Principal AI/ML Engineer

📋 Job Overview

DeepLight AI is a specialist AI and data consultancy dedicated to transforming the regional corporate landscape through bespoke, high-impact intelligent systems. We combine deep quantitative expertise, cutting-edge cloud architecture, and modern MLOps to engineer secure, scalable, and resilient platforms designed to power enterprise AI at scale.

🏢 About DeepLight AI

With deep roots across the financial services and banking sectors in the UAE, we help major institutions bridge the gap between experimental models and production-grade AI platforms. We don't build temporary fixes or isolated prototypes—we engineer bulletproof, banking-grade AI solutions for high-stakes enterprise transformations.

🎯 The Role

We are seeking an exceptional Principal AI / ML Engineer to serve as a technical authority, team mentor, and trusted client principal across our high-impact enterprise engagements in the UAE. This is a high-visibility leadership role at the intersection of quantitative science, deep learning architectures, modern MLOps, and strategic consulting.

✅ Key Responsibilities

• 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).
• Act as the primary technical advisor to client C-suite, Chief AI Officers, and Engineering Leads.
• Direct and nurture a team of AI engineers and quantitative specialists.
• Use high EQ to de-escalate project friction, align disparate business and IT agendas, and defend technical choices.
• Design zero-trust AI security frameworks, prompt injection defences, PII masking protocols, and automated CI/CD pipelines compliant with regional Central Bank regulatory frameworks.

📌 Required Qualifications

• A 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, with substantial experience leading teams inside top-tier technology or management consultancies.
• Demonstrated ability to build authentic client trust, read organizational dynamics, resolve technical friction constructively, and lead teams with empathy and clarity.
• Deep technical command of modern AI frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow, Hugging Face, LangChain/LlamaIndex), vector databases, container orchestration (Docker, Kubernetes), and cloud MLOps (AWS SageMaker, Azure OpenAI).
• Proven track record of taking complex AI/ML systems out of experimental notebooks and into secure, high-concurrency production cloud environments.

⭐ Desirable Experience

• Practical experience with parameter-efficient fine-tuning (LoRA, QLoRA), quantization, and serving open-weight LLMs (vLLM, Ollama, TGI).
• Hands-on experience designing concurrent multi-cloud AI architectures across AWS and Azure in regulated environments.
• Experience navigating enterprise procurement, client dynamics, and local regulatory frameworks across the UAE or broader GCC region.

🎁 Benefits

• 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

🛂 Visa & Eligibility

Individual Visa Sponsorship is provided as part of this role.