectures

Distributed data processing

Cloud-native

MLOps

Model lifecycle management

Technical leadership

Communication

Security in regulated environments

Education

Degree in Computer Science / Software Engineering / Data Engineering or related

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

Azure

AWS

Terraform

Helm

Ansible

Spark

Kafka

Airflow

Dagster

Job description

idpp is seeking a Principal Data & AI Engineer in the United Kingdom to own the data and AI engineering function and shape product direction. You will lead the design of scalable data platforms, collaborate with researchers and software teams, and drive governance, security, and reliability across enterprise-grade systems.

You will mentor engineers, drive technical strategy, and translate complex business challenges into scalable AI-enabled solutions, all within highly secure environments and