Principal ML Engineer: Edge AI for National Security

Rowden Technologies; West of England; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 140,000; Full time

Job summary

Rowden Technologies, headquartered in Bristol, is building the UK's next generation engineering powerhouse. This Principal ML Engineer role leads key ML projects, combining hands-on development with strategic oversight across edge deployment and large-model work.

You will collaborate with software, hardware, and RF engineers, reporting to the Head of ML. A hybrid model is offered with on-site presence in Bristol three days per week and international travel possible a few times a year.

Qualifications

• Builder mindset with ownership over outcomes.
• Proven delivery of technical work into production or TRL readiness.
• Deep ML/DL expertise with production reasoning.
• Experience training and fine-tuning large models in distributed environments.
• Knowledge of LLMs and agent-based systems including prompting, tools, and evaluation.
• Experience with data engineering and edge/embedded deployment.
• Strong Python skills; knowledge of Rust or C++ is desirable.
• Excellent communication to bridge technical and non-technical audiences.
• Education: MSc or equivalent; PhD desirable.

Responsibilities

• Technical authority on demanding ML projects and decisions.
• Hands-on design, build, and debugging of ML systems at scale.
• Lead large model training, pre-training, fine-tuning, and evaluation.
• Work with LLMs and agentic systems across teams and trials.
• Ensure end-to-end data pipelines and edge deployment.
• Represent Rowden in external engagements and bids.

Skills

Builder mindset

Delivery

Deep ML/DL

Large model training

LLMs & agentic systems

Data & edge

Python

C++

Interpersonal skills

Education

MSc or equivalent experience

PhD in AI/ML/CS or related field

Tools

PyTorch DDP/FSDP

Kubeflow

Slurm

Kubernetes

DeepSpeed/Megatron/TorchTitan

Databricks

Apache Spark

MLflow

Docker

NVIDIA Triton

Job description

Rowden Technologies, headquartered in Bristol, is building the UK's next generation engineering powerhouse. This Principal ML Engineer role leads key ML projects, combining hands-on development with strategic oversight across edge deployment and large-model work.

You will collaborate with software, hardware, and RF engineers, reporting to the Head of ML. A hybrid model is offered with on-site presence in Bristol three days per week and international travel possible a few times a year.