About the Job
Principal AI Engineer – Applied AI & Automation
Location | Sydney (Hybrid)
Comp | $220,000 – $260,000 + Super + Package
Focus | Agentic AI, Automation, LLM Systems, Product & Platform Integration
We’re partnering with a high-growth financial platform investing heavily into AI across both its core product and internal operations.
The business has already mapped out 60+ high-impact AI use cases across areas such as customer experience, fraud detection, operational workflows, and internal decision-making and is now looking for a senior hire to lead the execution.
This is a rare opportunity to step into a role where AI is not experimental, but a core part of the roadmap, with real backing from leadership and a clear mandate to deliver.
About the Role
As a Principal AI Engineer, you’ll operate at the intersection of engineering, product, and strategy, responsible for identifying high-value opportunities and delivering production-grade AI systems that are embedded across the organisation. This is a hands-on role with significant ownership, combining system design, AI engineering, and cross-functional collaboration.
What You’ll Be Working On
- Designing and building LLM-powered applications, including RAG pipelines and agent-based systems
- Embedding AI into core product workflows and transaction systems
- Developing internal AI tooling and automation frameworks across operations, support, and finance
- Identifying and prioritising automation opportunities across the business
- Translating business problems into scalable AI-driven solutions
- Ensuring systems are reliable, observable, and safe in a regulated environment
What You’ll Do
- Build and deploy production-grade AI and automation systems
- Work closely with product, engineering, and business teams to shape the AI roadmap
- Design end-to-end systems from problem discovery through to deployment and iteration
- Create reusable frameworks, tooling, and patterns to accelerate AI adoption
- Evaluate and improve AI system performance, accuracy, and reliability
- Contribute to responsible AI practices, including safety, monitoring, and governance
What We’re Looking For
- 8+ years of experience in software engineering or AI/ML engineering
- Strong experience building and shipping production systems used by real users
- Hands-on experience with LLMs, RAG architectures, or agent-based systems
- Strong coding ability (Python preferred) and solid backend engineering fundamentals
- Experience working with cloud environments (AWS or similar)
- Ability to operate across engineering, product, and business stakeholders
- Strong system design and problem-solving skills
You’ll Likely Thrive Here If
- You enjoy building real systems, not just prototypes
- You think in workflows, automation, and business impact
- You’re comfortable operating in ambiguous, fast-moving environments
- You like combining technical depth with strategic thinking
- You want to define how AI gets applied across an organisation, not just contribute to a small part of it
Nice to Have
- Experience in financial services or regulated environments
- Exposure to AI evaluation, monitoring, and model performance frameworks
- Experience building internal platforms or developer tooling
- Familiarity with compliance frameworks (e.g. ISO 27001)
What’s On Offer
- Competitive salary + bonus + long-term upside
- Flexible hybrid working
- High ownership, low bureaucracy environment
- Direct impact on how AI is applied across a scaling business
- Opportunity to build systems that sit at the core of real-world financial infrastructure
If you’re open to exploring, feel free to reach out or apply directly through danny@salientgroup.com.au
