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 lifecycle 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 lifecycle 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 lifecycle - 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 cl...