AI Platform Engineer - All Levels

Leonardo; Luton; Hybrid; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Time to Recharge

Pension contributions up to 15%

Mental health support

Bonus scheme

Access to Coursera/LinkedIn Learning

Refer a friend rewards

Flexible benefits spending up to £500

Flexible working hours

Job summary

Leonardo UK seeks AI Platform Engineers to shape, build and operate the infrastructure and services for our AI platform. You will ensure secure, reliable access to AI models and inference services in a hybrid, multi-location setup.

We value engineers with judgment and adaptability; the role offers opportunities across several grades, with salary bands aligned to the grade. Join a multidisciplinary team delivering robust, enterprise-grade AI capabilities.

Qualifications

• Experience operating shared or business-critical platforms.
• Familiarity with large language models and the practical considerations of running them.
• Experience troubleshooting distributed systems and performance issues.
• Familiarity with infrastructure as code and CI/CD.
• Effective communication and stakeholder engagement.
• Curiosity and a drive for continuous improvement.

Responsibilities

• Take ownership of the platform layer above our managed GPU infrastructure, including model serving, inference runtimes, AI gateways and supporting services.
• Deploy and operate scalable inference services using containers, Kubernetes, and related platforms; improve observability and performance.
• Help establish engineering standards for operating AI services within a secure enterprise environment.

Skills

Platform experience

LLMs familiarity

Distributed systems troubleshooting

Infrastructure as code

Communication

Curiosity/continuous improvement

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

vLLM

AI gateways

Job description

Job Description

Your Impact

We are recruiting for AI Platform Engineers across all job levels to help shape, build and operate the infrastructure and services that underpin our AI platform, providing engineers with secure, reliable access to AI models and inference services.

Where this vacancy is being recruited across more than one grade, the successful candidate will be appointed to a specific assessed grade, and the applicable salary range will be that associated with the grade of appointment.

Leonardo UK operates a grade-based salary framework with broad bands. The salary range shown reflects the approved grade band for this role, or a narrower hiring range published within that band, and is benchmarked against the external market. Exceptions above the standard range are managed through governance controls to protect internal equity.

What You’ll Do

• Take ownership of the platform layer above our managed GPU infrastructure, including model serving, inference runtimes, AI gateways and supporting services. You will help make these capabilities easy for engineering teams to consume while maintaining appropriate controls around security, performance and availability.
• Using technologies such as containers, Kubernetes, vLLM and AI gateway platforms, you will deploy and operate scalable inference services, improve observability and performance, and investigate complex technical issues across the platform. You will also help establish engineering standards for operating AI services within a secure enterprise environment, including cases where the target system has no route to the internet.

We are a multidisciplinary team looking for candidates with a broad mix of skills and experience. You do not need to meet every requirement. What matters most is sound engineering judgement, adaptability and the ability to make a meaningful contribution.

What You’ll Bring

• Experience operating shared or business-critical platforms
• Familiarity with large language models and the practical considerations of running them
• Experience troubleshooting distributed systems and performance issues
• Familiarity with infrastructure as code and CI/CD
• Effective communication and stakeholder engagement
• Curiosity and a drive for continuous improvement

Key Areas We Value Experience In

• Linux, application and server administration
• Containers and container orchestration, such as Docker and Kubernetes
• AI inference and model serving platforms, such as vLLM, SGLang or similar
• AI gateways and API management, such as LiteLLM, Bifrost or similar
• GPU workloads, including performance, utilisation and resource management
• Programming and scripting, such as Python, Bash or Go
• Monitoring, observability and SRE practices
• Secure, resilient and scalable service design
• Authentication, access control, rate limiting and service integration
• Technical documentation and operational guidance

Security Clearance

You must be eligible for full security clearance. For more information and guidance please visit: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vettingclearance-levels

Why join us

At Leonardo, our people are at the heart of everything we do. We offer a comprehensive, company-funded benefits package that supports your wellbeing, career development, and work-lifebealance. Whether you're looking to grow professionally, care for your health, or plan for the future, we’re here to help you thrive.

• Time to Recharge: Enjoy generous leave with the opportunity to accrue up to 12 additional flexi-days each year.
• Secure your Future: Benefit from our award-winning pension scheme with up to 15% employer contribution.
• Your Wellbeing Matters: Free access to mental health support, financial advice, and employee-led networks championing inclusion and diversity (Enable, Pride, Equalise, Armed Forces, Carers, Wellbeing and Ethnicity).
• Rewarding Performance: All employees at management level and below are eligible for our bonus scheme.
• Never Stop Learning: Free access to 4,000+ online courses via Coursera and LinkedIn Learning.
• Refer a friend: Receive a financial reward through our referral programme.
• Tailored Perks: Spend up to £500 annually on flexible benefits including private healthcare, dental, family cover, tech & lifestyle discounts, gym memberships and more.
• Flexible working: Flexible hours with hybrid working options. For part time opportunities, please talk to us about what might be possible for this role.

For a full list of our company benefits please visit our website.

Primary Location

GB - Edinburgh

Additional Locations

GB - Basildon, GB - Bristol - Coldharbour Lane, GB - Luton - Cap. Green 300, GB - Newcastle, GB - Southampton

Contract Type

Permanent

Hybrid Working

Hybrid

At Leonardo we are committed to building an inclusive, accessible, and welcoming workplace. We believe that a diverse workforce sparks creativity, drives innovation, and leads to better outcomes for our people and our customers. If you have any accessibility requirements to support you during the recruitment process, just let us know.