Principal Cloud & AI Engineer

Principal Cloud & AI Engineer

Salary: Up to £80k + Bonus

Remote First- Occasional client site/office visits

This is an exciting opportunity for a forward-thinking and innovative cloud engineering lead to join our client, a technology solutions provider. The Principal Cloud & AI Engineer is a highly technical, hands-on leadership role that provides both deep engineering expertise and architectural guidance as we embark on scaling our AWS and Azure services portfolio.

This individual will be directly responsible for designing, building, and optimising scalable, secure, and resilient cloud solutions. The role also offers the successful candidate to take a leading role in the definition and implementation of tooling, CI/CD pipelines operational processes, automation, and security practices to ensure cloud deployments are robust, efficient, and financially well-managed.

Alongside daily engineering responsibilities, the Principal Cloud Engineer will shape technical best practices, drive continuous improvement, and mentor engineers, fostering a culture focused on growth, learning, and innovation that supports our client's ambition to become an AWS Premier Partner. The role is instrumental in building and scaling the professional services and operational cloud team, supporting the evolution from a single customer pod model to multiple delivery teams.

The successful candidate will have extensive experience in complex implementations as a hands-on engineering lead with proven skills and expertise across IaaS and PaaS AWS services, ideally complemented by Azure expertise and prior experience with hybrid/on-premises environments. Experience in delivering AI/ML or Gen AI proof of concepts is highly desirable but not essential but attitude and aptitude to move into this space is essential.

What you will be doing:

Technical Solution Leadership

• Provide hands-on leadership in designing, prototyping, and deploying scalable solutions and PoCs across AWS, and ideally Azure.
• Lead modernisation and migration of complex workloads, particularly Windows environments, to modern cloud platforms.
• Architect secure, scalable, and cost-optimised cloud-native environments aligned with well-architected principles.
• Act as technical SME, supporting presales initiatives and aligning technical solutions with client business goals.
• Serve as technical design authority for AWS, guiding team architectural standards and decision making.
• Support the delivery of AI/ML and Gen AI proof of concepts, leveraging cloud-native services.

Cloud Strategy, Automation & Governance

• Develop and refine cloud landing zones, infrastructure-as-code, and automation strategies across cloud platforms.
• Lead the design and standardisation of CI/CD pipelines and GitOps practices across teams.
• Support the review of migration readiness and modernisation assessments, using frameworks such as 7Rs.
• Standardise tooling, and governance to improve technical efficiency and consistency across teams.
• Stay current with and integrate emerging technologies (AI, ML, serverless) to maintain technical edge.

People Leadership & Team Development

• Provide technical mentoring for cloud excellence, focusing on best practices, CI/CD and operational excellence.
• Foster continuous learning through knowledge sharing, peer mentoring, and structured training.
• Drive adoption of standardised operating procedures while encouraging innovation and improvement.

Product & Services Design

• Shape and enhance the cloud and managed services portfolio, translating customer needs into technical solutions.
• Collaborate with commercial and product teams to identify trends and create repeatable service offerings.
• Be a cloud advocate, helping write white papers, blogs and attend relevant events.

Cross-functional Collaboration & Influence

• Partner closely with FinOps, security, automation, and delivery lead to improve scalability and integration of solutions and services at scale.
• Communicate technical direction, roadmaps, and best practices clearly across multiple teams and stakeholders.
• Influence customer technical strategy as a trusted advisor and technical authority.

What you need to succeed:

Essential Experience

• Proven experience in implementing and designing cloud solutions in AWS (currently holds or is willing to pass AWS Certified Solutions Architect Professional or DevOps Engineer Professional).
• Must have experience in Windows migration to AWS, Workspaces and monitoring and security services.
• Extensive experience with landing zone development using Terraform IaC, CI/CD and git and GitOps.
• Providing technical delivery experience and leadership through large complex projects and migrations.
• Significant expertise in building AWS solutions, Azure experience, preferable but not essential.
• Background in hybrid/on-premises integration (VMware, networking, storage)
• Experience in supporting Cloud Operations/managed services.
• Experience in delivering AI/ML and gen AI PoC's advantageous.

Skills & Competencies

• Exemplary background in designing in AWS with AWS Pro certification. Azure certifications are also advantageous.
• Continuous innovator, ability to support the success and implementation of new services and repeatable packaged solutions.
• Strong leadership and communications skills with the ability to inspire.
• Deep understanding of cloud operations frameworks, including well architected.
• Exceptional communication skills for engaging both technical teams and non-technical stakeholders.
• Passion for promoting continuous learning and professional development within teams.

At Lucid, we celebrate difference and value diverse perspectives, underpinned by our values of Honesty, Integrity, and Pragmatism . We welcome applications from all suitably qualified or experienced candidates, regardless of personal characteristics. If you have a disability or health condition and seek support throughout the recruitment process, please do not hesitate to contact us.