Principal Forward Deployed Engineer

VIQU IT; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 166,000; Full time

Job summary

Morela is seeking a Principal Forward Deployed Engineer to own the technical relationship with defence and government customers, deploying and accrediting a GCP-native AI platform in diverse environments, from Kubernetes to air-gapped networks.

Role suits a hands-on senior engineer who can lead workshops, drive end-to-end delivery, and work with MOD stakeholders. Hybrid London-based with travel, ASAP start for 6 months with potential extension.

Qualifications

• Active DV clearance required.
• Hands-on architecting, building and scaling complex products.
• Excellent stakeholder engagement and ownership.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical workshops, demos and discussions with senior MOD, engineering and security stakeholders
• Own delivery end to end, from requirements and planning through deployment, troubleshooting and handover
• Adapt the platform's GCP architecture to each customer's infrastructure, including restricted and air-gapped environments
• Integrate the platform with customer data sources, APIs and systems
• Own test strategy, acceptance and the technical documentation customers and accreditors need
• Lead technical assurance, including architecture reviews, threat modelling and accreditation support
• Write production code where delivery needs it and feed field insight back to engineering

Skills

GCP

TypeScript

Node.js

React

PostgreSQL

Security engineering

Architecture design

Terraform

Docker

Kubernetes

OpenShift

Tools

Terraform

GitLab CI/CD

Docker

Kubernetes

OpenShift

Job description

Principal Forward Deployed Engineer
Contract Outside IR35 London, Hybrid DV Cleared
This is a contract role, 6 months with a view to extend, Outside IR35, with the day rate to be confirmed. It is hybrid, with 2 to 3 days a week on site in London plus travel to customer sites, requires active DV clearance, and starts ASAP.

About the Client

Morela is proud to be supporting a fast-growing, venture-backed UK AI company building sovereign AI for defence, government and other highly regulated sectors. Their core product is an AI operating system built for secure, air-gapped environments. The client s identity will be shared on introduction.

The Role

You will own the technical relationship with the client s defence and government customers, taking a GCP-native product and getting it deployed, integrated, tested and accredited in whatever environment the customer runs, from Kubernetes and OpenShift to bare metal and air-gapped networks. From the first workshop with a security authority through to acceptance and handover, it s yours. It suits a former technical founder or Principal Engineer who still writes code and is comfortable working independently with senior MOD stakeholders.

Responsibilities

• Lead technical workshops, demos and discussions with senior MOD, engineering and security stakeholders
• Own delivery end to end, from requirements and planning through deployment, troubleshooting and handover
• Adapt the platform s GCP architecture to each customer s infrastructure, including restricted and air-gapped environments
• Integrate the platform with customer data sources, APIs and systems
• Own test strategy, acceptance and the technical documentation customers and accreditors need
• Lead technical assurance, including architecture reviews, threat modelling and accreditation support
• Write production code where delivery needs it and feed field insight back to engineering

Essential Requirements

• Active DV clearance
• Has personally architected, built and scaled complex products from scratch, and is still hands-on
• Strong GCP (Cloud Run, Cloud SQL, IAM, networking, Workload Identity Federation)
• Terraform, GitLab CI/CD, Docker and container orchestration
• Deploying across Kubernetes, OpenShift, VMs, bare metal, on-premises and sovereign cloud
• Full stack: TypeScript, Node.js, React, Next.js, PostgreSQL
• Security engineering, test strategy and accreditation-grade documentation
• Confident leading technical engagements with senior stakeholders, with a pragmatic, high-ownership delivery mindset

Desirable Experience

• MOD or defence delivery, including air-gapped or classified environments
• Familiarity with MOD standards, information assurance and accreditationAI/LLM engineering, including agentic workflows and evaluation
• Data engineering and integration with complex customer data
• AWS or Azure, GPU workloads or on-premise model serving

Working Environment

Some work takes place in secure facilities without personal devices or internet access. You will be part of a small, senior team working at the front line of sovereign AI in defence.