Research Software Engineer – AI Retrieval & Agents

European Tech Recruit; City of Edinburgh; On-site; GBP 70,000 - 110,000; Full time

Job summary

European Tech Recruit seeks a Software Research Engineer to join its Retrieval and Agent Intelligence team in Edinburgh on a permanent PAYE basis. The role focuses on bridging AI research and production-grade software, delivering next-generation retrieval and agentic AI technologies.

The ideal candidate has 3+ years of software engineering experience with expertise in Python, NLP/ML, LLMs and information retrieval, and is comfortable collaborating with researchers in a fast-paced,

Qualifications

• 3+ years of software engineering experience.
• Experience with Python, Docker and Git.
• Experience with information retrieval / advanced retrieval mechanisms.
• Experience with NLP, LLMs or Machine Learning.
• Strong algorithmic and problem-solving mindset, especially with non-deterministic systems.
• Experience with Test Driven Development and CI/CD.
• Strong software engineering practices, including clean, reusable and production-quality code.
• Knowledge of Knowledge Graphs and Graph Databases is desirable.

Responsibilities

• Bridge AI research and production-grade software.
• Develop next-generation retrieval and agentic AI technologies (e.g., GraphRAG, dynamic context compression, agent memory, long-horizon reasoning).
• Work with researchers to turn ideas into high-quality prototypes and scalable production systems.

Skills

Software engineering

Python

Docker

Git

Information retrieval

NLP/ML

TDD/CI-CD

Graph knowledge/Graph databases

Tools

CI/CD

Job description

European Tech Recruit seeks a Software Research Engineer to join its Retrieval and Agent Intelligence team in Edinburgh on a permanent PAYE basis. The role focuses on bridging AI research and production-grade software, delivering next-generation retrieval and agentic AI technologies.

The ideal candidate has 3+ years of software engineering experience with expertise in Python, NLP/ML, LLMs and information retrieval, and is comfortable collaborating with researchers in a fast-paced,