Job Title: Lead AI Research Engineer
Location: Essex (Hybrid)
Salary: £85,000 pa + bonus
Introduction:
A global defence & security contractor are expanding their AI research team and are looking for a Lead AI Technologist to help lead the team, researching and developing novel AI/ML technologies. You’ll lead projects spanning reinforcement learning, NLP, computer vision, and signal processing, while mentoring teams and shaping partnerships with academic and industry leaders.
Responsibilities:
* Lead delivery of large-scale AI/ML projects and ensure high technical standards
* Provide technical assurance for proposals, reports, and project outputs
* Identify and direct research opportunities, including collaboration with universities and industry partners
* Present research findings to both technical and non-technical audiences
* Mentor and guide junior engineers and researchers
Key Skills/Experience:
Required:
* PhD in a relevant discipline
* ~10+ years in AI/ML (industry or academia)
* Proven team leadership experience
* Strong background in engineering assurance and technical review
* Proposal writing experience
* Strong communication and mentoring skills
Beneficial:
* Expertise in one or more of:
* AI/ML for imagery and remote sensing
* Reinforcement learning
* Natural Language Processing and Large Language Models
* Knowledge graphs and graph neural networks
* AI for RF, EW, radar, sonar, or acoustics
* Autonomy applications
If you are interested and think you have the skills required as a Lead AI Technologist, please don’t hesitate to apply.