Location
London

Hours
Full Time

Salary
Negotiable

About the Role
As a Principal Software Engineer - AI at Moody's, you will lead the strategy, delivery, and evolution of mission-critical AI platforms and intelligent applications within the Digital Content and Innovation organization. You will define and execute long-term technical strategies, owning the multi-year architecture and technology roadmap for AI platforms and applications. This role involves leading multiple engineering teams, including engineering managers, technical leads, and staff-level engineers, with accountability for delivery outcomes across a diverse portfolio. You will drive architectural decisions and organizational alignment to integrate AI-powered solutions such as large language models, retrieval augmented generation, orchestration frameworks, and agentic workflows. Establishing engineering excellence through architecture and code reviews, automated testing, observability, security standards, operational excellence, and machine learning operations practices will be key responsibilities. Additionally, you will manage budget planning and cost management, partner with cross-functional stakeholders to maximize customer value and implement responsible AI governance, and cultivate future engineering leaders through mentoring and succession planning. You will play a critical role in transforming applied AI into scalable, production-ready capabilities that deliver measurable value responsibly and at scale.

About the Team
Our Digital Content and Innovation team builds and deploys intelligent, AI-powered solutions that drive innovation across Moody's products and platforms. The team accelerates next-generation analytical capabilities, enables smarter client experiences, and advances Moody's leadership in applied artificial intelligence. As Principal Engineer, you will define the technical vision, guide strategic investments, build high-performing teams, and help transform applied AI into scalable, production-ready capabilities that deliver measurable value responsibly and at scale.

Experience
- 12+ years of software engineering experience, including 5+ years leading engineering teams and delivering complex, large-scale, multi-team initiatives with measurable business impact
- Experience leading multiple teams or groups of teams, managing engineering managers, technical leads, and staff-level engineers with accountability for delivery outcomes across a portfolio
- Strong technical depth in TypeScript, Python, C#, or similar technologies, with ability to engage credibly in architecture and code reviews, challenge design decisions, and assess technical risk
- Deep expertise in enterprise AI applications built on large language models, including agents, retrieval augmented generation, orchestration frameworks, model optimization, and evaluation frameworks
- Hands-on experience building AI/ML applications (RAG, agent frameworks, MCPs, skills, harnesses) and taking them to production or platforming (LLM or MCP gateway, agentic runtime, auth, data retrieval, eval tooling)
- Experience running AI systems in production at scale, including observability, cost and capacity planning, regression detection, and incident response for AI-powered applications
- Experience operating production distributed systems on AWS/Azure, with strong grasp of reliability, observability, and incident response at scale
- Deep knowledge of cloud-native technologies, serverless applications, event-driven architectures, data and inference pipelines, relational, NoSQL, and vector databases, and modern software architecture patterns
- Proven track record of owning multi-year technical strategy and architectural roadmaps, guiding teams from AI prototype through production deployment, and influencing organizational change
- Deep expertise in artificial intelligence, with a track record of implementing advanced AI solutions to drive strategic transformation and operational efficiency
- Strong experience using AI tools to lead innovation initiatives
- Demonstrated leadership in managing AI-related risks, ensuring ethical governance, and fostering a culture of responsible AI adoption across the organization

About you
You are a visionary technical leader with a passion for AI and software engineering excellence. You thrive in complex, fast-paced environments and have a proven ability to lead and inspire multiple engineering teams. You are skilled at balancing strategic vision with hands-on technical expertise and have a strong commitment to responsible AI governance and ethical practices. You enjoy collaborating with cross-functional stakeholders and are dedicated to mentoring and developing engineering talent to build a sustainable leadership pipeline.

Qualifications
Bachelor's or master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Artificial Intelligence, or a related discipline, or equivalent professional experience.