{"id":1951635,"url":"https://alion.io/job/createfuture-principal-engineer-forward-deployed-engineer","title":"Principal Engineer - Forward Deployed Engineer","company":{"id":52267,"name":"CreateFuture","domain":"createfuture.com","url":"https://alion.io/company/createfuture","size_band":"501-1000","is_staffing_agency":false,"employer_type":"direct","is_intermediary":false,"listed_via":null,"ats_vendor":"Greenhouse","truth_index":{"grade":"A","score":95,"open_postings":5,"ghost_share":0,"stale_share":0.2,"repost_share":0,"time_to_fill_p50_days":42,"computed_at":"2026-10-08T05:49:30Z"}},"role":"Solutions","role_family":"Solutions","seniority":"lead","employment_type":null,"work_mode":"on_site","remote_scope":null,"remote_scope_basis":null,"remote_working_hours":null,"hiring_geo_confidence":"explicit","locations":["Edinburgh, United Kingdom"],"countries":["GB"],"hiring_countries":[],"hiring_countries_total":0,"salary":null,"salary_estimate":{"min_usd":72000,"max_usd":156000,"period":"year","method":"role_seniority_country_remote_cell","sample_n":29},"experience_years_min":null,"visa_sponsorship":false,"relocation_package":false,"has_equity":false,"technologies":[],"status":"live","first_seen_at":"2026-10-06T09:29:12Z","employer_posted_date":"2026-10-06","last_verified_at":"2026-10-09T03:30:05Z","board_verified":true,"closed_at":null,"days_open":2,"trust":{"level":"ok","repost_count":null,"flags":[],"days_open":2},"description":"Principal Engineer - Forward Deployed\nUK-based | Edinburgh or London | Approximately 1 day per week\nBuild the future, in the real world.\nWe’re looking for a Principal Engineer to join us in a Forward Deployed role - working directly with teams to turn emerging technology and platform capabilities into real, production-ready outcomes.\nThis isn’t a role where you sit on the sidelines writing recommendations. You’ll get close to the problem, work alongside the people experiencing it, build the solution, and help them become self-sufficient.\nYou’ll combine deep engineering expertise with strong consulting skills, curiosity and a practical bias towards delivery.\nWhat you'll do\nWork directly with teams to understand the outcomes they need to achieve.\nIdentify where technology can create the most leverage and turn ideas into working solutions.\nBuild and demonstrate capabilities, often ahead of wider adoption.\nWork alongside technical teams, transferring knowledge so they can continue independently.\nFeed reusable patterns, lessons and platform improvements back into the wider engineering team.\nAct as a trusted technical partner, challenging assumptions and making pragmatic decisions.\nHelp teams make effective use of AI and emerging technology without compromising engineering quality.\nWhat we're looking for\nWe’re looking for a T-shaped Principal Engineer: broad engineering capability across the full stack, with deep expertise in at least one relevant area.\nYou’ll bring:\nStrong engineering fundamentals and architectural judgement.\nExperience building production systems across areas such as backend, cloud, data, web or AI.\nStrong awareness of modern AI capabilities and the ability to turn them into practical outcomes.\nA hands-on approach - you still want to build, review and get into the detail.\nExcellent communication and consulting skills, with the ability to work with both engineers and senior stakeholders.\nA pragmatic, outcome-focused mindset. You care more about solving the right problem than building the cleverest solution.\nThe ability to operate comfortably in ambiguity, learn quickly and build trust with unfamiliar teams.\nA genuine interest in transferring knowledge and raising the capability of those around you.\nExperience working in regulated environments would be valuable.\nAI is part of the job\nAI isn't a side skill here. We expect our Principal Engineers to be fluent in using AI to accelerate engineering while understanding where it can fail.\nThat means knowing how to give AI the right context, choosing the right tools, reviewing AI-generated work critically, and building the guardrails, evaluations and quality controls needed for production systems.\nYou'll also help the teams you work with become more capable and confident in using AI themselves.\nWhat you'll be like\nYou’re probably not the person who wants to introduce seven new technologies just because they're interesting.\nYou’re the person who walks into a complex environment, works out what actually matters, removes unnecessary complexity and builds something that makes a measurable difference.\nYou’re comfortable saying “this isn't really a technical problem” when it isn't. You can challenge senior stakeholders without ego, change your mind when the evidence changes, and make decisions without needing everything perfectly defined.\nMost importantly, you enjoy working with people. You build trust quickly, get close to the problem and leave teams stronger than you found them.\nThe practical bits\nLocation: UK-based, with the ability to attend Edinburgh or London approximately one day per week.