Gen AI Principal Lead

Description Ciklum; India; On-site; INR 3,000,000 - 6,000,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Medical insurance (company-paid)

Mental health support

Financial & legal consultations

Job summary

Ciklum in India is seeking a Gen AI Principal Lead to transform software development into an AI-agentic model. You will own the technical architecture and drive the organizational rollout across a cross-functional team, ensuring governance and alignment with business goals.

The role demands senior engineering leadership, experience with AI agent frameworks, and a track record of delivering complex transformations in regulated environments. It offers growth in a globally integrated team.

Qualifications

• Proven senior software engineering background with ownership of architecture.
• Experience applying AI agent frameworks and LLM tooling patterns.
• Deep understanding of modern SDLC/DevOps and CI/CD pipelines.
• Track record leading cross-functional technology change initiatives.
• Experience in regulated or security-sensitive environments.

Responsibilities

• Assess SDLC end-to-end to map stages for autonomy, assist, or human ownership.
• Design agentic architecture including orchestration, tooling, and gates.
• Define guardrails: security reviews, cost controls, audits, sign-off checkpoints.
• Integrate agent tooling across orchestration frameworks and CI/CD.
• Lead phased rollout with clear success metrics: cycle time, defect rate, trust.
• Manage change: train teams on new workflows and role definitions.
• Report ROI, risk, and adoption to engineering leadership.

Tools

AI Platform

OpenAI

Job description

Ciklum is looking for a Gen AI Principal Lead to join our team full-time in India.

We are a custom product engineering company that supports both multinational organizations and scaling startups to solve their most complex business challenges. With a global team of over 4,000 highly skilled developers, consultants, analysts and product owners, we engineer technology that redefines industries and shapes the way people live.

About the role:

As a POSITION_NAME, become a part of a cross-functional development team engineering experiences of tomorrow. Lead the transformation of software development lifecycle into an AI-agentic model - where autonomous and semi-autonomous AI agents handle defined portions of requirements analysis, coding, testing, code review, and deployment, under a governed human-oversight framework. Own both the technical architecture and the organizational rollout.

Responsibilities:

• Assess the current SDLC end-to-end and identify which stages are suitable for agent autonomy, agent-assist, or remain human-owned (a maturity/readiness map, not a blanket "automate everything")
• Design and stand up the agentic architecture: agent orchestration layer, tool/permission scoping, approval and escalation gates, integration with existing CI/CD and code review systems
• Define and implement guardrails: security review for agent-generated code, cost/usage controls, rollback and audit mechanisms, human sign-off checkpoints for high-risk changes
• Select and integrate the agent tooling stack (build vs. buy decisions across orchestration frameworks, coding agents, testing agents, deployment agents)
• Run a phased rollout (pilot team - expanded pilot - org-wide) with clear success metrics at each stage - cycle time, defect rate, agent-error rate, developer trust/adoption
• Own change management: training engineering teams on new workflows, redefining code-review and QA roles, working with security/compliance on new risk surfaces
• Report to engineering leadership on ROI, risk, and adoption - with honest calibration of what's actually autonomous vs. assisted

Requirements:

• 10+ years software engineering experience, including senior/staff-level architecture ownership
• Demonstrated production experience with AI agent frameworks and LLM tool-use patterns
• Deep knowledge of modern SDLC/DevOps tooling and CI/CD pipelines
• Experience leading a cross-functional technology change initiative (not just a technical build)
• Experience in a regulated or security-sensitive environment (agent guardrails matter more there)
• Prior consulting/transformation-program background
• Familiarity with MCP (Model Context Protocol) or similar agent-tool integration standards

What's in it for you?

• Strong community: Work alongside top professionals in a friendly, open-door environment
• Growth focus: Take on large-scale projects with a global impact and expand your expertise
• Tailored learning: Boost your skills with internal events (meetups, conferences, workshops), Udemy access, language courses, and company-paid certifications
• Endless opportunities: Explore diverse domains through internal mobility, finding the best fit to gain hands-on experience with cutting-edge technologies
• Care: We’ve got you covered with company-paid medical insurance, mental health support, and financial & legal consultations

About us:

At Ciklum, we are always exploring innovations, empowering each other to achieve more, and engineering solutions that matter. With us, you'll work with cutting-edge technologies, contribute to impactful projects, and be part of a One Team culture that values collaboration and progress.

India is a strategic innovation hub for Ciklum, with growing teams in Chennai and Pune leading advancements in EdgeTech, AR/VR, IoT, and beyond. Join us to collaborate on game-changing solutions and take your career to the next level.

Explore, empower, engineer with Ciklum!

#LI-NN1

Required Skills

• AI Platform
• OpenAI

Job Info

• Job Identification 4618
• Job Category Data Science and Machine Learning