Principal AI/ML Scientist — NLP, RAG & Generative AI

Elsevier; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 65,000 - 105,000; Full time

Job summary

Elsevier in London and Amsterdam seeks a Principal Data Science Leader to shape AI strategies across teams, including NLP, generative AI, and RAG systems. You will set technical direction, ensure production readiness, and mentor multiple data science groups.

You will engage with senior stakeholders, translate business priorities into technical roadmaps, oversee governance and model risk, and promote responsible AI practices while delivering high-impact knowledge discovery solutions.

Qualifications

• Significant senior-level data science/AI experience across NLP, information retrieval, or related fields.
• Hands-on AI/ML/NLP, generative AI, and retrieval-based systems with ability to discuss technical details.

Responsibilities

• Set technical direction and architectural standards for AI/ML and NLP solutions across teams.
• Guide integration of metadata, ontologies, and knowledge assets into AI workflows.
• Review code/architecture for production readiness and provide hands-on support when needed.
• Unify technical approaches into shared patterns and libraries.
• Define and maintain shared evaluation and monitoring frameworks.

Skills

Python

LLMs

NLP

RAG search

Leadership

Mentoring

Stakeholder management

Governance & compliance

Communication

Cloud platforms

Tools

Fine-tuning

Evaluation frameworks

Job description

Elsevier in London and Amsterdam seeks a Principal Data Science Leader to shape AI strategies across teams, including NLP, generative AI, and RAG systems. You will set technical direction, ensure production readiness, and mentor multiple data science groups.

You will engage with senior stakeholders, translate business priorities into technical roadmaps, oversee governance and model risk, and promote responsible AI practices while delivering high-impact knowledge discovery solutions.