Machine Learning Team Lead

Speechmatics; Cambridge; Hybrid; GBP 110,000 - 140,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working

Company lunches

Birthday celebrations

Private Medical

Dental for family

Global opportunities

Generous holiday allowance

Pension/401K matching

WFH equipment allowance

Parental leave

Hybrid schedule

Job summary

Speechmatics is seeking a Machine Learning Team Lead to guide a team of ML engineers translating cutting-edge research into scalable, customer-centric speech solutions.

The role focuses on mentoring, technical oversight, and driving end-to-end ML development with production-ready delivery. A hybrid setup in Cambridge enables cross-functional collaboration and impactful milestones.

Qualifications

• Proven track record leading ML engineers and teams.
• Strong understanding of modern ML stack and architectures.
• Experience deploying models at scale and into production.

Responsibilities

• Lead, mentor, and grow a world-class ML engineering team.
• Provide technical oversight for end-to-end ML development.
• Guide best practices in software engineering and ML testing.
• Plan work, allocate resources, and collaborate cross-functionally.
• Drive ML technical work to meet ambitious goals.

Skills

Mentoring ML engineers

Impact prioritization

Transformer models

Distributed training

Inference optimization

Model deployment at scale

Python

TensorFlow/PyTorch

Cloud platforms

Software engineering practices

ML testing frameworks

Tools

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Cloud platforms

Job description

We are hiring a Machine Learning Team Lead to lead a team of driven ML engineers working on translating cutting-edge research into ambitious, customer-centric speech solutions.

As innovators in speech technology, our mission is to Understand Every Voice — a vision that has propelled us to be world leaders of Speech AI. Fuelled by innovation, inclusivity, and a passion for making a global impact through world-leading Speech AI, we're looking for an experienced Machine Learning Team Lead to accelerate our efforts towards exceptional speech solutions.

Our Modelling Team builds and trains a broad spectrum of models, including large self-supervised architectures, advancing Speechmatics’ mission to provide the most accurate speech recognition technology worldwide. It also ensures their deployment into production, working with the latest developments in ML, but also with the best practices for software engineering and model serving.

What you’ll be doing:

• Lead, mentor, and grow a world-class team of ML engineers through coaching and professional development
• Provide technical oversight and guidance for end-to-end ML development, ensuring solutions are robust and scalable
• Guide the adoption of best practices in software engineering
• Plan work, allocate resources and collaborate cross-functionally to align initiatives with business objectives and bring solutions to production
• Drive the technical work for the ML team to deliver high-quality technical solutions that achieve ambitious strategic goals

Who we are looking for:

• Demonstrable experience in guiding and mentoring ML engineers
• Adept at prioritizing work by impact, feasibility, and time-to-value, with clear success metrics
• Strong understanding of the modern Machine Learning stack, for example:
  • Knowledge of contemporary transformer architectures, related concepts (e.g., GQA, KV-caching) and best practices
  • Expertise in distributed training techniques
  • Familiarity with optimisation strategies for model inference (e.g., dynamic batching, flash attention, speculative decoding)
• Proven track record of developing and deploying models at scale
• Proficiency in Python, ML frameworks (TensorFlow, PyTorch), and experience with cloud platforms
• Strong familiarity with software engineering practices and ML testing frameworks

Who we are:

Speechmatics is the leading expert in Speech Intelligence, and uses AI and Machine Learning to unlock business value in human speech worldwide. We work with an amazing mix of global companies, and our technology can integrate into our customers stack irrespective of their industry or use case – making it the go‑to solution to harness useful information from speech.

Joining us means working with some of the smartest minds around the world, focused on cutting-edge projects and deploying the latest techniques to disrupt the market. We believe in putting people first; we’ll do all we can to help you develop your skills and give you the tools you need to thrive. Our Focus Fridays give you an undisturbed day of focus, offset with Together Tuesdays when we have our team meetings, so you've always got the right balance.

We have structured a hybrid approach that includes 2-3 designated office days each week. This arrangement ensures that while we embrace the advantages of remote work, we also maintain the vital connection and synergy that only in-person interactions can foster.

This is only the beginning; we’re looking for amazing people like you to continue our journey…

What we can offer you:

We offer incredibly flexible working, regular company lunches, and birthday celebrations. But that’s not all. We’ve spoken to our teams to find out what they want. From Private Medical, and Dental for you and your family, through to global working opportunities, a generous holiday allowance and pension/401K matching, we want to make sure our employees and their families are looked after.

Every employee will receive a working from home allowance for tech or home office equipment (on top of your choice of laptop and accessories of course). Our approach to parental leave is designed to support employees globally. While this varies by geo, we have support in place for parents (including adoption assistance and reproductive health services) to ensure they have the time and financial resources needed to care for their growing families.

• Incredibly flexible working
• Regular company lunches
• Birthday celebrations
• Private Medical
• Dental for you and your family
• Global working opportunities
• Generous holiday allowance
• Pension/401K matching
• Working from home allowance for tech or home office equipment (on top of your choice of laptop and accessories of course)
• Parental leave (including adoption assistance and reproductive health services)
• Structured hybrid approach with 2-3 designated office days each week

At Speechmatics, our mission is simple: Understand Every Voice out there.

That's not just about our tech – it's the heart and soul of who we are. We welcome different experiences, viewpoints, and identities. For us, it’s not just the right thing to do; it’s our catalyst for sparking innovation and creativity. Our teams thrive in an environment that celebrates and supports everyone – no matter their gender, identity or expression, race, disability, age, sexual orientation, religion, belief, marital status, national origin, veteran status, pregnancy, or maternity status.

But we don’t just open the door to diversity – we actively welcome it. Why? Because we believe every unique voice adds something special to our team, leading us to smarter solutions and a better workplace.

So, come as you are and join our Speechling community. We're building a place where every voice not only gets heard but is also respected and valued.

For more information on us, please visit our website and follow Speechmatics on our social channels via Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

We rely on legitimate interest as a legal basis for processing personal information under the GDPR for purposes of recruitment and applications for employment.

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