Principal Software Engineer

Jobtailor

Greater London

On-site

GBP 120,000 - 190,000

Full time

3 days ago

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Job summary

8th Light is seeking a senior platform engineering consultant to drive platform strategy for high-impact client engagements in London. You will oversee architecture decisions, guide AI/ML feature integrations, and mentor client and internal teams throughout multi-year projects.

The role requires deep consulting acumen, proven delivery of scalable platforms, and the ability to translate business needs into robust technical roadmaps.

Qualifications

Typically 10+ years of repeated success across a variety of projects.
Deep consulting acumen, technical expertise, and product thinking.
Experience building and shipping production-grade platforms, reusable foundations, tools, infrastructure, and workflows.
Experience taking AI and agentic systems from prototype to production.
Strong understanding of infrastructure, authentication, and observability.
Experience delivering high-stakes consulting engagements across multiple language paradigms, stacks, ecosystems, and client industries.
Experience with multiple languages and frameworks, including Java, C#/.NET, Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, React, Go, Ruby, Scala, R, and SQL.
Experience experimenting with AI development tools.
Experience building or integrating AI/ML features, including recommendation engines, NLP, computer vision, predictive analytics, RAG pipelines, and agents.
Experience leading modernisation and replatforming efforts.
Experience solving architecture-level problems involving scalability, security, reliability, performance, maintainability, and observability.
Experience facilitating alignment across technical and non-technical stakeholders.
Experience mentoring teams and improving team practices.
Strongly preferred: platform engineering, data engineering including Databricks, production agentic systems, RAG pipelines, vector search, LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, AutoGen, n8n, DevSecOps, DevOps, MLOps, and Infrastructure as Code

Responsibilities

Drive platform engineering work and lead platform strategy and delivery.
Balance technology choices while delivering high-quality work within deadlines.
Advise clients on architecture, scalability, and platform evolution.
Collaborate across the full ML lifecycle, from data ingestion and preprocessing through model deployment, integration, and performance monitoring.
Surface new technical approaches and product solutions.
Lead feedback conversations, retrospectives, strategy sessions, and technical deep-dives.
Articulate and document outcomes and drive action items.
Design and manage high-level technical roadmaps for large engagements.
Coach client engineering teams and transfer knowledge.
Influence client CTOs and executive decisions.
Partner with account teams on planning, opportunity identification, stakeholder relationships, and pre-sales scope shaping.
Identify, mitigate, and resolve blockers.
Mentor internally, lead or design workshops, represent 8th Light in the tech community, and support hiring processes.
Demonstrate leadership in scalable system design, modular architecture, and platform- or product-oriented development.
Apply testing strategies, observability, fault tolerance, secure engineering practices, and architectural patterns

Skills

Platform Engineering

AI/ML Feature Integration

Architecture Design

Client Engagement Leadership

Mentoring and Coaching

Tools

Databricks

LangChain

LlamaIndex

CrewAI

AutoGen

N8n

DevSecOps

DevOps

MLOps

Infrastructure as Code

Job description

Work with a variety of clients, typically one to two in a year
Rapidly build trust with clients and understand their domains and objectives
Drive platform engineering work and lead platform strategy and delivery
Balance technology choices while delivering high-quality work within deadlines
Advise clients on architecture, scalability, and platform evolution
Collaborate across the full ML lifecycle, from data ingestion and preprocessing through model deployment, integration, and performance monitoring
Surface new technical approaches and product solutions
Lead feedback conversations, retrospectives, strategy sessions, and technical deep-dives
Articulate and document outcomes and drive action items
Design and manage high-level technical roadmaps for large engagements
Coach client engineering teams and transfer knowledge
Influence client CTOs and executive decisions
Partner with account teams on planning, opportunity identification, stakeholder relationships, and pre-sales scope shaping
Identify, mitigate, and resolve blockers
Mentor internally, lead or design workshops, represent 8th Light in the tech community, and support hiring processes
Demonstrate leadership in scalable system design, modular architecture, and platform- or product-oriented development
Apply testing strategies, observability, fault tolerance, secure engineering practices, and architectural patterns

Requirements

Typically 10+ years of repeated success across a variety of projects
Deep consulting acumen, technical expertise, and product thinking
Experience building and shipping production-grade platforms, reusable foundations, tools, infrastructure, and workflows
Experience taking AI and agentic systems from prototype to production
Strong understanding of infrastructure, authentication, and observability
Experience delivering high-stakes consulting engagements across multiple language paradigms, stacks, ecosystems, and client industries
Experience with multiple languages and frameworks, including Java, C#/.NET, Python, TypeScript, JavaScript, React, Go, Ruby, Scala, R, and SQL
Experience experimenting with AI development tools
Experience building or integrating AI/ML features, including recommendation engines, NLP, computer vision, predictive analytics, RAG pipelines, and agents
Experience leading modernisation and replatforming efforts
Experience solving architecture-level problems involving scalability, security, reliability, performance, maintainability, and observability
Experience facilitating alignment across technical and non-technical stakeholders
Experience mentoring teams and improving team practices
Strongly preferred: platform engineering, data engineering including Databricks, production agentic systems, RAG pipelines, vector search, LangChain, LlamaIndex, CrewAI, AutoGen, n8n, DevSecOps, DevOps, MLOps, and Infrastructure as Code

Core Competencies

Demonstrates extensive experience in platform engineering, architecture, and AI/ML integration, with a strong focus on delivering high-quality, scalable solutions. Proven ability to lead client engagements, mentor teams, and influence executive decisions while managing complex technical roadmaps.

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