Principal Engineer - AI Adoption

At Elanco (NYSE: ELAN) – it all starts with animals!

As a global leader in animal health, we are dedicated to innovation and delivering products and services to prevent and treat disease in farm animals and pets. At Elanco, we are driven by our vision of Food and Companionship Enriching Life and our purpose – all to Go Beyond for Animals, Customers, Society and Our People.

At Elanco, we pride ourselves on fostering a diverse and inclusive work environment. We believe that diversity is the driving force behind innovation, creativity, and overall business success. Here, you’ll be part of a company that values and champions new ways of thinking, work with dynamic individuals, and acquire new skills and experiences that will propel your career to new heights.

Making animals’ lives better makes life better – join our team today!

As a Principal Engineer – AI Adoption, you will be part of our Enterprise AI engineering team to deliver horizontal AI impact across Elanco. In this role, you’ll be responsible for advancing our multi-year strategic AI roadmap, acting as a high-level consultant for product teams, and ensuring AI adoption drives tangible business value through cutting-edge GenAI capabilities.

Your Responsibilities:

• Define and execute the multi-year strategic roadmap for AI capabilities and product direction in partnership with IT leadership (CTO, Enterprise Architect, Directors) and the Enterprise AI Platform team.

• Act as a high-level consultant and lead the technical discovery phase for engineering teams and business units, guiding complex integrations, architectural decisions, and determining the best automation or AI solutions.

• Champion "API-First" integration patterns to build reusable platform services, ensuring all engineering efforts tie to tangible customer outcomes rather than "tech for tech's sake."

• Establish strong relationships with Information Security, Legal, Privacy teams, and external vendors to ensure all AI implementations meet compliance, ethical standards, and leverage external capabilities effectively.

• Drive the adoption of new AI standards across teams, mentor junior engineers, and foster an empowered, problem-solving mindset over a "feature factory" approach.

What You Need to Succeed (minimum qualifications):

• Bachelor’s Degree or equivalent level of experience in Computer Science, Software Engineering, or a related technical field.

• A minimum of 10 years of experience in software engineering with a proven track record in a DevSecOps and Agile environment.

• Deep practical experience with RAG, LLMs, and MLOps, alongside expert proficiency in Python, React, and TypeScript.

What will give you a competitive edge (preferred qualifications):

• Expert-level understanding of NLP, Embeddings, and Prompt Engineering.

• Significant experience with Cloud platforms (GCP or Azure) and Infrastructure as Code (Terraform).

• Experience designing and implementing data processing and document ingestion pipelines (e.g., Vertex AI, Google Cloud Fusion, or Azure Data Factory).

• Deep understanding of the SDLC, API-Centric Design, Twelve-Factor App principles, and secure-by-design authentication/authorisation protocols.

• Exceptional ability to articulate complex technical topics to both technical and non-technical stakeholders to drive adoption and alignment.

Additional Information:

Travel: Occasional travel as required by the business.

Location: Hook, UK (Hybrid - 30 days per quarter in the office).

Experience working across different time zones is required.

Don’t meet every single requirement? Studies have shown underrecognized groups are less likely to apply to jobs unless they meet every single qualification. At Elanco we are dedicated to building a diverse and inclusive work environment. If you think you might be a good fit for a role but don't necessarily meet every requirement, we encourage you to apply. You may be the right candidate for this role or other roles!

Elanco is an EEO/Affirmative Action Employer and does not discriminate on the basis of age, race, color, religion, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, national origin, protected veteran status, disability or any other legally protected status

Elanco may use automated tools, including AI, to support parts of our recruitment process, such as reviewing applications against job‑related criteria and/or transferrable skills. These tools help ensure a consistent, structured evaluation, but they do not make hiring decisions. All decisions involve a human reviewer. For more information on how we handle personal data, please see our Elanco Workforce Privacy Notice.