Principal AI Engineer, Edinburgh

Multiverse is the upskilling platform for AI and Tech adoption.

We have partnered with 1500 companies to deliver a new kind of learning thats transforming todays workforce.

Our upskilling apprenticeships are designed for people of any age and career stage to build critical AI data and tech skills. Our learners have driven $2bn ROI for their employers using the skills theyve learned to improve productivity and measurable performance.

In April 2026 we announced $70 million in strategic funding led by Schroders Capital with participation from StepStone Group Lightspeed Venture Partners and General Catalyst. At an increased valuation of $2.1bn the round makes us Europes first EdTech double unicorn.

But we arent stopping there. With a strong operational footprint and 800 employees we have ambitious plans to continue scaling. Were building a world where tech skills unlock peoples potential and output.

Join Multiverse and power our mission to equip the workforce to win in the AI era.

The Opportunity

Multiverse is the UKs largest apprenticeship provider and its first EdTech unicorn. The current state of AI presents a huge opportunity to reshape the future of education and workforce development and Multiverse is in a uniquely strong position to do that. Getting it right has implications beyond the company: for the UK tech sector and the broader economy.

The Scotland hub exists to make that real. A new engineering team with the mandate to build AI-native products help modernise the existing platform and set the practices that make Multiverse an AI-first company. Multiverse has built an environment where AI-native ways of working collapse the old boundaries so one person can own the whole arc from idea to live product.

As Principal AI Engineer this is a deeply technical role. Youll be the person other engineers turn to when the hard problems land the one who navigates architectural ambiguity makes high-stakes design decisions and holds the bar on engineering quality across everything we build with AI. You ship code alongside the team; this is a hands-on building role not an advisory position.

What Youll Do

• Own the AI agent architecture. Design the orchestration layer memory and context management evaluation framework and integration APIs that all agent products build on. Your decisions are the ones others build on top of.

• Ship production agents. You write and review code and own what goes to production. Youll personally deliver at least one major agent system in your first six months.

• Set the engineering standard. Define how Multiverse builds with AI evaluation methodology multi-agent coordination patterns tool design guardrails and observability. You author the decision records and hold the bar.

• Build the integration layer. Create the APIs MCPs and shared data contracts that connect agents to Multiverses platform content systems and internal tools working closely with London engineering teams who own those systems today.

• Drive technical strategy. Translate product and business goals into a coherent AI engineering roadmap. Shape which problems we tackle in what order and why then socialise it with engineering leadership and the exec team.

• Raise the bar around you. Youre not a line manager but your presence makes the engineers you work with measurably better. Code review pairing on hard problems setting the standard for what good looks like in AI-native engineering.

What Were Looking For

Production AI Agent Engineering

Youve shipped multi-agent systems to real users. You understand context management model selection and routing cost engineering (token economics caching prompt optimisation) tool use and failure handling multi-agent coordination and evaluation frameworks for non-deterministic systems. This is depth not familiarity.

Technical Strategy and Influence at Scale

Youve set technical direction across multiple teams not just within a single squad. You translate complex architecture decisions into business-relevant narratives for executive stakeholders. Youve defined engineering standards that were adopted organisation-wide not just recommended but embedded.

Full-Stack Delivery

You work across the stack LLM integration backend services data pipelines and enough frontend to ship end-to-end. You build with Claude Code daily critically review AI output and augment your tools with context and constraints to make them effective.

Product Instinct

You dont wait to be handed a roadmap. You identify which problems are worth solving in what order and why and you make the case for building before anyone asks you to.

What Would Set You Apart

• Background as a founding engineer or technical co-founder

• Experience in EdTech regulated content or domains where AI output quality has compliance implications

• Published thinking or external contributions in AI engineering talks writing open source

• Practical experience with MCP (Model Context Protocol) or equivalent agent integration standards

Benefits

• Time off - 27 days holiday plus 5 additional days off: 1 life event day 2 volunteer days 2 company-wide wellbeing days (M-Powered Weekend) and 8 bank holidays per year

• Health & Wellness- private medical Insurance with Bupa a medical cashback scheme life insurance gym membership & wellness resources through Wellhub and access to Spill - all in one mental health support

• Hybrid work offering - for most roles we collaborate in the office three days per week with the exception of Coaches and Instructors who collaborate in the office once a month

• Work-from-anywhere scheme - youll have the opportunity to work from anywhere up to 10 days per year

• Space to connect: Beyond the desk we make time for weekly catch-ups seasonal celebrations and have a kitchen thats always stocked!

Our Commitment to Diversity Equity and Inclusion

Were an equal opportunities employer. And proud of it. Every applicant and employee is afforded the same opportunities regardless of race colour ancestry religion sex national origin sexual orientation age citizenship marital status disability gender gender identity or expression or veteran status. This will never change. Read our Equality Diversity & Inclusion policy here.

Our Commitment to Safeguarding

Multiverse is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of our learners. We expect all employees to share this commitment and adhere to our Safeguarding Policy our Prevent Policy and all other Multiverse company policies. Successful applicants will be required to undertake at least a Basic check via the Disclosure Barring Service (DBS).

For roles that will involve a Regulated Activity successful applicants must also undergo an Enhanced DBS check including a Childrens Barred List check and a Prohibition Order check. Roles involving Regulated Activity may interact with vulnerable groups therefore are exempt from the Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 meaning applicants are required to declare any convictions cautions reprimands and final warnings.

Providing false information is an offence and could result in the application being rejected or summary dismissal if the applicant has been selected and possible referral to the police and the DBS.

Required Experience:

Staff IC

Employment Type : Full-Time
Department / Functional Area: Engineering
Experience: years
Vacancy: 1