Principal AI Engineering Manager

Salary: £59,000 - 99,000 per year

Requirements:

• Demonstrable experience leading and managing software or AI engineering teams in a production environment, with accountability for team performance, technical quality, and delivery outcomes.
• Strong software engineering background, including proficiency in modern programming languages and software development practices such as version control, CI/CD, and automated testing.
• Hands-on experience delivering AI or machine learning solutions at scale, including model development, deployment, and ongoing operations (MLOps).
• Experience with large language models (LLMs), generative AI techniques, or agentic AI frameworks applied to real-world business problems.
• Track record of managing multi-stakeholder programmes, balancing business priorities with technical constraints and engineering quality.
• Strong written and verbal communication skills, with the ability to present technical concepts clearly to non-technical partners and senior leadership.
• Bachelors degree or higher in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Data Science, Mathematics, or a related technical subject area.
• Desirable: experience operating in the energy sector or another complex industrial or commodities environment.
• Desirable: familiarity with enterprise data platforms, SaaS integration, or data mesh/fabric architectural patterns.
• Desirable: prior exposure to AI applications in operational, trading, or engineering domains such as optimisation, forecasting, or natural language interfaces to enterprise data.
• Desirable: formal training or certification in AI/ML such as AWS Machine Learning Specialty, Google Professional ML Engineer, or equivalent.

Responsibilities:

• Lead and develop the skills of a team of software engineers, setting technical direction, fostering a culture of engineering excellence, and ensuring the team delivers high-quality AI solutions aligned to business domain needs.
• Own the end-to-end delivery of AI engineering programmes within assigned business domains, driving definition of requirements, solution design, iterative development, and production deployment.
• Partner with business stakeholders and product managers to translate domain challenges into well-scoped AI engineering initiatives, prioritising efforts that deliver measurable business value.
• Contribute to the overall AI engineering strategy for the function, establishing and promoting practices, standards, and patterns that improve the consistency and quality of AI solutions across teams.
• Manage relationships with internal and external engineering resources, including contracted and offshore teams, ensuring delivery quality and alignment with technical standards.
• Collaborate with platform, data, and architecture teams to ensure AI solutions are built on sound foundations and integrate appropriately with the broader enterprise technology landscape.

Technologies:

• Agentic AI
• AI
• AWS
• CI/CD
• Fabric
• Machine Learning
• MLOps
• Cloud
• API
• NoSQL
• Security

More:

This role leads AI engineering capability across Upstream and Downstream business domains within bps central digital delivery organisation. The Principal AI Engineer will manage a team of AI-focused software engineers, own end-to-end delivery of AI-powered solutions from design through production, and contribute to the broader AI engineering strategy. We are committed to supporting leaders who want to make an impact, offering an inclusive environment where diverse perspectives are valued and where contribution to performance and integration matters. We invest in the growth and wellbeing of our people through development opportunities and a total rewards package that includes competitive pay, bonuses, share options, and flexible benefits such as healthcare, retirement plans, paid time off, and agile working. The position is based in our Sunbury office and will move to Southwark, London by end 2027; the role is hybrid and may require up to 10% travel.

last updated 36 week of 2026