Director/ Principal Engineer - Applied AI

Principal Engineer, Applied AI, CTO Group Overview Are you looking to redefine customer experience by bending the curve of innovation in one of the most coveted domains, Banking & Financial Services Industry? Join our innovative team to build and deliver elevated customer experiences and streamline business operations with cutting-edge AI-driven solutions.

As a Principal Engineer of Applied AI, you will collaborate with multiple high stakeholders, senior leaders, talented engineers, and scientists, leveraging your deep expertise to shape AI/ML strategy on complex technical projects. You will serve as the deep technical expert and hands-on architect responsible for defining technology roadmaps, best practices, and standards that equip LLMs with domain-specific knowledge and execution capabilities.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the primary code-level reviewer and hands-on architect for the most complex AI/ML systems and frameworks.
• Define and enforce technology roadmaps, best practices, strategies, and standards for AI/ML adoption across the organization.
• Conduct and guide research on context/prompt engineering techniques to translate successful research into reusable engineering frameworks for the wider team.
• Architect and maintain robust data pipelines and data processing workflows for model training and model tuning, utilizing cloud services for scalability and efficiency.
• Implement and champion MLOps tools and practices, ensuring seamless integration of machine learning models and LLMs into production environments.
• Lead the effort to agentize existing systems (front-end & back-end apps) by incorporating agentic frameworks/stacks and integrating them via A2A, MCP protocol.
• Partner with cross-functional teams to integrate AI/ML solutions into products and services.
• Mentor and coach junior and senior engineers on advanced AI/ML techniques, best practices, and architecture design.

Required Qualifications

• A Bachelor’s degree (or above) in computer science, engineering, mathematics, or a related discipline.
• 12+ years of experience in Software Engineering, Data Science, or Analytics with 5+ years of experience in AI/ML engineering or related fields.
• Demonstrated experience designing and implementing highly scalable, production-grade AI/ML platforms and systems.
• Deep understanding of Large Language Models (LLMs), LLM training & fine tuning.
• Hands-on experience in GenAI and AgenticAI frameworks such as LangGraph/LangChain, CrewAI, Strands SDK, Google ADK, etc. Familiarity on working with MCP and A2A protocols.
• Expertise in various AI/ML techniques, such as deep learning, natural language processing, reinforcement learning, and large language models.
• Proficiency in Python, R, or other programming languages for data analysis and AI/ML development.
• Experience with DevOps and CI/CD tools and practices, such as Git, Jenkins, Docker, Kubernetes, etc..

Preferred Qualifications

• PhD in computer science, engineering, mathematics, statistics, or a related discipline.
• Experience in establishing and enforcing AI/ML best practices, standards, and ethics.
• Knowledge of banking, financial products and services.

Purpose of the role To drive technical excellence and innovation by leading the design and implementation of robust software solutions, providing mentorship to engineering teams, fostering cross-functional collaboration, and contributing to strategic planning to ensure the delivery of high-quality solutions aligned with business objectives.

Accountabilities

• Provision of guidance and expertise to engineering teams to ensure alignment with best practices and foster a culture of technical excellence.
• Contribution to strategic planning by aligning technical decisions with business goals, anticipating future technology trends, and providing insights to optimize product roadmaps.
• Design and implementation of complex, scalable, and maintainable software solutions, considering long-term viability and business objectives.
• Mentoring and coaching to junior and mid-level engineers to foster professional growth and knowledge sharing, elevating the overall skillset and capabilities of the organization.
• Collaboration with business partners, product managers, designers, and other stakeholders to translate business requirements into technical solutions and ensure a cohesive approach to product development.
• Innovation within the organization by identifying and incorporating new technologies, methodologies, and industry practices into the engineering process.

Director Expectations

• To manage a business function, providing significant input to function wide strategic initiatives. Contribute to and influence policy and procedures for the function and plan, manage and consult on multiple complex and critical strategic projects, which may be business wide..
• They manage the direction of a large team or sub-function, leading other people managers and embedding a performance culture aligned to the values of the business. Or for an individual contributor, they lead organisation wide projects and act as deep technical expert and thought leader, identifying new ways of working and collaborating cross functionally. They will train, guide and coach less experienced specialists and provide information affecting long term profits, organisational risks and strategic decisions..
• Provide expert advice to senior functional management and committees to influence decisions made outside of own function, offering significant input to function wide strategic initiatives.
• Manage, coordinate and enable resourcing, budgeting and policy creation for a significant sub-function.
• Escalates breaches of policies / procedure appropriately.
• Foster and guide compliance, ensure regulations are observed that relevant processes in place to facilitate adherence.
• Focus on the external environment, regulators, or advocacy groups to both monitor and influence on behalf of Barclays, when appropriate.
• Demonstrate extensive knowledge of how the function integrates with the business division / Group to achieve the overall business objectives.
• Maintain broad and comprehensive knowledge of industry theories and practices within own discipline alongside up-to-date relevant sector / functional knowledge, and insight into external market developments / initiatives.
• Use interpretative thinking and advanced analytical skills to solve problems and design solutions in often complex/ sensitive situations.
• Exercise management authority to make significant decisions and certain strategic decisions or recommendations within own area.
• Negotiate with and influence stakeholders at a senior level both internally and externally.
• Act as principal contact point for key clients and counterparts in other functions/ businesses divisions.
• Mandated as a spokesperson for the function and business division.

All Senior Leaders are expected to demonstrate a clear set of leadership behaviours to create an environment for colleagues to thrive and deliver to a consistently excellent standard. The four LEAD behaviours are: L – Listen and be authentic, E – Energise and inspire, A – Align across the enterprise, D – Develop others.

All colleagues will be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Values of Respect, Integrity, Service, Excellence and Stewardship – our moral compass, helping us do what we believe is right. They will also be expected to demonstrate the Barclays Mindset – to Empower, Challenge and Drive – the operating manual for how we behave.