Senior Principal Applied AI Engineer

Senior Principal Applied AI Engineer

Location: London

Salary: Circa £160K

This is a great job for someone who:

Is a highly experienced Senior Applied AI or software engineer and recognised technical authority, with a track record of leading the design and delivery of complex AI systems at scale.

You may already be shaping architecture and standards across teams and are motivated by influencing outcomes through expertise rather than line management.

This role suits someone who enjoys operating at system and organisational level, partnering with senior stakeholders, and setting the technical direction that others confidently follow.

A bit about the job

This role sits at the heart of Aviva's Applied AI Engineering capability and exists to provide enterprise-wide technical leadership for applied AI across the organisation.

The team is responsible for designing, delivering, and governing Aviva's most strategically important AI systems, while establishing the engineering standards, architectural patterns, and control frameworks that enable AI to be deployed safely, responsibly, and at scale.

As a Senior Principal Engineer, you will hold accountability for the long-term technical vision, architectural integrity, and operational resilience of critical AI platforms and solutions.

You will act as the senior technical authority for applied AI engineering, ensuring that strategic technology decisions support business objectives, regulatory expectations, and customer outcomes.

You will work closely with senior leaders across Technology, Data, Risk, Security, and the wider business to shape investment priorities, influence enterprise strategy, and ensure the successful adoption of AI capabilities across Aviva.

Through your leadership, you will create the conditions for engineering teams to deliver high-quality, scalable, and trustworthy AI solutions with confidence.

Skills and experience we are looking for

• Extensive experience leading the strategy, architecture, delivery, and operation of complex applied AI, machine learning, or LLM-powered systems at enterprise scale, with accountability for business-critical outcomes.

• Recognised technical authority with a proven track record of setting technology direction, making high-impact architectural decisions, and influencing engineering standards across multiple teams, functions, or domains.

• Deep expertise in software engineering and Python, with the ability to drive engineering excellence, scalability, resilience, security, and operational maturity across large-scale AI platforms.

• Strong experience partnering with senior leaders and executive stakeholders, translating complex technical concepts into clear business outcomes, influencing investment decisions, and aligning diverse groups behind a shared vision.

• Proven ability to lead the safe and responsible adoption of AI in regulated environments, balancing innovation with governance, risk management, compliance, and customer trust

What you’ll get for this role: 

Our purpose – with you today, for a better tomorrow – is a promise we make to our colleagues too. And one of the ways we live up to that promise is by investing in you. We have so much to offer when it comes to being an Aviva colleague:   

• Salary: Circa £160K (depending on location, skills, experience, and qualifications)   

• Bonus opportunity – 25% of annual salary Actual amount depends on your performance and Aviva’s.     

• Generous pension scheme – Aviva will contribute up to 14%, depending on what you put in     

• 29 days holiday plus bank holidays, with the option to buy or sell up to 5 days     

• Aviva-funded Private Medical Benefit to help you get expert support when you need it     

• Up to 40% discount on Aviva products, and other retailer discounts     

• Up to £1,200 of free Aviva shares per year through our Matching Share Plan and Save As You Earn scheme     

• Brilliantly supportive policies including parental and carer’s leave     

• Flexible benefits to suit you, including sustainability options such as cycle to work     

• Make a difference, be part of our Aviva Communities and use your 3 paid volunteering days to help others     

• We take your wellbeing seriously with lots of support and tools     

     
Take a look to learn more. Put a salary into this calculator to see what your total Aviva Reward could be.     

Aviva is for everyone:     

We’re inclusive and welcome everyone – we want applications from all backgrounds and experiences.    

Excited but not sure you tick every box? Even if you don’t, we’d still encourage you to apply. We also consider all forms of flexible working, including part time and job shares.     

We flex locations, hours and working patterns to suit our customers, business, and you. Most of our people are smart working – spending at least 50% of their time in our offices every week – combining the benefits of flexibility, with time together with colleagues.     

To find out more about working at Aviva take a look here     

We interview every disabled applicant who meets the minimum criteria for the job.     

Once you’ve applied, please send us an email stating that you have a disclosed disability, and we’ll interview you.        

We’d love it if you could submit your application online. If you require an alternative method of applying, please give Kirthi a call on +447387534297 or send an email to kirthi.kanikireddy@aviva.com