Open to Graduates - Retrieval and Agent Intelligence - Software Research Engineer (PAYE) - LLM / AI Agents / RAG / Python

European Tech Recruit; City of Edinburgh; On-site; GBP 40,000 - 60,000; Full time

Job summary

European Tech Recruit is seeking a Software Research Engineer (Graduate to experienced) for an on-site role in Edinburgh. You will translate AI research concepts into prototypes and scalable services, spanning graph retrieval, agent memory, and long-horizon planning.

You will design pipelines, experiment with GraphRAG concepts, contribute to open-source work, and collaborate with international researchers to ship platform capabilities from research discoveries.

Qualifications

• Masters or PhD in Computer Science, AI, Mathematics or a related quantitative field.
• Experience as a software engineer in research-driven, production, or advanced prototyping settings.
• Hands-on with retrieval mechanisms, information retrieval pipelines, or search infrastructure.
• Proficiency in Python, Docker, Git, and modern CI/CD practices.
• Strong software engineering fundamentals: TDD, clean architecture, automated testing.

Responsibilities

• Bridge abstract AI/retrieval research with production-grade software architecture.
• Design and implement knowledge retrieval and agentic AI systems, including GraphRAG with late interactions and context compression.
• Build state management, memory layers, and goal-tracking for long-horizon agent reasoning.
• Contribute to core internal engineering pipelines: data prep, modeling, scaling, deployment support.
• Collaborate with international research groups to turn algorithmic discoveries into platform capabilities.
• Participate in open-source development and maintain high engineering standards.

Education

Master's or PhD in Computer Science/AI/Mathematics

Tools

Python

Docker

Git

CI/CD

Job description

Open to Graduates - Software Research Engineer (PAYE) - Retrieval and Agent Intelligence - Software Development / LLM / AI Agents / RAG / Python

We're working with a true leader in research, development, and innovation, and we are looking for multiple graduates and experienced professionals for some Research Engineer positions.

With hundreds of thousands of employees globally, this company are at the forefront of advanced technological research, rated highly for R&D investments across Europe. They have continued to hire throughout the uncertainty of the economy and continue to invest across Europe.

This is a full time PAYE contract for 12 months and there may be extensions available depending on your right to work status.

This is an on-site position based in Edinburgh and if you are not based in Edinburgh, you will be required to relocate.

Role Overview

You will take technical ownership of translating abstract AI research concepts into high-quality prototypes and scalable software services on-site at a premier R&D office in Edinburgh.

Your responsibilities will cover the full research engineering lifecycle—from designing hybrid graph-retrieval pipelines and agent memory architectures to implementing strict validation boundaries, maintaining open-source contributions, and optimizing system execution for long-horizon planning and reasoning.

Key Responsibilities

• Serve as the core bridge between abstract AI/retrieval research and hardened, production-grade software architecture.
• Design and implement next-generation knowledge retrieval and agentic AI systems, including hybrid GraphRAG with late interactions, knowledgeable agents, and dynamic context compression.
• Build advanced state management, dynamic memory layers, and goal-tracking systems for long-horizon agent reasoning and planning.
• Contribute to core internal engineering pipelines, handling data preparation, algorithmic modeling, scaling, and production deployment support.
• Participate in open-source software development and maintain high engineering standards across codebase repositories.
• Collaborate closely with international research groups to turn state-of-the-art algorithmic discoveries into functional platform capabilities.

Required Experience

• Masters or PhD degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Mathematics, or a related quantitative field
• Software engineering experience within research-driven, production, or advanced prototyping environments.
• Hands-on experience with advanced retrieval mechanisms, information retrieval pipelines, or search infrastructure.
• Proficiency with Python, containerization (Docker), version control (Git), and modern CI/CD practices.
• Solid software engineering principles (Test-Driven Development, clean reusable code architecture, automated testing).
• Strong algorithmic mindset comfortable with non-deterministic system behavior and complex data pipelines.
• Preferred: Background in Knowledge Graphs, graph databases, or modern multimodal ingestion frameworks.
• Preferred: Familiarity with LLM/agent mechanics (e.g., hallucination mitigation, context distillation, skill management, or reasoning frameworks).
• Preferred: Practical experience with NLP, Machine Learning tools, and high-performance validation boundaries.

*Must have full right to work in the UK without sponsorship. Post study work visas are fine as long as you can work full-time and have a minimum of 12 months on this*

I welcome your application if you'd like to find out more and if you know someone it would suit, we offer a fantastic referral scheme which I would be happy to discuss.

Keywords:

Consumer Electronics / R&D / Computer Science / LLM / AI Agent / RAG / Python / Retrieval

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