Principal Engineer - AI

Join a dynamic Australian scale-up transforming how consumers save on household expenses. We are building the next generation of AI-powered products that enable smarter financial decisions-simply and effortlessly.

Salary: $180K - $200K + super
Location: Sydney (Hybrid / Flexible)
Reporting to: Head of Engineering
Team Size: 500+ employees | Consumer Tech / AI Products
Direct Reports: 1 Engineer
Work Arrangements: 2 days in office; flexible remote work (e.g., one week remote if travelling abroad for a month).

About the Role

We're looking for a Principal Software Engineer - AI to act as a hands-on technical leader and architect for our intelligent product ecosystem. In this pivotal role, you won't just work with AI-you'll design, build, and drive the architecture behind it.

You will:

• Lead the end-to-end design of AI-powered applications.
• Mentor engineers and elevate team capabilities.
• Introduce and implement modern AI tools and frameworks.
• Set the strategic technical direction for agentic, data-driven, and LLM-powered products.

If you enjoy solving complex problems, navigating ambiguity, and taking ideas from concept → prototype → production, this is the role for you.

Key Skills & Responsibilities

Technical Leadership & Strategy

• Own the architecture and technical vision for scalable, high-performance AI systems.
• Drive innovation through adoption and evaluation of new AI frameworks, tools, and approaches.

Hands-On Development

• Build core product features with Python/JavaScript, RESTful APIs, and Generative AI capabilities (LLMs, RAG, vector databases).
• Integrate modern AI SDKs to deliver intelligent, responsive applications.
• Ensure high-quality, reliable systems with strong testing, CI/CD practices, and maintainable code.

Mentorship & Collaboration

• Provide technical leadership and mentorship to engineers through coaching, design reviews, and knowledge sharing.
• Communicate complex technical concepts clearly to both technical teams and executive stakeholders.
• Lead projects from concept to delivery, navigating technical ambiguity with confidence.

What You Bring

• Proven senior technical leadership with ownership of large-scale, distributed systems and architectural decision-making.
• Deep expertise in Python/JavaScript and modern web frameworks, with strong knowledge of distributed system patterns.
• Hands-on experience building AI applications, including LLMs, Generative AI, RAG pipelines, vector databases, and familiarity with AI ecosystems (OpenAI, Vertex AI, LangChain, ElevenLabs).
• Strong communicator, autonomous problem-solver, and passionate about experimentation, continuous learning, and driving impact.