Principal AI Engineer

Principal AI Engineer Sydney or Melbourne $240,000 to $340,000 + Super + Equity We're looking for a Principal AI Engineer to join a specialist AI consultancy delivering production AI systems for enterprise organisations. This is a hands-on engineering role. You'll work directly with customers, lead technical direction and remain close to the code throughout delivery. The work spans large language models, retrieval, agentic systems and modern software engineering, with each engagement presenting a different technical challenge. You'll join a small team of experienced engineers solving problems that rarely have established answers. You'll be trusted to make technical decisions, influence architecture and build software that customers depend on. Why this role? Many Principal Engineers eventually find themselves spending more time managing projects than solving engineering problems. This role is different. You'll continue building software while taking ownership of the technical decisions that shape each solution. From the first customer workshop through to production, you'll be responsible for turning complex problems into practical, reliable systems. You'll work across a variety of industries, technologies and use cases, giving you the opportunity to solve new problems rather than maintaining the same product year after year. If you enjoy learning quickly, working with capable engineers and building software that delivers measurable outcomes, you'll feel at home here. What you'll be doing Lead the technical design of enterprise AI solutions from discovery through to production.Build and ship production Python applications and services.Design and implement RAG and agentic AI systems.Integrate AI capabilities into existing customer platforms and software products.Work directly with technical and business stakeholders to understand complex problems and shape practical solutions.Make architecture and engineering decisions that balance simplicity, reliability and long-term maintainability.Provide technical leadership through design reviews, code reviews and mentoring.Improve the evaluation, monitoring and operational performance of production AI systems.• Stay hands-on throughout delivery. What we're looking for You've personally delivered production AI applications that people rely on.You're an exceptional Python software engineer who enjoys building as much as leading.You have experience designing applications using large language models, retrieval or agentic architectures.You make sound engineering decisions and know when the simplest solution is the best one.You're comfortable designing APIs, integrating distributed systems and working across complex technical environments.You communicate clearly with both engineers and customers.You take ownership of difficult technical problems and see them through to production.You care about software quality, reliability and delivering meaningful business outcomes. What success looks like You'll become the engineer customers trust with their hardest technical problems. You'll influence how systems are designed, help other engineers succeed and continue contributing production code while raising the engineering standard across every engagement. Apply If you're looking for a Principal engineering role where you can stay hands-on, solve difficult technical problems and have genuine influence over the systems you build, we'd like to hear from you. Apply now or contact Karim Benriassa at Fyndr for a confidential discussion.