Principal AI Engineer (m/f/x) – Industrial AI Engineering

About This Opportunity

We are representing a confidential AI initiative working at the intersection of industrial engineering and artificial intelligence. Our client is seeking a Principal AI Engineer to lead their technical efforts in design, simulation, and manufacturing applications. This is a unique opportunity to solve the hardest engineering problems that industrial companies face—the ones that have been set aside because conventional approaches haven't worked.

In this role, you'll be the technical authority trusted with challenges that arrive undefined: validation processes that take days, variant configurations that can't be quoted, decades of engineering knowledge locked in unsearchable formats. You'll determine the right approach, build solutions that become relied upon, and establish the methods and standards that elevate the entire practice.

Responsibilities

• Set the technical direction for industrial AI solutions across design, simulation, and manufacturing domains
• Transform poorly-defined engineering problems into solvable technical challenges
• Serve as the specialist authority in client projects, making critical decisions that determine whether prototypes become production systems
• Shape new client engagements with engineering and R&D leaders, from initial workshops through signed proposals
• Create reference architectures, evaluation methodologies, and accelerators that the broader team can leverage
• Develop engineering talent through coaching, establishing standards, and hands-on technical reviews
• Maintain and operate AI systems in production—both models and agents—ensuring they are evaluated, monitored, cost-effective at scale, and transparent about limitations

What We're Looking For

• 10+ years in computational engineering across design, simulation, and manufacturing, earned through a doctorate in a computational field or equivalent industrial experience
• Deep understanding of the engineering chain: geometry and constraint setting, numerical validation, manufacturing translation, and common failure points at each handover
• Expertise selecting appropriate methods for each problem—surrogate models, reduced-order models, physics-informed and data-driven modeling, optimization, generative geometry, and agent-based approaches—including handling sparse data scenarios
• Ability to understand customer needs beyond available data and communicate effectively with engineering leaders in German or English, in both office and shop floor settings
• Extensive production software experience with modern practices: testing, CI/CD, observability, and incident response
• Track record of deploying and maintaining AI systems in production with proper evaluation, guardrails, scalability considerations, and honest communication about failure modes
• Commercial instinct to identify which technically sound solutions clients will actually adopt, ideally developed as a founder, early employee, or intrapreneur carrying real business risk

How We Work With You

When you apply through Get A Job.ai, our talent team will conduct an initial screening to understand your background and match it to our client's needs. We'll prepare your profile and submit you directly to the hiring organization. Throughout the process, we act as your advocate and point of contact. Please do not contact the client directly—all communication should flow through our recruiting team to ensure the best outcome for your candidacy.

Pay

Compensation details will be discussed during the screening process based on your experience and the client's budget parameters.

Location: München (81671) with hybrid flexibility

Get A Job.ai is an equal opportunity recruiter. We welcome applications from all qualified candidates regardless of race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or any other protected characteristic.