Principal Machine Learning Engineer

Speechmatics; City Of London; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading AI technology firm in London is seeking a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to pioneer innovative research and development in speech technology. The successful candidate will lead engineering teams to advance machine learning practices and contribute to shaping the company's technical vision. A deep understanding of modern ML techniques and leadership experience is essential. The role offers a hybrid work arrangement with a range of employee benefits focused on well-being and inclusivity.

Benefits

Flexible working hours

Private Medical and Dental insurance

Generous holiday allowance

Working from home allowance

Parental leave support

Qualifications

• Experience in collaborative R&D projects.
• Ability to balance detail with long-term vision.
• Familiarity with modern Machine Learning stack.

Responsibilities

• Drive engineering groups to achieve ambitious goals.
• Improve machine learning processes and practices.
• Influence product and technical direction.

Skills

Tech lead experience

Machine Learning principles

Transformer architectures knowledge

Distributed training techniques

Technical writing skills

Job description

Overview

We are hiring a Principal Machine Learning Engineer to work on cutting-edge Research & Development. As innovators in speech technology, our mission is to Understand Every Voice—a vision that has propelled us to be world leaders of Voice AI, with STT, TTS, and Flow; our brand new Conversational AI platform. 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 Engineer to accelerate our efforts towards exceptional speech solutions.

Responsibilities

• Drive diverse groups of engineers to achieve ambitious goals; you will work on complex R&D projects, and guide others by defining research milestones and collaborating together.
• Raise the bar for machine learning at Speechmatics, by applying your innovative ideas and experiences to improve the efficiency, effectiveness, and best practices across all of our machine learning teams.
• Set a forward-thinking vision for Speechmatics\' business as a world leader in Voice AI; with your passion and understanding of the latest machine learning developments, you will influence our product and technical direction.
• Grow the engineers around you through mentorship and support, ensuring we are all continuously improving together.

This position allows you to influence what the ML team is working towards, and to efficiently leverage other engineers to increase the output of your experience.

Qualifications

• Someone who can act as a tech lead and use their experience to be not only an example for their coworkers, but also a guardrail.
• Demonstrated experience in collaboratively pursuing ambitious R&D agendas.
• Balances attention to detail with a view on the big-picture, long-term company vision, and is able to relate company goals to the goals of the team members they work with.
• Deep understanding of the modern Machine Learning stack, for example:
  - Knowledge of contemporary transformer architectures (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).
• With preferred backgrounds covering some of the following:
  - Publications in top-tier conferences.
  - Contributions to popular open-source repositories.
  - Exceptional technical writing skills as evidenced by relevant publications or blogs.

We encourage you to apply even if you do not feel you match all of the requirements exactly. The list of requirements is intended to show the kinds of experience and qualities we\'re looking for, but it is not exhaustive. If you are interested in the role, the team, and our mission, we would love to consider your application. We are always open to conversations and look forward to hearing from you.

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

No matter what stage of your career you\'re at - from paid internships and first-job opportunities through to management and senior positions - we\'ll support you with the training and development needed to reach your career aspirations with us. There really is no shortage of opportunities here for you to get involved and collaborate with those around you to deliver your best work.

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.

EEO notice: Our mission is simple: Understand Every Voice out there. We celebrate diversity and are committed to creating an inclusive environment for all employees.

Please note: 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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