Lead / Principal AI Engineer

In this Lead / Principal AI Engineer role at AKQA’s London studio, you will design, build and deploy production-grade AI systems and agentic workflows that power modern digital experiences. You’ll blend backend/platform engineering with hands-on AI delivery, collaborating across client, design and engineering teams to translate ambitious ideas into scalable solutions. Your work will cover architecture, security, observability and cost-management to ensure reliable, enterprise-ready AI products. The role offers impact shaping AI-enabled platforms for global brands and close partnership with cross-functional teams to deliver meaningful business value.

• hybrid in-office days
• accommodations or flexibility during interview process

• Architect, develop and deploy production-ready AI systems, including agentic workflows, multi-agent orchestration, RAG and intelligent automation solutions
• Lead the technical design and implementation of AI-powered digital products, applications and platforms ensuring scalability, security, reliability and maintainability
• Design and integrate agent tools, APIs and Model Context Protocol interfaces to interact with enterprise systems
• Develop compound AI architectures combining LLMs with specialized models, semantic search, classification and deterministic workflows
• Build evaluation frameworks, automated testing, guardrails and observability to monitor model behaviour and performance
• Apply engineering judgement to model selection, prompt engineering, structured outputs, fine-tuning and retrieval strategies
• Design and develop backend services, APIs and integration layers using Python, TypeScript/Node.js and modern cloud technologies
• Collaborate with front-end, mobile and product teams to integrate AI in web applications (React, Next.js)
• Implement strategies for token management, caching, latency, fallbacks and graceful degradation across AI services
• Establish CI/CD practices for AI systems with automated evaluations and reliable deployment
• Work with cloud and model platforms (Azure OpenAI, AWS Bedrock, Vertex AI, OpenAI, Anthropic) to deliver enterprise solutions
• Partner with creative, strategy, UX and tech teams to explore AI applications and translate concepts into feasible solutions
• Provide technical leadership and architectural guidance to maintain high software quality, security and best practices
• Engage with clients and stakeholders to explain decisions and shape solutions delivering business value

• Backend, platform or software engineering background with distributed systems and cloud infrastructure understanding
• Hands-on experience delivering generative AI or agentic systems in production and commercially deployed AI solutions
• Advanced proficiency in Python and/or TypeScript/Node.js with clean, testable production code
• Strong understanding of LLM architectures, agentic workflows, tool calling, RAG, embeddings and vector databases
• Experience with agent orchestration frameworks (LangGraph, CrewAI, AutoGen, Vercel AI SDK)
• Experience developing AI evaluation and observability capabilities (LangSmith, Arize Phoenix, Helicone, OpenTelemetry)
• Knowledge of software architecture, security, data management and enterprise integration patterns
• Experience implementing automated testing and CI/CD for non-deterministic AI systems
• Practical knowledge of cloud infrastructure and AI model ecosystems for deployment and scaling
• Understanding of modern digital product development (web apps, headless CMS, APIs, frontend tech)
• Ability to balance technical ambition with cost, latency, performance, security and maintainability
• Curious, pragmatic approach to emerging tech and value-driven AI delivery
• Confident communicating complex concepts to clients and non-technical stakeholders
• Experience in digital agency/technology consultancy or product-led environments with cross-functional collaboration
• Exposure to fine-tuning smaller or open-weight models (Llama, Mistral) for domain-specific apps advantageous
• Experience with design-to-code workflows, Figma integrations, design systems or generative UIs advantageous
• Collaborative, proactive, technically curious and delivery-focused

• collaboration
• clear communication with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
• proactive problem-solving
• Python
• TypeScript/Node.js
• LLM architectures