Principal Tech Engineering Practice Lead AI & Ecommerce Transformation in London

Principal Engineering Practice Lead / Technical Authority – AI & E-commerce Transformation CONTRACT

6 month rolling contract (strong potential for extension) | London | Hybrid - 2 days per week onsite

***Ecommerce / Retail / SAP Commerce / SAP Hybris / AI transformation***

My client, a large-scale e-commerce business, is seeking an exceptional Principal Engineering Practice Lead / Technical Authority to drive engineering excellence, AI transformation and technical innovation across multiple engineering teams.

This is a high-impact contract for a senior technical leader who combines hands-on engineering expertise with proven experience leading AI transformation, the authority to challenge architectural decisions, resolve complex technical challenges and improve delivery across a diverse technology landscape.

Extensive e-commerce or retail experience, strong SAP Commerce Cloud / SAP Hybris expertise, and a proven track record of driving AI transformation within software engineering are essential for this role. The successful candidate must be equally comfortable setting technical direction, getting hands-on with engineering challenges and leading the adoption of AI-enabled development practices.

The role

Working closely with senior engineering and Architecture stakeholders, you’ll raise engineering standards across SAP, DevOps, Domain Services, Storefront, iOS and Android. You’ll act as the senior technical escalation point, unblocking teams, influencing technical direction and embedding best practice across the organisation.

A key priority will be leading AI transformation across the software development lifecycle (SDLC), moving teams beyond AI code completion towards agentic development practices that enable AI agents to plan, build, test and review changes under appropriate human oversight. You’ll establish responsible-use guardrails and measure the impact on engineering quality, security, productivity and delivery.

You’ll bring a strong understanding of SAP Commerce Cloud / Hybris and complex retail e-commerce architectures, alongside broad engineering expertise and the practical technical credibility to guide implementation, challenge solutions and resolve issues directly where required.

Key responsibilities

• Define and embed engineering standards and best practices across multiple technology teams.
• Lead AI transformation within software engineering, driving the adoption of AI-assisted and agentic development practices across the SDLC.
• Establish appropriate AI tooling, including tools such as GitHub Copilot, alongside responsible-use guardrails, governance and measurable adoption outcomes.
• Provide senior technical leadership, challenge architectural decisions and take a hands-on approach to resolving complex engineering issues.
• Apply deep SAP Commerce Cloud / Hybris and e-commerce domain knowledge to influence technical decisions and improve platform engineering practices.
• Champion CI/CD, automated testing, TDD/BDD, secure-by-design development and frequent, incremental releases.
• Partner with Architecture to align engineering practices with technical strategy and architectural guardrails.
• Improve engineering effectiveness through DORA metrics, observability and measurable improvements in software delivery.
• Coach Capability Leads, Technical Leads and engineers, driving adoption, knowledge sharing and sustainable improvements across internal and third-party teams.

What you’ll bring

• Extensive experience as a Principal Engineering Lead, Engineering Practice Lead, Technical Authority or equivalent senior technical leader.
• Proven experience leading AI transformation within software engineering, including the practical implementation and adoption of AI-assisted and agentic development practices, governance and measurable outcomes.
• Strong hands-on technical engineering capability, with the credibility to investigate complex problems, challenge designs, guide implementation and support engineering teams directly.
• Extensive retail and e-commerce experience, ideally within a large-scale, complex or omnichannel organisation.
• Strong SAP Commerce Cloud / SAP Hybris experience, with an understanding of enterprise commerce platforms, integrations and storefront architectures.
• Broad engineering expertise across backend services, web storefronts, mobile platforms and cloud-based technologies.
• Strong knowledge of modern SDLC practices, Agile, DevOps, SRE, DevSecOps, CI/CD, infrastructure as code and automated testing.
• Experience implementing secure engineering controls, including SAST, SCA, SBOM and OWASP principles, alongside observability and DORA metrics.
• Excellent technical leadership, communication and stakeholder management skills, with the confidence to influence across multiple teams without direct line authority.

The opportunity

This is an opportunity for a highly credible, pragmatic engineering leader to shape how a major e-commerce organisation develops and delivers software. Combining AI transformation leadership, hands-on engineering expertise and deep SAP Commerce / Hybris and retail e-commerce knowledge, you’ll drive agentic AI adoption, raise engineering standards and deliver lasting improvements in engineering capability, security and delivery performance.

Please apply via the link for immediate consideration!