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.

What You’ll Do

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
Only candidates based in UK and eligible to work in UK are allowed