Principal AI Engineer

There are NO limits to your career: come shape the future and be part of a truly unique global culture at OutSystems!

OutSystems is a leader in AI development platforms. We focus on enabling any organization to innovate through software by combining the power of low-code with cutting-edge Generative AI. To support our mission of building the future of software creation, we are looking for a Principal Software Developer with a strong AI background, based in Portugal. If you are a problem solver, motivated by curiosity, and excited about the intersection of software craftsmanship and artificial intelligence, this is the role for you!

About This Role

As part of the AI Product Development Lifecycle (PDLC) team, a cross-functional initiative responsible for designing, building, and evolving the internal AI-powered framework that accelerates the entire company's product development. Your work will directly shape the tools, agents, and practices that OutSystems engineers (For instance, PMs/Arch/UX) rely on every day, making AI a first-class citizen of our Software Development Lifecycle.

Job Responsibilities and Expectations

• Evolve our AI-agentic PDLC, drawing on the best architectures, experience, and technologies.
• Actively participate in the design, implementation, and maintenance of robust, scalable, and secure solutions within the AI Enablement internal framework.
• Apply strong software engineering principles to produce clean, maintainable, and well-tested code.
• Leverage AI tools and techniques (prompt engineering, RAG, tool calling) to accelerate and improve the quality of development. Design, develop, and extend AI agents, subagents, and skills, understanding how to compose multi-agent systems and how to use them effectively in a product development context.
• Work with MCP servers and integrations, both consuming and building them as part of the tooling ecosystem.
• Gather stakeholder feedback and adapt solutions accordingly.
• Troubleshoot complex issues related to solutions developed by your team. Implement product development best practices, continuous delivery, and testing.
• Design, document, and communicate high-level functional designs and solutions.
• Mentor and provide guidance to team members and users of the AI Enablement internal framework.
• Participate in team meetings and contribute to continuous improvement.
• Maintain familiarity with release processes and deployment pipelines; understanding how changes flow from development to production is essential, even if day-to-day infrastructure management is not the focus of this role.

Desired Skills & Experience

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Software Engineering, Computer Science, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience).
• 8+ years of software development experience, including 3+ years leading engineering initiatives or architectural decisions at a senior/principal level, and 1+ years focused on AI Engineering.
• Strong understanding of software engineering principles, algorithms, data structures, and Object-Oriented Design. Proficient coding skills in one or more of: Python, GoLang, TypeScript. Quality mindset: commitment to clean code, code reviews, and writing automated tests (unit, integration, contract).
• Experience with the software development lifecycle, Agile methodologies, and version control (Git).
• Hands-on experience using AI for development, including AI-native IDEs such as Cursor, GitHub Copilot, or Claude Code.
• Good understanding of agentic systems: what agents and subagents are, how to design and orchestrate them, and how to build or consume skills and MCP servers.
• Solid experience designing and consuming APIs, RESTful mostly including authentication mechanisms such as OAuth 2.0, API keys, and token-based auth, ability to integrate third-party services, and reason about security boundaries.
• Comfortable and confident working in the terminal, navigating the command line, running CLI tools, and operating AI assistants such as Claude Code (CLI) without relying exclusively on graphical interfaces. Excellent troubleshooting skills.
• Excellent communication skills and fluency in English.
• Ability to drive initiatives independently while collaborating effectively with a distributed team. Comfortable collaborating closely with teammates working from around the globe.

OutSystems is a leading AI Development Platform built for the enterprise. Global organizations trust OutSystems to rapidly build mission-critical apps and agents, modernize legacy processes with agentic systems, and govern their entire AI portfolio across complex regulatory environments, all on one unified platform.

As the future becomes agentic, our customers need us now more than ever. While AI has opened the door to extraordinary possibilities, most large organizations find themselves stuck on one side of the "enterprise gap" because AI by itself doesn't solve their complex use cases and business challenges. OutSystems bridges the "enterprise gap" by combining the speed of generative AI with a deterministic, enterprise-grade framework. We provide the tools for teams of any size to deliver high-quality, reliable AI solutions that drive real business impact.

We are looking for passionate, talented, and motivated people to join us as we empower organizations to build, deploy, and scale the next generation of enterprise software. While we are leading the charge into the agentic era, our mission is broader: we are the platform enterprise leaders trust to evolve their entire business, accelerating innovation through secure, governed human-AI collaboration. 

OutSystems is a global company, with more than 900k developer community members, 1,700 employees, more than 600 partners, and thousands of active customers in over 75 countries and across 21 industries. Founded in 2001, OutSystems now has offices in the United States, United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Portugal, Germany, the UAE, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Australia, India, and Singapore, and  includes a thriving, worldwide community of remote employees.

Our customers are some of the world's most recognizable brands across diverse industries— such as Toyota, Heineken, Bosch, KeyBank, and UCLA—who trust OutSystems to deliver ROI and transformational impact. 

Consistently recognized as a leader by top analyst firms Gartner, IDC and Forrester, OutSystems continues to shape the future of enterprise software development in the agentic era. We are proud to be named a leader in more than 100 categories on G2, including #1 in Customer Satisfaction in Enterprise Low Code Development, and most recently as a leader in AI Agent Building in the G2 Spring 2026 Reports. 

Our culture is built on our core values of Trust, Customer Success, Innovation, and Alignment. We operate as one global OutSystems team, taking ownership to pursue our vision of being the AI platform enterprise leaders trust to build, secure, and evolve their most critical applications and systems.

What do we have to offer you?

• A company at the vanguard of the agentic revolution, where we don’t just react to AI innovation—we architect it. Joining OutSystems means stepping onto a high-growth rocket ship that combines the fearless agility of a startup with the sophisticated, global foundation of an enterprise powerhouse.

• Real growth opportunities. We don't just talk about development; we invest in it through structured programs designed to scale your expertise. Whether you are aiming for vertical progression, exploring lateral moves into new domains, or mastering specialized AI skills through our Professional Development Fund and Internal Mobility Program, we provide the resources to get you there.

• A global collective of world-class talent, where you’ll collaborate with enterprise software legends and sought-after thought leaders. At OutSystems, our industry experts aren't just visionaries—they are accessible, approachable mentors who are deeply invested in your growth as we architect the agentic future together.

OutSystems nurtures an inclusive culture where talented individuals from all backgrounds are empowered to learn, experiment and make an impact. . We believe that driving our next phase of growth requires the radical creativity that only comes from diverse perspectives. We are committed to building a team as global and diverse as the organizations we serve, ensuring every individual can perform to their full potential. As an equal opportunity employer, all qualified applicants receive equal consideration regardless of race, origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, veteran status, or any other protected status.