Principal Engineer - Forward Deployed Engineer

xdesign; City of Edinburgh; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

xdesign is seeking a Principal Engineer for a Forward Deployed role in the UK, based in Edinburgh or London. You will work directly with client teams to turn emerging technology into production-ready outcomes, staying hands-on and close to the problem while mentoring others and driving practical delivery.

You'll combine broad engineering capability with deep expertise, acting as a trusted technical partner who can transfer knowledge, challenge assumptions, and guide teams through AI-enabled

Qualifications

• Broad engineering capability across full stack with deep expertise in at least one area.
• Hands-on approach: you still build, review and get into the detail.
• Excellent communication and consulting skills with engineers and stakeholders.
• Strong awareness of modern AI capabilities and practical outcomes.

Responsibilities

• Work directly with teams to understand required outcomes.
• Identify where technology can create leverage and turn ideas into working solutions.
• Build and demonstrate capabilities, often ahead of wider adoption.
• Transfer knowledge to teams so they can continue independently.
• Feed patterns and improvements back into the wider engineering team.
• Act as a trusted technical partner, challenging assumptions and making pragmatic decisions.
• Help teams use AI and emerging tech without compromising quality.

Skills

T-shaped engineer

Architectural judgement

Hands-on engineering

AI capabilities awareness

Communication skills

Job description

Principal Engineer - Forward Deployed

UK-based | Edinburgh or London | Approximately 1 day per week

Build the future, in the real world.

We're looking for a Principal Engineer to join us in a Forward Deployed role - working directly with teams to turn emerging technology and platform capabilities into real, production-ready outcomes.

This isn't a role where you sit on the sidelines writing recommendations. You'll get close to the problem, work alongside the people experiencing it, build the solution, and help them become self-sufficient.

You'll combine deep engineering expertise with strong consulting skills, curiosity and a practical bias towards delivery.

What you'll do

• Work directly with teams to understand the outcomes they need to achieve.
• Identify where technology can create the most leverage and turn ideas into working solutions.
• Build and demonstrate capabilities, often ahead of wider adoption.
• Work alongside technical teams, transferring knowledge so they can continue independently.
• Feed reusable patterns, lessons and platform improvements back into the wider engineering team.
• Act as a trusted technical partner, challenging assumptions and making pragmatic decisions.
• Help teams make effective use of AI and emerging technology without compromising engineering quality.

What we’re looking for

We're looking for a T-shaped Principal Engineer : broad engineering capability across the full stack, with deep expertise in at least one relevant area.

• Strong engineering fundamentals and architectural judgement.
• Experience building production systems across areas such as backend, cloud, data, web or AI.
• Strong awareness of modern AI capabilities and the ability to turn them into practical outcomes.
• A hands-on approach - you still want to build, review and get into the detail.
• Excellent communication and consulting skills, with the ability to work with both engineers and senior stakeholders.
• A pragmatic, outcome-focused mindset. You care more about solving the right problem than building the cleverest solution.
• The ability to operate comfortably in ambiguity, learn quickly and build trust with unfamiliar teams.
• A genuine interest in transferring knowledge and raising the capability of those around you.
• Experience working in regulated environments would be valuable.

AI is part of the job

AI isn't a side skill here. We expect our Principal Engineers to be fluent in using AI to accelerate engineering while understanding where it can fail.

That means knowing how to give AI the right context, choosing the right tools, reviewing AI-generated work critically, and building the guardrails, evaluations and quality controls needed for production systems.

You'll also help the teams you work with become more capable and confident in using AI themselves.

What you'll be like

You're probably not the person who wants to introduce seven new technologies just because they're interesting.

You're the person who walks into a complex environment, works out what actually matters, removes unnecessary complexity and builds something that makes a measurable difference.

You're comfortable saying "this isn't really a technical problem" when it isn't. You can challenge senior stakeholders without ego, change your mind when the evidence changes, and make decisions without needing everything perfectly defined.

Most importantly, you enjoy working with people. You build trust quickly, get close to the problem and leave teams stronger than you found them.

The practical bits

Location: UK-based, with the ability to attend Edinburgh or London approximately one day per week.

Start: We're targeting January 2027 , with flexibility to discuss an earlier start where appropriate.

If you're a Principal Engineer who wants to stay close to the technology while working directly on meaningful problems with real teams, we'd love to hear from you.

What we'll offer you:

We trust people to do their best work. That means flexibility over rigid rules, impact over activity, and real investment in your growth both professionally and personally. You'll be part of a supportive, and friendly culture, surrounded by smart, curious people who care deeply about what they do.

We offer flexible working, including hybrid and remote options. Our office hubs are located in Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, London and Bulgaria, with occasional travel to client sites or CreateFuture offices when needed.

We trust you to manage your time balancing collaboration with client time and focused work. What matters is the impact you have, not how busy you look.

Our hiring process

We try to keep our hiring process clear, fair and respectful of your time. We aim to get back to everyone who applies and we will be upfront about where you are in the process.

It usually looks like this:

• Call with our Talent Acquisition Team
• Role specific capability interview
• Depending on the role, we might also ask you to do a short presentation, a practic