Principal Architect - AI

About the Role

Becrypt is creating a new, standalone Principal Architect - AI role to lead the organisation’s approach to artificial intelligence across the business. This is a senior technical position for someone who can look across engineering, product, IT and operations to identify where AI can genuinely improve how Becrypt builds, secures and runs its platforms - and who can then design, build and govern the systems that make that possible.

This is not a team-management role. It is a hands-on, principal-level individual contributor position for someone who leads through technical depth, credibility and influence - working closely with engineering teams, technical architects and internal IT, and setting the policies, risk frameworks and compliance guardrails needed to adopt AI responsibly.

Strategic & cross-business

• Assess processes and systems across the business – engineering, product, customer-facing operations, internal IT – to identify where AI can add genuine value, streamline work, or reduce risk.
• Act as the go-to technical authority on AI across Becrypt, working directly with engineering teams, technical architects and internal IT rather than through a reporting chain.
• Develop and own AI-related policy, governance, risk assessment and compliance frameworks, balancing confidentiality, integrity, availability, usability, customer requirements, engineering effort and operational risk.
• Advise leadership on AI strategy, opportunity areas and risk posture in plain, actionable terms.

Platform & engineering delivery

• Design and build platforms for long-running agentic workflow systems, including AI gateways and supporting infrastructure services.
• Design Docker-based services using Linux container environments, Python, FastAPI, TypeScript, MCP/FastMCP, OpenAI and AWS Bedrock.Apply secure boundaries around credentials, service access, tool invocation and human-in-the-loop operation for AI/agentic systems.
• Build reusable services and integrations, and assess the security, isolation, maintainability and operational implications of emerging AI technologies before they’re adopted.
• Actively probe AI systems, integrations and agentic workflows for vulnerabilities - thinking like an attacker to uncover weaknesses in credential handling, tool invocation and data exposure before they’re exploited, and feeding findings back into design and policy.
• Get hands-on with difficult technical problems alongside engineers - investigating, diagnosing and making architectural calls that improve security, assurance, maintainability and long-term product direction.

What You’ll Bring

• Experience in designing, building, securing and operating complex software platforms, Linux-based systems, distributed services, APIs and integrations.
• Strong, current hands-on experience with Docker/containerised environments, Python, FastAPI, TypeScript, and AI-specific tooling such as MCP/FastMCP, OpenAI APIs and AWS Bedrock.
• Practical experience building or integrating AI gateways, agentic workflow systems, or similar AI infrastructure - not just using AI tools, but architecting the systems around them.
• A track record of enterprise or platform architecture at principal/CTO-advisory level, ideally spanning regulated, security-conscious, or infrastructure-heavy environments (e.g. payments, cloud platforms, integration platforms).
• Demonstrated ability to design policy-based authorisation, credential/access boundaries, and secure-by-design controls for systems handling sensitive operations.
• Experience operating as a senior individual contributor - influencing engineering, product, security, customer-facing and leadership stakeholders without relying on formal team management.
• A working mental model that balances security (CIA), usability, customer needs, engineering effort, operational risk and product strategy when making architectural decisions.
• Comfortable writing and championing policy, risk and compliance documentation, not just technical designs.

Nice to Have

• Experience in a security-focused or highly regulated product company (Becrypt’s own domain).
• Prior experience introducing AI/agentic capability into an existing engineering organisation from scratch.
• Familiarity with data-centre/on-prem as well as cloud (AWS) deployment models.

Success in This Role Looks Like

• A clear, prioritised view of where AI can and should be applied across Becrypt, backed by policy and risk frameworks that leadership and engineering trust.
• A working AI gateway / agentic platform in production use, built to Becrypt’s security and operational standards.
• Engineering teams and internal IT with a clear, well-governed path to adopt AI capability safely and consistently.

Package & Discretionary Benefits:

• 25 days annual leave plus an additional 2 days after 2 years’ service
• 5 days additional holiday purchase available
• Private medical insurance
• Heath cashback plan with Healthshield
• Pension scheme
• Life cover 4 x salary
• Season ticket loan
• Salary exchange benefits (ride2work, pension)
• Subsidised gym membership
• Employee referral scheme

Role will be subject to an employment screening process and will require security clearance