Principal Software Engineer

Principal Software Engineer (AI Transformation) – Agentic Engineering

£800 per day OUTSIDE IR35

Initial 8 week ‘Discovery’ engagement

Remote

Agentic Workflows | Software Architecture | C#.Net | Azure | Python | React

Principal Software Engineer - We’re working with a leading UK technology business that is embarking on a major AI-driven engineering transformation. The business is challenging the traditional approach to software delivery and asking a fundamental question: can a world-class engineer working alongside AI agents deliver the output, speed and quality of a much larger engineering team?

They are looking for a Principal Software Engineer to join an initial 8 week production pilot to assess what agentic engineering can achieve in a real-world environment.

This is not an AI research role. It is an opportunity for an exceptional software engineer who has already embraced AI tooling in their workflow, understands how to use agents effectively, and can demonstrate how this changes the way complex engineering problems are solved.

The Role

You’ll work alongside an existing Tech Lead to drive the modernisation of a core customer-facing application. The ambition is to completely rebuild the platform onto a modern multi-platform architecture, while avoiding the traditional approach of a long, high-risk rewrite. The approach is incremental: establish the foundations, deliver customer value early, and progressively replace the existing application.

You’ll bring the engineering judgment, architectural thinking and AI fluency needed to understand where agents can accelerate delivery, where human expertise is essential, and how to create a new model for software development.

What You’ll Be Doing

• Lead an AI-native approach to rebuilding a major customer application.
• Define the target architecture and technical direction.
• Build production-quality software using AI agents and modern workflows.
• Identify where agentic tooling can materially improve delivery speed.
• Help embed new engineering practices across the team.

What They’re Looking For

• Principal or Lead-level software engineering experience.
• Strong architecture and modern software engineering fundamentals.
• Proven experience using AI agents/tooling to accelerate complex engineering work.
• Experience leading technical change, migrations or platform transformations.
• Ability to operate in ambiguity and create direction.
• Strong product mindset and focus on customer outcomes.

You don’t need to claim to have “mastered” agentic engineering. The field is evolving rapidly. What matters is that you have the engineering depth to understand complex systems, the curiosity to experiment, and real examples of how AI tooling has changed your approach to building software.

Why This Role?

This is a rare opportunity to help define what the next generation of software engineering looks like. You’ll be given significant autonomy, working on a highly visible transformation where success is measured by tangible outcomes: faster delivery, lower engineering effort, maintained quality and a new operating model for building software with AI.

For an engineer who believes AI will fundamentally change how software is created, this is an opportunity to prove it at production scale.

Please reply with your CV or call Simon for a chat.

Principal Software Engineer (AI Transformation) – Agentic Engineering

£800 per day OUTSIDE IR35

Initial 8 week ‘Discovery’ engagement

Remote

Agentic Workflows | Software Architecture | C#.Net | Azure | Python | React