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Principal AI/ML Engineer

Description

A client of byteSpark.ai is seeking a Principal Applied AI Engineer to provide senior technical direction and hands-on expertise across speech, NLP, large language models and modern applied AI capabilities within secure, high-volume production environments. The role will focus initially on improving speech-to-text quality and reliability, including the evaluation, adaptation and fine-tuning of ASR models such as Whisper or equivalent technologies, while also supporting NLP-driven transcript analysis and the development of AI assistant capabilities using current agentic AI and MCP-based integration approaches. The successful candidate will work closely with existing architects, developers and platform teams to guide model selection, solution architecture, evaluation frameworks, inference optimisation and infrastructure dimensioning, with particular emphasis on on-premises, offline and air-gapped deployment. This is a hands-on principal-level individual contributor role for someone who can combine deep technical judgement with practical model work, mentor engineering teams, and help turn complex AI requirements into reliable production capabilities.

Requirements

  • Hands-on production experience in applied AI or machine learning, with strong depth in speech, NLP or related model-driven systems.
  • Strong Python capability with practical experience using PyTorch and the Hugging Face ecosystem or comparable modern deep-learning frameworks.
  • Production experience with automatic speech recognition and speech-processing pipelines using Whisper, WhisperX, Wav2Vec2 or equivalent technologies.
  • Demonstrated ability to adapt, fine-tune, evaluate and improve model performance using measurable quality metrics such as word error rate, latency, throughput or resource efficiency.
  • Strong understanding of transformer architectures, LLMs, embeddings, tokenisation, sequence modelling and NLP techniques relevant to classification, entity extraction and conversational AI.
  • Practical exposure to modern Agentic AI approaches, tool integration, API or database actions, with current hands-on understanding of MCP or closely related integration patterns.
  • Experience deploying or operating open-source AI models in on-premises, offline, self-hosted or air-gapped environments.
  • Ability to evaluate model size, hardware requirements and inference trade-offs, with practical exposure to optimisation techniques such as quantisation, ONNX, TensorRT, batching, pruning or distillation.
  • Strong technical judgement with the ability to guide architects and engineering teams on model selection, solution design, evaluation strategy and infrastructure requirements.
  • Strong English communication, technical documentation, stakeholder collaboration, design review and mentoring capability.

Desirable

  • Hands-on experience with WhisperX or equivalent advanced ASR frameworks in production environments.
  • Experience with multilingual speech recognition, particularly Arabic, regional dialects or other challenging language and accent variations.
  • Experience with speaker diarisation, noisy or degraded audio, telephony voice streams, far-field audio or other complex speech-processing conditions.
  • Practical experience with real-time or near-real-time speech inference and optimisation for latency, throughput and resource efficiency.
  • Experience with NLP techniques for transcript classification, named-entity recognition, sentiment or threat-related analysis using BERT-family models, spaCy or comparable technologies.
  • Hands-on experience with quantisation, ONNX, TensorRT or other techniques for optimising models for constrained or specialised hardware.
  • Experience delivering AI systems in telecommunications, government, cybersecurity, defence, public-sector or other regulated and security-sensitive environments.
  • Experience contributing to AI research, open-source machine-learning projects, technical publications, patents or other evidence of advanced technical depth.
  • Exposure to non-generative image or video analytics, multimodal AI or related media-analysis capabilities relevant to future product development.
Role Highlights
💰 Compensation
USD 80,000–90,000 gross annual base + performance bonus + local benefits
📍 Location
Europe (Remote)
💼 Work Location Type
Remote
📄 Employment Type
Full-time
📈 Job Level
Senior
⌛ Experience
5+ years
🏢 Department
Information Technology
🏭 Industry
Technology, Information & Media
🔹 Sub-Industry
AI Development
Getting StartedA few quick details so we know how to reach you
How did you hear about us? *
Which country's passport do you hold? *
Email *(Please ensure the email matches the one mentioned in your CV or resume)
LinkedIn Profile URL *
Please mention your notice period *
Let’s Get to Know You BetterA few short questions to understand your experience and what you enjoy doing
1. Have you personally deployed a speech-to-text or Automatic Speech Recognition system in a production environment? *
2. Have you personally fine-tuned or adapted an ASR model to improve transcription accuracy? *
3. Have you deployed AI or machine-learning models in an on-premises, offline, or air-gapped environment? *
4. Have you personally implemented an Agentic AI system that uses tools or external systems to perform actions? *
Final DetailsSalary expectations and any supporting credentials
1. Where does your salary sit today?*
This will be kept confidential
2. What gross annual salary would you expect for your next role?*
This will not be used to exclude applicants
3. Briefly describe the most relevant speech-to-text or ASR system you have personally worked on.
In 3 to 5 sentences, mention the model or approach used, the type of audio or languages involved, and any measurable improvement you achieved.
4. Briefly describe your experience deploying AI or machine-learning models in a private, on-premises, offline, or air-gapped environment.
A short example is sufficient. Focus on what you personally implemented or influenced.
Upload ResumeHelp us get to know you better by sharing your most recent resume
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)Have a question? Check here for quick answers

This recruitment process is managed by byteSpark.ai on behalf of a major enterprise group in the UAE. byteSpark.ai acts as the executive search and talent intelligence partner—evaluating applicants through our contextual assessment platform to streamline selection. byteSpark.ai is not the employer; further details about the specific group enterprise will be shared with shortlisted candidates during initial screening.

This role operates at the apex of a major corporate group structure, offering high visibility and strategic influence. You will gain direct exposure to complex multi-entity operations, large-scale financial consolidations, and executive decision-making, providing a significant career milestone for a senior corporate finance professional.

Primary responsibilities include driving group-wide annual budgeting and multi-year forecasting cycles, managing complex financial consolidations across multi-entity operations, implementing strict OPEX and expenditure controls, and building executive-ready financial models and board presentations for senior leadership.

Candidates must hold an active professional accounting qualification (CA, ACCA, CIMA, CPA, or equivalent) along with 7 to 10 years of progressive FP&A experience. Demonstrated hands-on expertise in complex group-level consolidations, advanced financial modeling in Excel, and large-scale OPEX management is essential.

The role is based in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) within the client's corporate group headquarters. Candidates must be currently based in or willing to relocate to the UAE, with local market familiarity preferred.

Applications are initially scored using byteSpark.ai's weighted talent intelligence platform, which reviews professional credentials, core competencies, and experience alignment. Shortlisted candidates will complete an initial screening with a byteSpark.ai search consultant before advancing to interview rounds with the client's Group finance executive team.