Lead Machine Learning Engineer

YouLend; Greater London; On-site; GBP 99,000 - 121,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Stock Options

Private Medical Insurance

Free Gym

Subsidised Lunch

Monthly Masseuse

Job summary

YouLend is hiring a Machine Learning Lead Engineer in London. This role combines hands-on engineering with team leadership, focusing on building and improving ML systems. Candidates should possess strong ML engineering experience, software engineering skills in Python, and a good understanding of MLOps. The position offers a competitive salary of £110,000 per year, along with stock options and modern office benefits. YouLend fosters a collaborative environment with emphasis on career growth.

Qualifications

• Strong background in ML engineering, not purely data science.
• Experience with deploying and running machine learning models in production.
• Solid software engineering skills, especially in Python.

Responsibilities

• Build and maintain production-grade ML systems and pipelines.
• Mentor a small team of ML engineers.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to improve ML practices.

Skills

ML Engineering experience

Production ML model deployment

Python

MLOps knowledge

Cloud experience (AWS/GCP/Azure)

Tools

Docker

Kubernetes

MLflow

Airflow

Job description

Description

We’re looking for a Machine Learning Lead Engineer who wants to operate as a player‑coach — someone still very hands‑on, but excited to grow into a proper management role over time. This is not a pure manager role from day one. You’ll be building, shipping, and improving ML systems while gradually taking on more team leadership responsibilities.

Department: Platform

Location: London

Compensation: £110,000 / year

Key Responsibilities

• Build and maintain production‑grade ML systems and pipelines
• Stay hands‑on (coding, reviews, debugging, deployments)
• Mentor a small team of ML engineers (2–3 people initially)
• Establish ML engineering & MLOps best practices
• Improve deployment, monitoring, and model lifecycle management
• Collaborate with DS, Risk, Product, and Engineering
• Help shape roadmap and hiring

Skills, Knowledge & Expertise

• Strong background as an ML Engineer (not purely DS/research)
• Experience deploying and running ML models in production
• Solid software engineering skills (Python, APIs, systems)
• Good understanding of MLOps stack (CI/CD, monitoring, pipelines)
• Familiarity with tools like MLflow, Airflow, Evidently, DVC, Docker, Kubernetes.
• Cloud experience (AWS/GCP/Azure)
• Some mentoring/leadership experience + desire to grow into management
• Nice to have:
  • Experience scaling ML platforms or teams
  • Fintech / lending / risk domain exposure

Job Benefits

• Stock Options
• Private Medical insurance via Vitality and Dental Insurance with BUPA
• EAP with Health Assured
• Enhanced Maternity and Paternity Leave
• Modern and sophisticated office space in Central London
• Free Gym in office building in Holborn
• Subsidised Lunch via Feedr
• Deliveroo Allowance if working late in office
• Monthly in office Masseuse
• Team and Company Socials
• Football Power League / Paddle and Yoga Club