Job description
Role Overview
Principal AI/ML Engineer at DeepLight, an AI and data consultancy based in the UAE specializing in enterprise intelligent systems for financial services and banking sectors.
Company Overview
DeepLight AI is a specialist AI and data consultancy dedicated to transforming the regional corporate landscape through bespoke, high-impact intelligent systems. The firm combines deep quantitative expertise, cutting-edge cloud architecture, and modern MLOps to engineer secure, scalable, and resilient platforms designed to power enterprise AI at scale. With deep roots across the financial services and banking sectors in the UAE, DeepLight helps major institutions bridge the gap between experimental models and production-grade AI platforms.
Role Purpose
Serve as a technical authority, team mentor, and trusted client principal across high-impact enterprise engagements. Lead cross-functional squads of AI Engineers, Data Scientists, and Data Engineers to translate complex executive visions into elegant, production-ready machine learning and Generative AI systems while navigating client organizations with high emotional intelligence, empathy, and poise.
Key Responsibilities
Architecture & Deployment
- Architect, build, and deploy enterprise-grade machine learning models, deep learning pipelines, Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) systems, and LLM agent frameworks on modern cloud infrastructure (AWS, Azure).
- Demonstrate proven track record of taking complex AI/ML systems out of experimental notebooks and into secure, high-concurrency production cloud environments.
Client Leadership & Advisory
- Act as the primary technical advisor to client C-suite, Chief AI Officers, and Engineering Leads.
- Translate complex business challenges into clear technical execution blueprints, evaluation harnesses, and delivery roadmaps.
- Build authentic client trust, read organizational dynamics, and resolve technical friction constructively.
Team Leadership & Development
- Direct and nurture a team of AI engineers and quantitative specialists.
- Build a culture of psychological safety, continuous learning, and technical excellence through hands-on coaching and active listening.
- Lead teams with empathy and clarity.
Security, Compliance & Risk
- Design zero-trust AI security frameworks, prompt injection defences, and PII masking protocols.
- Defend technical choices, explainability models, and AI ethics before architecture review boards (ARBs) and risk committees.
- Establish automated CI/CD pipelines compliant with regional Central Bank regulatory frameworks and data sovereignty laws.
Stakeholder Communication
- Use high emotional intelligence to de-escalate project friction and align disparate business and IT agendas.
- Bridge the gap between complex data science and actionable business value.
- Articulate the "why" behind technical decisions and effectively present cutting-edge solutions to high-level stakeholders.
Qualifications & Experience
- Master's or Bachelor's degree in Mathematics, Theoretical Physics, Physics, Computer Science, or a related quantitative field.
- 8+ years in software engineering, machine learning, and AI platform development.
- Substantial experience leading teams inside top-tier technology or management consultancies.
- Background in financial services, banking, or capital markets is highly advantageous.
Skills & Competencies
- Deep technical command of modern AI frameworks: PyTorch, TensorFlow, Hugging Face, LangChain/LlamaIndex.
- Vector databases and container orchestration: Docker, Kubernetes.
- Cloud MLOps platforms: AWS SageMaker, Azure OpenAI.
- Practical experience with parameter-efficient fine-tuning (LoRA, QLoRA) and quantization.
- Experience serving open-weight LLMs (vLLM, Ollama, TGI).
- Hands-on experience designing concurrent multi-cloud AI architectures across AWS and Azure in regulated environments.
- High emotional intelligence, empathy, and poise in client-facing contexts.
- Compelling communication skills and ability to persuade high-level stakeholders.
- Experience navigating enterprise procurement, client dynamics, and local regulatory frameworks across the UAE or broader GCC region.
Additional Information
- Competitive salary.
- Comprehensive Gold Level personal health insurance.
- Individual Visa Sponsorship.
- Professional development and certification support.
- Subscription reimbursement relating to your role.
- Opportunity to work on cutting-edge AI projects.
- Monthly Employee Incentive program.
- Career advancement opportunities in a rapidly growing AI company.