Principal Engineer (IT Automation & AI-native Transformation)

Principal Engineer (IT Automation & AI-native Transformation) LocationLondon; Berlin; Cologne; Dublin; Frankfurt; Ireland Remote; Lisbon; Munich; Portugal Remote; United Kingdom RemoteEmployment TypeFull timeDepartmentOperationsSoSafe has the ambition to become the leading human risk management provider in Europe. Our award-winning awareness platform triggers behavioural change by providing effective and engaging training and simulations on cybersecurity and data protection. Cybercrime is costing the world >$10 trillion annually and growing by 15% p.a. - we invite you to be part of the solution!Are you a visionary Staff or Principal Engineer, excited about pushing the boundaries of automation and artificial intelligence deployed across a whole company? We're seeking an exceptional candidate to join our IT Engineering team to build the foundation for our AI-native future, in one of the industry's fastest growing SaaS scale-ups.Things no-one seems to know yet:How to make traditional automation & productivity tools consistently useful across a whole business in a post-AI worldHow to balance traditional tools against foundation models and agentic workingHow to enable (and protect) citizen builders to use spec-driven design and self-built AI-agents to actually change the organisation, reliably, safely and at scaleWe want you to solve these problems.Here's how you'll make a difference:Test-bed: Architect, build and iterate a toolchain fusing traditional automation and productivity tools (n8n, google workspace, etc) with spec-driven design and agentic working, test out on IT and SecurityIterate: Advocate, mentor and enable other early adopter teams to use our platforms, get value, provide feedback, iterate the platformStandardise: Build self-sustaining cultural practices across the organisation, enable whole departments, scale the platform for everyoneDrive the evolution of IT operations towards an all-encompassing *-as-code infrastructure model through hands-on architecture and designContribute to the IT/Sec Operating System as we move wholesale to build-not-buy teamsMentor and level up the existing IT engineering team, then whole departments, serving as a technical guide to accelerate skills transfer and foster a strong, collaborative engineering cultureChampion and advocate for our shared automation and AI platforms and methodologies, driving cross-departmental adoption to break down operational silos.What makes you a great fit:Demonstrated experience operating at a Staff or Principal Engineer level, ideally within an established, successful, cloud-native hypergrowth SaaS environmentHands-on builder and systems thinker - A background that includes hands-on coding, ideally in a platform or SRE team. IT experience is secondary, we need builders who can help others build betterA track record of successful AI-native adoption, showcasing how you've successfully moved workflows beyond experimental prompts into robust, production-grade automated workflows or agentsDeep technical mastery of at least some of: infrastructure-as-code, modern CI/CD systems (e.g., GitHub Actions) and enterprise-grade workflow orchestration (e.g., n8n, Zapier)A pragmatic engineering mindset: You understand that while agentic working is fast and flexible, it brings significant utilization costs; you know how to design hybrid architectures that balance speed with financial efficiency. When faced with a complex problem, you instinctively break it downGreat leadership, stakeholder management and communication skills: The biggest challenge is always people, not technology. You treat internal teams as your customers and excel at explaining complex technical concepts to non-technical "citizen coders" and executive stakeholders alike.What you will get in return:A mandate from the CEO to massively accelerate our AI-native transformation in every role, actually solving the AI-related questions that we’re all asking, at speed and scaleA company comfortable with rapid...