Machine Learning Research Engineer

Understanding Recruitment; Remote; GBP 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A fast-growing AI startup is seeking a Machine Learning Research Engineer to lead the development of their innovative Agent Factory, focused on creating scalable Virtual Agents. This hands-on position offers the chance to shape cutting-edge automation technology and collaborate closely with platform, ML, and customer teams to deploy solutions at scale. Strong Python skills and an understanding of LLMs or code generation systems are required. The role is remote-first, offering competitive salary and equity, along with generous benefits.

Benefits

Competitive salary plus meaningful equity

Flexible working with generous parental and sick leave

Annual budgets for learning and wellbeing

3-4 team off-sites per year

Qualifications

• Strong Python experience with exposure to LLMs or code-generation systems.
• Solid software engineering fundamentals including design and testing.
• Comfortable moving between research, prototyping, and production.

Responsibilities

• Lead the development of the Agent Factory for managing Virtual Agents.
• Develop frameworks for code generation and workflow automation.
• Integrate LLM-based reasoning with deterministic Python systems.
• Run experiments to improve automation quality.
• Collaborate with teams to deploy agents at scale.
• Influence technical roadmap and AI research direction.

Skills

Python

LLMs

agentic AI

code-generation systems

MLOps

DevOps

Tools

Terraform

CI/CD

Playwright

Job description

Machine Learning Research Engineer

We are representing Unitary - a fast-growing AI startup building Virtual Agents that automate complex trust & safety workflows. We combine deterministic systems, large-language-model reasoning, and human-in-the-loop expertise to help enterprises make safer, more reliable decisions at scale.

Our platform processes millions of images and videos every day, supporting some of the world’s largest online platforms.

Backed by Creandum and Plural, with $25M+ raised, we’re scaling quickly and pushing the frontier of intelligent, accountable automation online.

The Role

We’re hiring a Machine Learning Research Engineer to help shape the next generation of Virtual Agents.

You’ll lead the development of our Agent Factory— a system that turns captured workflows into scalable, production-ready agents by unifying code generation, orchestration, and AI reasoning.

Sitting at the intersection of research and engineering, you’ll prototype, validate, and productionise systems that enable AI to autonomously construct, optimise, and execute complex software workflows.

This is a hands-on role with real ownership and real impact.

What You’ll Do

• Design and build the Agent Factory for creating, deploying, and managing Virtual Agents
• Develop frameworks for code generation, evaluation, and workflow automation
• Integrate LLM‑based reasoning with deterministic Python systems
• Run experiments to benchmark, validate, and improve automation quality
• Collaborate with platform, ML, and customer teams to deploy agents at scale
• Influence Unitary’s technical roadmap and agentic AI research direction

About You

• Strong Python experience, with exposure to LLMs, agentic AI, or code‑generation systems
• Solid software engineering fundamentals (design, testing, MLOps / DevOps)
• Comfortable moving between research, rapid prototyping, and production
• Curious, pragmatic, and collaborative in fast‑moving environments

Bonus points for experience with:

Temporal or other workflow orchestration tools, Playwright or browser automation, CI/CD pipelines, Terraform, or scaling ML systems in production.

Why Unitary

• Remote‑first across Europe
• Competitive salary plus meaningful equity
• Flexible working with generous parental and sick leave
• Annual budgets for learning and wellbeing
• 3‑4 team off‑sites per year across London or Europe