Principal AI Engineer

About Edge At EDGE bold ideas are engineered into technologies that protect, improve and save lives. Headquartered in the United Arab Emirates, EDGE is a leading advanced technology group working at the forefront of defence and emerging technologies.

Spanning more than 35 specialised companies and multiple centres of excellence, we are purpose-built to move fast. Free from heavy legacy processes, we give our people the autonomy, accountability, and agility to bring breakthrough technologies from concept to reality.

Based in Abu Dhabi, a globally connected hub at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, EDGE is home to a truly multicultural community where bold ideas thrive, and the future is shaped. Together, we are shaping the future.

About The Role We are seeking a Principal AI Engineer to provide technical leadership in the design, development, integration, verification, and deployment of advanced AI and computer vision solutions for edge and mission-critical platforms.

The role will serve as a senior technical authority across AI/ML, computer vision, video analytics, embedded software, and system architecture, working closely with AI, embedded, systems, hardware, test, product, and programme teams.

The Principal AI Engineer will be responsible for taking complex AI systems from concept and architecture through development, integration, verification, certification, and field deployment.

The role requires strong hands-on expertise in Python and C++, deep learning, computer vision, video analytics, and edge AI, combined with the ability to lead multi-disciplinary engineering teams without direct authority.

The successful candidate will operate at a high level of technical autonomy, make architecture and technology decisions under real-world constraints such as latency, power, memory, compute capacity, reliability, and certifiability, and establish engineering practices that support the development of robust, production-ready and safety-relevant AI systems.

Responsibilities

Define and develop software requirements based on system-level requirements and translate them into robust software architectures and designs. Lead the architecture, design, development, integration, verification, and deployment of AI and computer vision software.

Design, develop, and maintain high-performance video analytics and AI software using Python and C++, particularly for edge and embedded platforms. Lead the development and implementation of object detection, tracking, recognition, classification, and other computer vision algorithms.

Develop novel AI/ML algorithms and make principled architecture selections based on application requirements and constraints. Design scalable software architectures, system decomposition, interfaces, and integration strategies across multi-team engineering environments.

Lead technical resolution of complex software, AI, computer vision, and embedded-system issues across PC and edge devices. Perform system-level profiling and optimization across CPU, GPU, memory bandwidth, I/O, and other system resources to resolve performance bottlenecks.

Lead software integration activities and ensure effective integration across AI, embedded, hardware, systems, and test components. Define and enforce software development standards, coding practices, code review processes, testing methodologies, and quality gates.

Lead technical teams and projects, providing mentorship and technical direction while influencing teams without direct authority. Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams to identify and solve complex problems using advanced AI, computer vision, and video analytics techniques.

Develop communication protocols, software interfaces, and system integrations required for AI-enabled platforms. Plan and execute software verification activities including testing, analysis, inspections, and technical reviews.

Ensure software development follows the V-model and applicable engineering, quality, safety, and configur