AI Models Lead — Enterprise ML & LLM Innovation

Vodafone Group Plc; Greater London; On-site; GBP 120,000 - 160,000; Full time

Job summary

Vodafone Group Plc in the United Kingdom seeks an experienced AI Models Lead to anchor the scientific and deep-tech work for the AI Tower. You will guide model engineering, data science, vendor strategy and AI innovation across a multinational team to enable scalable, production-ready AI solutions.

The role demands leadership of distributed teams, governance of model lifecycles, and collaboration with product and platform teams to deliver measurable business outcomes.

Qualifications

• Degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematics, Physics or related discipline.
• Deep expertise in Data Science, ML and Deep Learning, including Transformer architectures.
• Expert proficiency in Python, PyTorch, TensorFlow and the Hugging Face ecosystem.
• Experience with Vertex AI Model Garden and custom model training pipelines.
• Strong understanding of model fine-tuning techniques such as PEFT and LoRA.
• Demonstrated ability to translate complex business challenges into data science and machine learning solutions.
• Experience leading highly skilled technical teams within agile and matrix-based organisations.
• Proven track record of delivering AI and machine learning initiatives across global and distributed teams.
• Experience building collaborative relationships with technology partners and vendors.
• Knowledge of model monitoring, governance, validation and performance optimisation practices.
• Published research or a proven record of delivering complex machine learning systems would be advantageous.

Responsibilities

• Lead the strategy for model selection, fine-tuning and training using approaches such as PEFT and LoRA on proprietary telecommunications data.
• Deliver high-complexity proof of concepts and pilot programmes for emerging AI use cases and support successful transition into production environments.
• Provide leadership and subject matter expertise across data science, statistical modelling, machine learning and AI algorithms.
• Define and oversee model governance frameworks, including model drift monitoring, hallucination measurement, performance evaluation and accuracy tracking.
• Evaluate and recommend the optimal mix of proprietary, open-source and vendor-based AI models, including solutions from Microsoft, Google, OpenAI and Mistral.
• Collaborate with platform engineering teams to ensure models are deployable, scalable and operationally effective.
• Lead distributed teams of machine learning engineers, data scientists and researchers across a complex multinational environment.
• Manage model training compute budgets, including GPU utilisation and research and development investments.
• Drive continuous innovation by evaluating emerging developments in AI, model optimisation, quantisation and related technologies.
• Deliver measurable outcomes including pilot-to-production conversion, model performance improvements, faster delivery cycles and accelerated time to market.

Skills

Data science

Machine learning

Deep learning

Transformer architectures

Python

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Hugging Face

PEFT

LoRA

Leadership

Agile

Model governance

Education

Degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematics, Physics or related

Tools

Vertex AI Model Garden

Custom training pipelines

Job description

Vodafone Group Plc in the United Kingdom seeks an experienced AI Models Lead to anchor the scientific and deep-tech work for the AI Tower. You will guide model engineering, data science, vendor strategy and AI innovation across a multinational team to enable scalable, production-ready AI solutions.

The role demands leadership of distributed teams, governance of model lifecycles, and collaboration with product and platform teams to deliver measurable business outcomes.