Principal AI Engineer

We are looking for a passionate and skilled AI engineer who is a technical authority at the domain or business unit level. In this role, you will set the direction for how AI engineering is practiced across multiple teams, define reusable patterns and frameworks, and drive adoption of best practices. You will influence technical roadmaps, mentor senior engineers and leads, and ensure our AI solutions are scalable, reliable and aligned with organizational goals. Operating with broad autonomy, you will shape the evolution of AI engineering within your area, while contributing to the wider engineering community.

Job responsibilities

Set the vision and strategy for AI engineering across teams and projects, ensuring alignment with business goals.

Design and promote scalable frameworks, patterns and standards for building and deploying complex and distributed AI systems.

Anticipate technical and organizational challenges in adopting AI and define approaches to address them.

Uplift the broader engineering community (SMEs and generalists) by driving knowledge sharing, capability building and adoption of AI engineering best practices.

Act as a thought partner to product and business leaders, shaping roadmaps with an understanding of AI opportunities and risks.

Evaluate emerging technologies and approaches, guiding their responsible adoption across the organization.

Provide expert guidance on implementing guardrails at an organizational level.

Provide architectural oversight on complex or high-impact AI initiatives, ensuring they are robust, cost-effective and sustainable.

Represent the organization’s AI engineering expertise in external forums, partnerships or strategic initiatives.

Improve end-to-end GenAI application performance, accuracy and cost, from model training and fine-tuning, to application-level optimization techniques.

Job qualifications

Technical Skills

Mastery of Python and software engineering at scale, setting standards for CI/CD, testing, observability and maintainability across teams.

Recognized track record of architecting scalable AI systems and defining reusable frameworks and patterns.

Thought leadership in applying GenAI and agentic frameworks across domains.

Deep expertise in large-scale RAG systems and advanced information retrieval architectures.

Significant experience deploying AI systems across cloud platforms with complex infrastructure, containers and orchestration.

Define organizational standards for LLMOps, monitoring and reliability.

Advanced experience with model customization, fine-tuning and applying ML/NLP frameworks to solve complex problems.

Professional Skills

Possesses executive presence with the ability to influence engineering culture and strategy at a company-wide level.

Acts as a trusted advisor to senior leadership, providing expert guidance on technical and strategic decisions.

Recognized as a thought leader in the industry, with a track record of publications, patents or conference presentations.

Proven ability to mentor and develop leaders and experts, building a strong technical pipeline for the organization.

Other things to know

Learning & Development

There is no one-size-fits-all career path at Thoughtworks: however you want to develop your career is entirely up to you. But we also balance autonomy with the strength of our cultivation culture. This means your career is supported by interactive tools, numerous development programs and teammates who want to help you grow. We see value in helping each other be our best and that extends to empowering our employees in their career journeys.

Responsible Use of AI in Recruitment

At Thoughtworks, we use AI tools to support our recruitment team with administrative tasks such as drafting communications, scheduling interviews and writing job descriptions.

Crucially, our AI tools do not screen, assess, rank or make hiring decisions. Every application is reviewed by our team and all selection decisions are made exclusively by our interviewers and hiring managers.

We are committed to fairness and responsible AI. We actively manage our AI systems by testing, monitoring for biased outcomes and implementing mitigation measures. We hold our third-party vendors to these same high standards through a rigorous governance process. For additional information, please see our full Thoughtworks AI Policy for Recruitment.

Accommodations

Thoughtworks is committed to providing reasonable accommodations to qualified applicants with disabilities or sincerely held religious beliefs, practices, or observances, in accordance with applicable law.

If you need a reasonable accommodation to complete any part of the application process, participate in interviews, or otherwise engage in the hiring process, you may request an accommodation by completing this form or speaking with your recruiter. Requests may be made at any stage of the application or interview process.

Once a request is received, Thoughtworks will engage in an interactive process with the applicant to determine an appropriate accommodation. Applicants are not required to disclose medical diagnoses or detailed personal information in order to request an accommodation. All accommodation requests will be handled in a timely, confidential, and respectful manner, consistent with applicable legal requirements.

Requesting an accommodation will not negatively affect your consideration for employment. Company prohibits retaliation against any applicant for requesting an accommodation or participating in the accommodation process. Accommodations made during the recruitment process are not a guarantee of future or continued accommodations once hired. If you are hired by Thoughtworks, and require an accommodation to perform the essential functions of your role, you may be asked to engage in our reasonable accommodation process.

Cancellations

As a technology consultancy, the projects we undertake are subject to change based on client needs and agreements. While we strive for consistency, please be aware that project scope or availability may shift, or projects may even be cancelled, during the recruitment and selection process, which is often outside of our direct control. Should the project related to this vacancy be significantly altered or cancelled, all impacted candidates will be promptly and duly informed of the change

About Thoughtworks

Thoughtworks is a dynamic and inclusive community of bright and supportive colleagues who are revolutionizing tech. As a leading technology consultancy, we’re pushing boundaries through our purposeful and impactful work. For 30+ years, we’ve delivered extraordinary impact together with our clients by helping them solve complex business problems with technology as the differentiator. Bring your brilliant expertise and commitment for continuous learning to Thoughtworks. Together, let’s be extraordinary.

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Salary

Benefits: https://www.thoughtworks.com/en-ca/careers/benefits

Salary

$214,000 — $344,000 CAD

See here our AI policy.