\nStart: We're targeting January 2027, with flexibility to discuss an earlier start where appropriate.\nIf you’re a Principal Engineer who wants to stay close to the technology while working directly on meaningful problems with real teams, we’d love to hear from you.\nWhat we’ll offer you:\nWe trust people to do their best work. That means flexibility over rigid rules, impact over activity, and real investment in your growth both professionally and personally. You’ll be part of a supportive, and friendly culture, surrounded by smart, curious people who care deeply about what they do.\nWe offer flexible working, including hybrid and remote options. Our office hubs are located in Edinburgh, Leeds, Manchester, London and Bulgaria, with occasional travel to client sites or CreateFuture offices when needed.\nWe trust you to manage your time balancing collaboration with client time and focused work. What matters is the impact you have, not how busy you look.\nOur hiring process\nWe try to keep our hiring process clear, fair and respectful of your time. We aim to get back to everyone who applies and we will be upfront about where you are in the process.\nIt usually looks like this:\nCall with our Talent Acquisition Team \nRole specific capability interview \nDepending on the role, we might also ask you to do a short presentation, a practical or technical task or have a values focused conversation. We will explain what is involved before anything happens.\nInclusion at CreateFuture \nWe believe diverse teams build better workplaces and better products. We want CreateFuture to be a place where people feel able to be themselves and do their best work.\nIf you need any adjustments or support during the application process, just. We will do what we can to help.\nWe look forward to your application!","description_format":"text","description_chars":5411,"description_truncated":false,"requirements":{"experience_years_min":null,"management_years_min":null,"team_size_min":null,"manages_managers":false,"education":null,"security_clearance":false,"languages":[]},"benefits":["Flexible schedule"],"hiring_locations":[{"name":"United Kingdom","iso":"GB","kind":"country"}],"hiring_excludes":[],"relocation_offered":false,"industries":["Digital Goods"],"lifecycle":[{"event":"open","at":"2026-10-06T10:17:01Z"}],"visa":[],"liveness":{"score":90,"band":"hot","label":"Hiring now","p_open":1,"p_active":0.903,"p_room":1,"age_days":1,"expected_fill_days":42,"reasons":["conf:1","velocity","win:early"],"computed_at":"2026-10-08T05:49:30Z"},"pay":null,"html_url":"https://alion.io/job/createfuture-principal-engineer-forward-deployed-engineer","json_url":"https://alion.io/job/createfuture-principal-engineer-forward-deployed-engineer.json","meta":{"generated_at":"2026-10-09T04:45:39Z","cache_seconds":300,"methodology":"https://alion.io/methodology","terms":"https://alion.io/terms","contact":"https://alion.io/contact","api":"https://alion.io/developers","about":"Alion is a live layer of people, companies and AI agents: who they are, whether they are real and active right now, what they do and how to work with them, readable by people and by agents and paid per call.","catalog":"https://alion.io/catalog.json","usage":{"tier":"crawler","counted_by":"address","units_charged":1,"used_today":4722,"day_limit":5000,"remaining_today":278,"minute_limit":60,"resets_at":"2026-10-10T00:00:00Z"}},"offers":[{"id":"company.slices","title":"One company in depth, by slice","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002,"plus_per_slice":{"credits":0.05,"usd":0.005}},"unit":"per company, plus each slice with data","note":"the employer in depth","call":{"mcp_tool":"get_company","arguments":{"id":52267},"rest":"https://alion.io/mcp/rest/get_company?id=52267"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.slices&for=job%2Fcreatefuture-principal-engineer-forward-deployed-engineer"},{"id":"market.stats","title":"A market slice: pay, demand and time to fill","status":"live","price":{"credits":1,"usd":0.1},"unit":"per slice","note":"pay, demand and time to fill for this role and place","call":{"mcp_tool":"market_stats"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=market.stats&for=job%2Fcreatefuture-principal-engineer-forward-deployed-engineer"},{"id":"job.search","title":"Open jobs by role, technology, place, pay and visa","status":"live","price":{"credits":0.02,"usd":0.002},"unit":"per posting in a list","note":"similar open postings","call":{"mcp_tool":"search_jobs"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=job.search&for=job%2Fcreatefuture-principal-engineer-forward-deployed-engineer"},{"id":"company.verify","title":"Is this company real and active right now","status":"pilot","price":null,"unit":"per company","request":{"url":"https://alion.io/catalog/request","method":"POST","body":"{\"offer\": \"company.verify\", \"for\": \"job/createfuture-principal-engineer-forward-deployed-engineer\", \"note\": \"what you need it for\"}"},"human":"https://alion.io/catalog?offer=company.verify&for=job%2Fcreatefuture-principal-engineer-forward-deployed-engineer"}]}