Principal AI Engineer

*London (Hybrid) (3 days in 10 onsite) | Permanent*
Salary - up £110,000 + benefits

About the opportunity
Join the AI leadership team of a global law firm with offices across dozens of countries and a technology function of several hundred specialists supporting the business worldwide. As the firm invests significantly in AI to transform how legal services are delivered, this is a rare opportunity to shape that strategy from the ground up.

Reporting to the AI Platform Owner within the firm's Enterprise Architecture & Technology Platforms function, this is a senior technical leadership role with genuine firm-wide scope - not a narrow project remit. You'll own the strategy, design and full delivery life cycle of AI and ML solutions across the organisation, working directly with senior stakeholders to turn AI capability into measurable business outcomes.

The role
As Principal AI Engineer, you will:

- Own the technical strategy for AI solutions across the firm, ensuring scalable architecture and alignment with best practice
- Lead the full life cycle of AI solution delivery - from model development and validation through to deployment and integration
- Manage and mentor a team of AI engineers, embedding strong performance standards and professional development
- Direct and hold external service providers to account, running regular reviews against delivery targets and driving continuous improvement
- Build strong relationships with senior business stakeholders, translating AI use cases into tangible business value
- Act as the firm's go-to expert on AI strategy, providing guidance to other teams and functions
- Own budget and benefits realisation for AI initiatives, balancing priorities and demonstrating clear return on investment

What we're looking for
- Extensive hands-on experience across the full ML/AI life cycle - building, validating, deploying and integrating models in production, not solely research or academic exposure
- Proven people leadership: you've managed and performance-managed an AI, ML or data science team, with real scope and seniority behind it
- Strong proficiency in Python, R or C#, plus hands-on experience with a major cloud platform (AWS, GCP or Azure)
- A track record of directing third-party or vendor delivery against agreed targets
- Excellent stakeholder engagement skills, with the credibility to influence senior business leaders
- Strong commercial and business acumen, with the ability to connect technical delivery to business outcomes

*It would also be great if you have:*
- Experience in legal or professional services
- Familiarity with Azure specifically
- Experience using AI code-writing assistants (such as GitHub Copilot, Claude Code or Codex) with strong engineering controls around code review, testing and security
- Formal project or programme management experience or credentials

Why join?

This is a genuine AI leadership seat with organisation-wide scope - ownership of strategy and full delivery, not a narrow slice of a project. You'll sit within AI leadership, working closely with a senior platform owner and a global technology function that spans dozens of countries. The firm offers hybrid working, first-rate training and development, and a genuinely inclusive environment built to help you and your career thrive.

If you're a senior AI/ML leader who wants to own strategy and delivery at scale, rather than just build in isolation, we'd love to hear from you.