Job Title: Senior ML/AI Engineer
Location: Newcastle
Salary: Up to £160,000 DOE
This is an exciting opportunity for a Senior Machine Learning & AI Engineer to join a growing technology team delivering advanced AI capabilities within the Defence and National Security sector. Working alongside highly skilled engineers and technical specialists, you will play a key role in developing and deploying machine learning and large language model (LLM) solutions that address complex real-world challenges.
This is a hands-on engineering role within a collaborative, technology-driven environment where you will have the opportunity to work on cutting-edge AI systems, influence technical direction, and contribute to projects with meaningful impact.
The Role
You will design, develop, and deploy machine learning and AI solutions across a variety of challenging technical programmes. Working closely with software engineers, data engineers, and platform specialists, you will build scalable, secure, and production-ready systems while helping to shape engineering best practices and technical standards.
Requirements
* A minimum 2:1 degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, Engineering, or another quantitative discipline
* At least 3 years' commercial experience developing software, machine learning, or AI solutions
* Strong Python software engineering skills
* Deep understanding of machine learning fundamentals and modern AI techniques
* Experience developing and deploying production-grade machine learning systems
* Familiarity with MLOps practices and modern development methodologies
* Experience with version control, CI/CD, automated testing, and containerisation
* Strong problem-solving skills and the ability to tackle complex technical challenges
* Current UK security clearance or willingness to undergo security vetting
Desirable Experience
* Experience developing LLM-based applications and AI systems
* Knowledge of prompt engineering, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), agentic workflows, and model evaluation frameworks
* Experience fine-tuning and evaluating foundation models
* Understanding of inference optimisation techniques
* Experience with cloud platforms such as AWS, Azure, or GCP
* Exposure to AI safety, explainability, or secure AI deployment
* Experience working within Defence, National Security, or other highly regulated environments
If this opportunity is of interest, please apply below.