Data Engineer

JR United Kingdom; Bradley Stoke; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 70,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company in the defence sector is seeking a skilled Data Engineer/Data Scientist to support critical projects in the Southwest UK. The successful candidate will play a vital role in building data pipelines, managing data labelling processes, and working in a secure environment. This position requires strong technical expertise, particularly in Python and data handling practices, and is vital for advancing AI and ML initiatives.

Qualifications

• Experience as a Data Engineer or Data Scientist with data labelling.
• Strong experience with imaging data in defence, aerospace, or industrial domains.
• Proficient in Python and relevant libraries for data processing.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain data pipelines for large imaging datasets.
• Lead data labelling with a focus on quality assurance.
• Collaborate with teams to ensure data readiness for machine learning models.

Skills

Data labelling

Python

Machine Learning

Data handling best practices

Tools

Pandas

NumPy

OpenCV

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Labelbox

CVAT

VIA

Job description

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Location: Southwest UK (On-site/Hybrid)

Clearance: Sole British National with active SC Clearance

Overview:

We are seeking a skilled Data Engineer / Data Scientist with strong experience in data labelling and imaging datasets to support a critical defence-related project in the Southwest UK. The ideal candidate will have a solid background in building and managing data pipelines, annotating and labelling image-based data for machine learning workflows, and working within secure environments. You will be a key contributor in preparing high-quality datasets to support AI and ML initiatives in a mission-critical context.

Key Responsibilities:

• Develop and maintain robust data pipelines to ingest, clean, transform, and store large volumes of imaging data.
• Lead and support the data labelling process—developing tools and workflows for efficient annotation of image and video data.
• Work closely with ML engineers and data scientists to ensure datasets are model-ready.
• Perform exploratory data analysis to identify data quality issues and labelling inconsistencies.
• Implement QA and validation processes to ensure labelling accuracy and consistency.
• Contribute to automation of labelling workflows using computer vision tools and Python-based frameworks.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams in a secure, SC-cleared environment.
• Proven experience as a Data Engineer or Data Scientist with hands-on exposure to data labelling processes.
• Strong experience with image data, ideally in defence, aerospace, or industrial domains (e.g., satellite, UAV, thermal imaging).
• Proficient in Python and libraries such as Pandas, NumPy, OpenCV, TensorFlow, or PyTorch.
• Experience with data annotation tools (e.g., Labelbox, CVAT, VIA, or custom platforms).
• Strong knowledge of data handling best practices in secure environments.
• Experience designing and managing ETL pipelines and working with structured/unstructured data sources.
• Active SC Clearance and sole British nationality are mandatory due to project sensitivity.
• Experience in defence or government programmes.
• Familiarity with cloud-based ML toolsets (e.g., AWS SageMaker Ground Truth, Azure Custom Vision).
• Knowledge of computer vision models and their data requirements.
• Experience managing annotation teams or quality control processes.
• This role is classified as Outside IR35.
• Candidate must be based or willing to work on-site in the Southwest UK.
• Flexible working considered depending on security and project requirements.