Senior Data Engineer - Machine Learning Operations (MLOPS)

Royal London; Alderley Edge; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Annual leave with pension matching

Private medical insurance

Job summary

Royal London seeks a Senior Machine Learning Operations Engineer to provide senior technical leadership for ML workflows, tooling and practices, moving experiments safely into production. You will champion CI/CD, lineage, and governance across environments using Databricks, MLflow and Azure ML.

Collaborating with data scientists, data engineers and platform teams, you will implement scalable, auditable pipelines with strong security and Responsible AI considerations.

Qualifications

• Strong experience with Azure including Azure ML, Data Factory and Azure DevOps.
• Hands-on experience with Databricks, MLflow and production-grade ML workflows.
• Experience designing CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions or similar tools.
• Advanced Python skills, with knowledge of SQL, Spark and testing approaches for ML.
• Understanding of data engineering concepts such as ETL/ELT, feature stores and lineage tracking.
• Awareness of security, governance, Responsible AI and relevant AI regulation.

Responsibilities

• Design and evolve scalable, production-grade ML workflows on Databricks.
• Lead effective use of MLflow for experiment tracking, model versioning, lineage and lifecycle management.
• Build reusable CI/CD patterns for model training, validation, promotion and inference.
• Champion strong engineering practices, including modular Python, testing, reproducibility and configuration management.
• Work with data scientists and platform teams to productionise models safely and efficiently.
• Mentor colleagues and support high standards across the team.

Skills

Azure

Azure ML

Azure Data Factory

Azure DevOps

Databricks

MLflow

CI/CD

GitHub Actions

Python

SQL

Spark

Testing

ETL/ELT

Feature stores

Model lineage

Governance

Responsible AI

Security awareness

Tools

Databricks

MLflow

Azure DevOps

Job description

Contract Type: Permanent Location: Alderley Park (Wilmslow) Working Style: Hybrid - 50% from home / 50% office based

We have an exciting opportunity for a Senior Machine Learning Operations Engineer to join Royal London's Group Data and AI Office. In this role, you'll provide senior technical leadership for the workflows, tooling and engineering practices that take machine learning safely and reliably from experimentation into production.

Working closely with data scientists, data engineers and platform teams, you'll define and evolve standards for CI/CD, experiment tracking, model lineage and controlled promotion across environments. Using Databricks, MLflow and Azure ML, you'll help create scalable, well-governed pipelines that are reproducible, traceable and auditable.

You'll also embed model risk management into delivery, supporting repeatable builds, clear lineage, transparent decision points and audit trails that strengthen governance and reduce operational risk.

As a senior practitioner, you'll champion engineering excellence, reusable patterns and production-ready ways of working. You'll mentor colleagues, support communities of practice and influence platform and architecture decisions so ML products deliver sustainable business value at scale.

More About the role

• Design and evolve scalable, production-grade ML workflows on Databricks.
• Lead effective use of MLflow for experiment tracking, model versioning, lineage and lifecycle management.
• Build reusable CI/CD patterns for model training, validation, promotion and inference.
• Champion strong engineering practices, including modular Python, testing, reproducibility and configuration management.
• Work with data scientists and platform teams to productionise models safely and efficiently.
• Mentor colleagues and support high standards across the team.

More about you

• Strong experience with Azure, including Azure ML, Data Factory and Azure DevOps.
• Hands‑on experience with Databricks, MLflow and production‑grade ML workflows.
• Experience designing CI/CD pipelines using Azure DevOps, GitHub Actions or similar tools.
• Advanced Python skills, with knowledge of SQL, Spark and testing approaches for ML.
• Understanding of data engineering concepts such as ETL/ELT, feature stores and lineage tracking.
• Awareness of security, governance, Responsible AI and relevant AI regulation.

If you feel you'd be a great fit for Royal London but don't meet every requirement, we'd still love to hear from you!

Benefits

We offer great benefits, including 28 days' annual leave plus bank holidays, up to 14% employer pension matching and private medical insurance.

Inclusion, diversity and belonging

We are an inclusive employer and welcome applications from people of all backgrounds. We value the different perspectives, experiences and skills our colleagues bring.