Lead Machine Learning Engineer, Faculty

About the Role

Our Defence team is focused on building and embedding human-centered AI solutions which give our nation a competitive edge in the defence sector. We collaborate with our clients to bring ethical, reliable and cutting-edge AI to high-stakes situations and maintain the balance of global powers essential to our liberty. As a Lead Machine Learning Engineer to spearhead the technical direction and delivery of complex, innovative AI projects. You will act as a technical expert, applying your skills across various projects from AI strategy to client-side deployments, while ensuring architectural decisions are sound and reliable. This role demands a balance of deep technical expertise and strong leadership, focusing on driving innovation, fostering team growth, and building reusable solutions across the organisation.

• Setting the technical direction for complex ML projects, balancing trade-offs, and guiding team priorities
• Designing, implementing, and maintaining reliable, scalable ML/software systems and justifying key architectural decisions
• Defining project problems, developing roadmaps, and overseeing delivery across multiple workstreams in often ill-defined, high-risk environments
• Driving the development of shared resources and libraries across the organisation and guiding other engineers in contributing to them
• Leading hiring processes, making informed selection decisions, and mentoring multiple individuals to foster team growth
• Proactively developing and executing recommendations for adopting new technologies and changing our ways of working to stay ahead of the competition
• Acting as a technical expert and coach for customers, accurately estimating large work-streams and defending rationale to stakeholders
• If you're ready to manage high-risk projects and deliver practical, innovative outcomes, this is your chance to shape our future

Who You Are

• You are a technical expert among your peers, capable of going deep on particular topics and demonstrating breadth of knowledge to solve almost any problem
• You possess strong Python skills and practical experience operationalising models using frameworks like Scikit-learn, TensorFlow, or PyTorch
• You are an expert in at least one major Cloud Solution Provider (e.g., Azure, GCP, AWS) and have led teams to build full-stack web applications
• You have hands-on experience with containerisation tools like Docker and orchestration via Kubernetes
• You can successfully manage and coach a team of engineers, setting team-wide development goals to improve client delivery
• You find novel, clever solutions for project delivery and take ownership for successful project outcomes
• You're an excellent communicator who can proactively help customers achieve their goals and guide both technical teams and non-technical stakeholders
• Because of the nature of the work we do with our Defence clients, you will need to be eligible for UK Security Clearance (SC)
• If you don’t feel you meet all the requirements, but are excited by the role and know you bring some key strengths, please don't hesitate in applying as you might be right for this role, or other roles. We are open to conversations about part-time hours

Application Process

• Talent Team Screen (30 minutes)
• Introduction to the role (45 minutes)
• Pair Programming Interview (90 minutes)
• System Design Interview (90 minutes)
• Commercial & Leadership Interview (60 minutes)

Salary Benchmarks

Machine Learning Engineer

Expert: £160k

Senior: £140k

£60k - £120k

About [Employer hidden]

Enabling clients to use cutting edge AI to improve the performance of their business.

201-500 employees

B2B

Artificial Intelligence

Big data

Machine Learning

Company Benefits

• Dental cover - 100% of dental fees covered, up to £500, including checkups and hygienist.
• Optical Cover - 100% of the cost of prescribed glasses and contact lenses up to £300 a year.
• Hybrid working: We believe people have needs, responsibilities and interests that require something different to a strict working day. We trust people to organise and take accountability for their own work and do our best to support their lives outside [Employer hidden]. We provide you with all you need to work from home, including a laptop, keyboard and chair.
• Unlimited holidays: We encourage each other to use this time to take a break, work on personal projects, or to spend time with their friends and family
• Fantastic private health, for you & your family - including 24/7 unlimited virtual private GP appointments and covering pre-existing medical conditions
• Access to mental health coaching with Sanctus
• Lunch weekly, and more fruit, drinks and snacks than you could ever eat (for office-based employees)
• We work hard and make sure we enjoy what we do. So we have frequent socials and informal get-togethers to help make sure you enjoy your time with us. You’ll make friends and professional connections that will last a lifetime
• Paid Maternity, Paternity, Adoption or Shared Parental Leave - we offer a progressive, gender neutral and generous parental leave policy here at [Employer hidden]. All parents are given 15 weeks leave at full pay in addition to statutory time off after 12 months of service.