Staff AI/ML Engineer

ZipRecruiter; London; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading software company in London is seeking a Staff AI/ML Engineer to define and build scalable AI systems. This role involves technical leadership, hands-on coding, and collaboration with cross-functional teams to enhance product capabilities. The ideal candidate will have extensive experience in AI/ML, strong Python skills, and a passion for mentoring. The company offers a competitive salary, flexible working arrangements, and a supportive culture focused on innovation.

Benefits

Competitive salary package

25 days holiday

Flexible remote working

Parental leave support

Work-from-anywhere for up to 5 days a year

“Getting Started” remote work budget

Pension scheme

Qualifications

• 7+ years of hands-on experience in AI/ML, including production-level deployment.
• 3+ years in a senior or lead technical position within a product-focused SaaS environment.

Responsibilities

• Lead the delivery of machine learning initiatives from exploration to deployment.
• Define best practices for MLOps, model deployment, and performance tuning.

Skills

Python

Communication

Education

Degree in Computer Science

Tools

AWS

Terraform

Docker

Job description

Job Description

Staff AI/ML Engineer

Location: London (2 days a week in the office)

Employment Type: Full-time

About the Company:

A fast-growing, innovation-led software business delivering specialised tools for professionals in the built environment sector. With two decades of success and a strong global customer base, their vision is to enable better visual storytelling through smart, scalable technology. Backed by a leading private equity firm, they’re expanding rapidly and investing in cutting-edge AI and ML capabilities to take the platform to the next level.

The Role:

This is an opportunity for an experienced and technically hands-on Staff Software Engineer – AI/ML to take a leading role in defining, building, and scaling their AI and machine learning capabilities. This is a foundational role that combines technical leadership, strategic thinking, and day-to-day development. This role is not suitable for someone in a "head of, or management position" We are looking for someone who has focused on hands-on coding rather than management or other hands-off responsibilities.

You’ll architect and build reliable and scalable AI/ML systems, laying the groundwork for a new, dedicated team focused on intelligent product capabilities. With a focus on applied machine learning, generative AI, and cloud- tools, this is an opportunity to shape the future of the product and how they use data to solve real-world challenges.

What You'll Be Doing:

AI/ML Project Ownership

• Lead the delivery of machine learning initiatives from exploration through to deployment and monitoring.
• Own the full development cycle for ML systems — including architecture, data pipelines, model training, and production deployment.

Cross-functional Collaboration

• Work closely with Product, Engineering, and DevOps teams to embed intelligent features into our platform.
• Ensure smooth end-to-end integration of AI/ML functionality within broader product development efforts.

Technical Leadership

• Define best practices for MLOps, model deployment, and performance tuning.
• Evaluate and implement new frameworks, tools, and cloud- AI solutions (including LLMs).
• Make strategic technical decisions that align with broader business goals.

Mentoring & Knowledge Sharing

• Support the growth of others through coaching, peer programming, and technical reviews.
• Share learnings and help foster a culture of innovation and experimentation.

Problem Solving at Scale

• Tackle challenges related to data quality, interpretability, bias, and reliability.
• Build processes and infrastructure that make AI/ML workflows efficient, robust, and repeatable.

Documentation & Continuous Improvement

• Contribute to internal documentation and knowledge sharing resources.
• Refine and evolve ML playbooks and processes to support a growing team and evolving product needs.

Requirements:

• 7+ years of hands-on experience in AI/ML, including production-level deployment.
• 3+ years in a senior or lead technical position, ideally within a product-focused SaaS environment.
• Strong command of Python and relevant libraries for machine learning, data engineering, and automation.
• Experience working with AWS (e.g., SageMaker, Bedrock) and infrastructure-as-code tools like Terraform.
• Solid understanding of large-scale data pipelines, distributed systems, and microservice architectures.
• Comfortable working with LLMs, model fine-tuning, and building features powered by generative AI.
• Experience setting up CI/CD pipelines for ML workflows and maintaining scalable systems in the cloud.
• A proven track record of mentoring peers and leading by example.
• Strong communication and stakeholder engagement skills.
• A degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Data Science, or a similar field.

Tech Stack Highlights

• Python
• Java
• AWS (including Bedrock)
• Claude
• Terraform
• Docker
• MySQL
• GitHub & GitHub Actions

Perks and Benefits

• Competitive salary package
• 25 days holiday (Not including bank holidays)
• Flexible remote working
• Parental leave support
• Work-from-anywhere for up to 5 days a year
• “Getting Started” remote work budget
• Pension scheme
• And more

Important Notes

• Unfortunately, we are not able to offer visa sponsorship for this role.
• Applications should be based in the UK.