Lead Engineer - Agentic Systems (AI/ML focus)

Location: Bucharest, Romania

Thales is a global technology leader trusted by governments, institutions, and enterprises to tackle their most demanding challenges. From quantum applications and artificial intelligence to cybersecurity and 6G innovation, our solutions empower critical decisions rooted in human intelligence. Operating at the forefront of defence and security, aerospace and space, cybersecurity and digital identity, we’re driven by a mission to build a future we can all trust.

In Romania, we are advancing innovation through software engineering, research and development, delivering solutions in key markets in which Thales Group operates. Our engineers design, develop and integrate solutions that impact global industries – from fully operational systems and subsystems for naval warfare and maritime security operations, to air traffic management systems, satellite-based solutions, tactical indoor simulations, identity and biometric technologies and more.

Role:  Lead Engineer - Agentic Systems (AI/ML focus)

About the Mission:

Be a founding architect of the future of AI-enhanced engineering. We're building a revolutionary agent garden from the ground up—a programmatic, code-first system that will enable 40,000+ engineers to seamlessly integrate AI agents, tools, and data into their workflows.

This is about building the system itself—the connectors, agents, orchestration layer, marketplace infrastructure, and enabling frameworks that will define how engineers interact with agentic AI.

As a Tech Lead you'll be a technical leader shaping the architecture, establishing engineering excellence, and mentoring a team of talented engineers as we create something truly groundbreaking.

What We Offer:

• Autonomy: Significant influence over architecture, technology choices, engineering practices
• Agile, autonomous teams with management-free delivery, clear roles, and predictability focus
• Modern stack: Latest tools, frameworks, technologies—you'll help choose them

Why This Role is Exceptional:

• Define the Future: founding technical leader of a system that will reshape AI-enhanced engineering
• Greenfield Opportunity: build new infrastructure with modern technologies while connecting to existing systems
• Technical Leadership: shape technical vision, establish engineering culture, mentor growing team
• Massive Scale & Impact: your work will serve 40,000+ engineers across a global organization
• Innovation Ecosystem: collaborate with active AI innovation lab and internal AI community

What You'll Do:

Architect the Agent Garden:

• Design and build core infrastructure for a programmatic (code-first) agent garden
• Create frameworks for agents, commands, hooks, and MCP (Model Context Protocol) connectors
• Establish architectural patterns for agent orchestration, data flow, and system integration
• Make critical technical decisions that will shape the system's future

Build Foundation Components:

• Develop robust authentication and authorization systems for multi-system integrations
• Implement traceability, auditability, and configurability features enabling safe AI operations
• Build data pipelines that power agent capabilities within the data environment
• Create SDKs and APIs enabling community contributions to the marketplace

Lead Technical Excellence:

• Define and champion software craftsmanship standards: BDD, DDD, TDD, clean code
• Establish testing strategies and quality gates for a mission-critical system
• Lead architectural reviews and technical design discussions
• Set the bar for code quality, documentation, and engineering rigor

Develop and Enable the Team:

• Supervise and coordinate development of junior/mid engineers through delegation and leveraging mentorship
• Conduct code reviews that teach and elevate team capabilities
• Help team members navigate complex technical challenges and connect them with right expertise
• Foster a culture of learning, experimentation, and continuous improvement

About you:

Your Experience:

• Proven track record building complex, scalable systems from the ground up
• Deep expertise in: distributed systems (Kubernetes preferred), AI/ML engineering, infrastructure development, or developer tools
• Architecture experience: Made significant architectural decisions and lived with the consequences

Your Technical Expertise:

• Core Infrastructure: Expert-level Python, system design, API design, authentication/authorization, data engineering
• AI/ML & Agentic Systems: Hands-on with LLM integrations, prompt engineering, agent frameworks, MCP knowledge or ADK and A2A
• Software Excellence: TDD, BDD, clean architecture, DevOps infrastructure, performance optimization
• Cloud services: Experience with AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud

Your Leadership Approach:

• Technical vision: See the big picture and chart a path to get there
• Pragmatic architect: Balance ideal solutions with real-world constraints
• Developer of people: Enable growth through delegation, coaching, and building connections
• Quality advocate: Know when to be flexible and when to hold the line

At Thales, we’re committed to fostering a workplace where respect, trust, collaboration, and passion drive everything we do. Here, you’ll feel empowered to bring your best self, thrive in a supportive culture, and love the work you do. Join us, and be part of a team reimagining technology to create solutions that truly make a difference – for a safer, greener, and more inclusive world.