Principal Engineer | AI Systems & Distributed Platforms
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Remote (UK) | £90,000 to £120,000 | Early-Stage AI Start-Up
We're partnered with an early-stage AI business building large-scale operational AI systems designed to automate highly complex enterprise workflows.
This is not another 'AI wrapper' business.
The company is developing a sophisticated AI-native platform focused around autonomous workflows, reasoning systems, orchestration, and large-scale document/case processing within highly regulated environments.
They're already live with enterprise customers and are now entering a major scaling phase as both platform demand and customer onboarding accelerate.
As a result, they're looking to hire a Principal Engineer to help shape the next evolution of the platform from both a systems and architecture perspective.
The Opportunity
This role sits directly alongside the engineering leadership team and will play a critical role in scaling the platform from early traction into enterprise-grade infrastructure.
The environment is heavily product-focused and highly autonomous, with engineers operating very close to both customers and operational workflows.
The business is looking for someone capable of:
* Scaling distributed backend systems
* Designing cloud/platform architecture
* Improving orchestration and workflow systems
* Supporting aggressive platform growth
* Helping evolve engineering standards and technical direction
* Remaining hands-on whilst operating at Principal level
Longer-term, there is a genuine pathway into broader engineering leadership as the company scales.
Tech Environment
Current environment includes:
* TypeScript backend engineering
* Node.js
* React / TypeScript frontend
* AWS infrastructure
* Postgres
* Distributed systems
* Queue/event-driven architectures
* LLM integrations
* AI workflow orchestration
* Claude / OpenAI / Anthropic tooling
The business makes heavy use of AI-assisted engineering workflows internally and operates in a very modern product engineering environment.
What They're Looking For
Strong preference for engineers who have:
* Built distributed systems within start-ups or scale-ups
* Strong backend/platform engineering experience
* Experience scaling products and infrastructure
* Cloud architecture experience (AWS ideally)
* Worked within AI-native, ML-heavy, or LLM-focused environments
* Strong systems design capabilities
* Product-focused engineering mindset
* Comfortable operating autonomously in fast-moving environments
This role is probably best suited to someone who still enjoys solving difficult engineering problems hands-on whilst also influencing technical direction at a wider level. xsngvjr
Package
* £110,000-£120,000+
* Remote-first across the UK
* High ownership/autonomy
* Small, highly capable engineering team
* Fast-moving start-up environment
* Significant technical influence internally
If you enjoy solving genuinely difficult systems and scalability challenges within AI-native environments, this is a very strong opportunity to build something meaningful from an early stage.