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About the Role

AKQA is seeking a Principal Engineer (Tech Lead) to join their London Tech team. This is a hands-on role focused on designing, building, and shipping enterprise-grade systems, with a significant portion dedicated to technical leadership and architecture. The role involves leading technical direction for complex client programs, particularly those involving MACH architectures and production Generative AI, from design to cloud infrastructure and operations. You will own architecture decisions, write production code, and mentor engineers, ensuring accountability for delivered solutions.

Responsibilities

Lead the technical direction of complex client programs across MACH architectures and production Generative AI.
Own architecture decisions.
Write and review production code.
Mentor engineers.
Support pre-sales scoping or technical pitches.
Design and build adaptive digital products, services and experiences.
Bridge design intent through to UI development and production application builds.
Apply Gen AI to accelerate, validate and quality-assure the path from design to shippable code and experiences.
Design and deliver MACH-based enterprise platforms.
Design and implement cloud infrastructure, security, and operational ownership.
Design RESTful and GraphQL APIs, including contract-first design, versioning, and gateway patterns.
Design and implement distributed systems and event-driven architecture.
Perform server-side development, service design, and performance optimisation.
Implement automated build, test, and deployment pipelines.
Manage cloud and edge hosting and deployment models.
Integrate with CMS, DXPs, MarTech, and SaaS platforms.
Implement automation, quality assurance, and non-functional requirements (security, performance, reliability, maintainability).
Champion continuous improvement and best-in-class software development processes.
Contribute to technical discovery and propose engineering solutions.

Requirements

Minimum three years' experience with Generative AI, including proven experience shipping at least one AI solution to production in an enterprise context.
AI architecture for experience platforms: system design for intelligent products and services, including RAG, GraphRAG, agent orchestration and proximity / relevance evaluation.
Hands-on implementation with Vercel AI SDK, Vercel AI Cloud and agentic cloud patterns for production AI experiences.
AI content and data engineering: ingestion, cleansing, transformation, embedding, indexing and retrieval pipeline design.
Integration across cloud AI services (e.g. GCP + Vertex AI, Vercel AI Cloud, AWS Bedrock, Azure OpenAI) within a broader MACH and API-led landscape.
GEO and LLM optimisation: experience designing intelligent experiences and content structures optimised for generative engine discovery and LLM retrieval.
AI cost-value analysis, observability, governance, testing and evaluation frameworks for production systems.
Practical application of Generative AI to marketing and experience challenges; e.g. personalisation, content generation, campaign optimisation; with measurable production outcomes.
Advanced Design Systems thinking.
Experience bridging design intent through to UI development and production application builds.
Applying Gen AI to accelerate, validate and quality-assure the path from design to shippable code and experiences.
Experience with Figma, Cursor, Claude and Vercel v0 advantageous.
Minimum eight years' experience designing and delivering MACH-based enterprise platforms.
Deep hands-on experience across GCP and Vercel, with strong capability on AWS and/or Microsoft Azure.
Experience with RESTful and GraphQL APIs, contract-first design, versioning, gateway patterns and integration across SaaS, CMS, DXP and MarTech stacks.
Experience with messaging, async workflows, resilience patterns, idempotency and at-scale system behaviour.
Advanced server-side development (Python recommended; additional languages a plus), service design and performance optimisation.
Experience with Infrastructure as Code and CI/CD (e.g. Terraform, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, GitLab).
Experience with cloud and edge hosting (GCP, Vercel, AWS, Azure, Netlify and related deployment models).
Literacy in HTML, CSS, JavaScript and js + React; mobile technologies (SwiftUI, Kotlin, Flutter or React Native) advantageous.
Experience with CMS, DXPs, MarTech and SaaS integration in complex enterprise landscapes; including headless CMS platforms such as Contentful, Sanity, ContentStack or similar.
Experience with workflow and delivery tooling (GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, Atlassian, Azure DevOps, CI/CD cloud functions or similar).
Experience with automation, quality assurance and non-functional requirements (security, performance, reliability, maintainability).
Must be from a senior engineering, platform or architecture background; Principal, Staff or equivalent depth of hands-on experience.
Builder-first mindset: architecture informed by production experience.
Continuous-improvement approach to engineering practice and team ways of working.
Proactive self-starter with acute attention to detail and drive for improvement.
Practically minded: focus on production work over abstract thought leadership.
Advocate for improvements to processes, quality, security and operational excellence.
Analytical, creative and positive mindset with a personable and professional approach.
Sharp attention to detail and a passion for new technology.
Professional written and verbal communication.
Able to explain complex technical decisions to non-technical audiences.
Must have production Generative AI experience.
Must understand retrieval pipelines, evaluation, cost, governance and operational reliability at scale.

Skills

Generative AI
Intelligent Experience Architecture
RAG
GraphRAG
Agent Orchestration
Proximity / Relevance Evaluation
Vercel AI SDK
Vercel AI Cloud
Agentic Cloud Patterns
AI Content Engineering
AI Data Engineering
Embedding
Indexing
Retrieval Pipelines
GCP
Vertex AI
AWS Bedrock
Azure OpenAI
MACH Architecture
API-led Landscape
GEO Optimisation
LLM Optimisation
AI Cost-Value Analysis
AI Observability
AI Governance
AI Testing
AI Evaluation Frameworks
Personalisation
Content Generation
Campaign Optimisation
Design Systems
Design to Code
Figma
Cursor
Claude
Vercel v0
Microservices
API-first
Cloud-native
Headless Composition
Cloud Platforms
GCP
Vercel
AWS
Microsoft Azure
Infrastructure Design
Security
Operational Ownership
API Design
RESTful APIs
GraphQL APIs
Contract-first Design
API Versioning
API Gateway Patterns
SaaS Integration
CMS Integration
DXP Integration
MarTech Integration
Distributed Systems
Event-Driven Architecture
Messaging
Async Workflows
Resilience Patterns
Idempotency
Backend Engineering
Platform Engineering
Server-Side Development
Python
Service Design
Performance Optimisation
Infrastructure as Code
CI/CD
Terraform
GitHub Actions
Azure DevOps
GitLab
Cloud Hosting
Edge Hosting
Netlify
HTML
CSS
JavaScript
React
SwiftUI
Kotlin
Flutter
React Native
Headless CMS
Contentful
Sanity
ContentStack
GitHub
Bitbucket
Atlassian
Automation
Quality Assurance
Security
Performance
Reliability
Maintainability

Location

London, UK

Work Type

Hybrid

Experience Level

Principal
Staff
Senior

Benefits

Explore our extensive range of benefits here.

About the Company

At AKQA, we believe in the imaginative application of art and science to create beautiful ideas, products and services. With an entrepreneurial and collaborative approach, we design and build adaptive digital products, services and experiences that capture the imagination and deliver impressive returns for our clients.
AKQA is advanced in Design Systems and Design to Code practice; from Figma design systems through to UI development and application delivery.
We work in a progressive environment that fosters a meritocratic culture, surrounded by some of the brightest minds in their fields.
WPP is the trusted growth partner for the world’s leading brands. We unite cutting-edge media intelligence and data solutions, world-class creativity, next-generation production, transformative enterprise solutions and expert strategic counsel in a single company – powered by exceptional talent and our agentic marketing platform, WPP Open, to help our clients navigate change, capture opportunity and deliver transformational growth. For more information, visit WPP.com.

Equal Opportunity

AKQA is an equal opportunity employer and considers applicants for all positions without regard discrimination or regard to particular characteristics. We are committed to fostering a culture of respect in which everyone feels they belong and has the same opportunities to progress in their careers.