Staff Engineer Material Generation

Syngenta AG; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 140,000 - 190,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Generous pension

Bonus scheme

Private medical & life insurance

Up to 31.5 days annual holiday

Learning culture and training options

Job summary

Syngenta Crop Protection in the UK is seeking a Lead, AI Enablement Technologies to drive a cross-cutting engineering function for AI across R&D IT. You will own the platform, infrastructure choices, and safety controls for scalable AI products.

You will lead area leads, shape the technology roadmap, manage HPC investments, and partner with data, bioinformatics, and IT teams to deliver reliable, cost-efficient AI capabilities in a fast-growing global agriscience environment.

Qualifications

• Expert-level technical depth in AI infrastructure and MLOps.
• Strong scientific HPC literacy to credibly direct HPC specialists.
• Proven engineering leadership and hiring senior engineers.
• Strategic navigation across boundaries with vendors and peers.
• Hands-on habits: read code, review architecture, evaluate tools.
• Excellent communicator of complex AI infrastructure to executives.
• Experience designing safety frameworks, red-teaming, and testing at scale.
• Proven budgeting, CAPEX planning and cost optimization.
• Experience authoring architecture decisions and ADRs.

Responsibilities

• Own the AI infrastructure roadmap and platform for AI products.
• Direct line management for area leads in HPC and AI.
• Define API contracts and cost attribution with IT teams.
• Establish KPIs for utilization, cost efficiency, and reliability.
• Develop capability-building programs for R&D teams.
• Manage vendor relationships and third-party tools.
• Ensure responsible AI governance and safety practices.
• Collaborate with data, analytics, and bioinformatics IT teams.
• Build consensus on cross-boundary patterns and ADRs.

Skills

AI infrastructure

HPC literacy

Engineering leadership

Vendor management

Safety frameworks

Cost optimization

Architecture ADRs

MLOps

ML frameworks

Strategic partnering

Tools

Kubernetes

Slurm

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Ray

Job description

Syngenta Crop Protection is a leader in agricultural innovation, bringing breakthrough technologies and solutions that enable farmers to grow productively and sustainably. We offer a leading portfolio of crop protection solutions for plant and soil health, as well as digital solutions that transform the decision-making capabilities of farmers. Our 17,900 employees serve to advance agriculture in more than 90 countries around the world. Syngenta Crop Protection is headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, and is part of the Syngenta Group.

Our employees reflect the diversity of our customers, the markets where we operate and the communities which we serve. No matter what your position, you will have a vital role in safely feeding the world and taking care of our planet. Join us and help shape the future of agriculture.

Job Description

About the role

We are seeking a Lead, AI Enablement Technologies to run a cross-cutting strategic function within Engineering and Technology. This role makes AI a first-class, measured, and safely operated capability across R&D IT. You will own the engineering "how" of AI: infrastructure, technology choices, engineering practice, and the platform that business-facing AI products run on.

What you will do

Own the operational performance of the AI Enablement function across five key workloads: HPC and scientific compute, AI inference and serving infrastructure, agentic foundations, AI-assisted engineering, and AI upskilling for R&D.

Direct line management for area leads, guiding specialists in HPC, scientific AI inference, and engineering AI.

Drive the technology roadmap for AI infrastructure across R&D IT, including model serving stacks, inference optimisation patterns, guardrails frameworks, vector database choices, and evaluation harnesses.

Manage HPC investments, including GPU procurement and cluster lifecycle, grounded in utilisation data and scientific demand forecasts.

Partner with peer data, analytics, and bioinformatics IT functions to define API contracts, cost attribution models, and shared scientific-computing patterns.

Own the evaluation and safety framework for AI at scale, including red-teaming, prompt-injection testing, and model performance tracking.

Build consensus on cross-boundary technical patterns and author Architecture Decision Records (ADRs).

Establish and monitor key performance indicators (KPIs) for infrastructure utilisation, cost efficiency, and system reliability, ensuring accountability across the AI Enablement function.

Develop and deliver comprehensive capability-building programmes for R&D teams, including training on AI best practices, platform usage, and responsible AI principles.

Manage vendor relationships and technology partnerships to ensure optimal selection, integration, and support of AI infrastructure components and tools.

Qualifications

What you will bring

Expert-level technical depth in AI infrastructure and MLOps, including model serving at scale, inference optimization, vector databases, and LLM-adjacent tooling.

Strong scientific HPC literacy (e.g., Slurm, GPU scheduling, scientific-computing workflows) to credibly direct HPC specialists and engage with scientists.

Proven engineering leadership experience running specialist teams and hiring senior/staff engineers.

Strong strategic navigation skills to partner effectively across boundaries without being captured by vendors or peer functions.

Hands-on habits; you still read code, review architecture, and evaluate tools directly.

Exceptional communication skills, able to explain complex AI infrastructure to executives and engineers alike.

Demonstrated experience designing and implementing safety frameworks, including red-teaming methodologies, adversarial testing, and model performance evaluation at scale.

Proven track record in managing technology budgets, capital expenditure planning, and cost optimization across infrastructure investments.

Experience authoring and socializing technical architecture decisions and design documentation across cross-functional teams.

Strong vendor management and technology partnership experience, with ability to evaluate, negotiate, and integrate third‑party solutions effectively.

Hands‑on experience with popular ML frameworks, tools, and platforms (e.g., PyTorch, TensorFlow, Kubernetes, Ray, or equivalent) to maintain technical credibility and inform infrastructure decisions.

Demonstrated success leading large‑scale technology initiatives or organizational transformations, with ability to drive adoption and change management across diverse stakeholder groups.

Strong metrics‑driven mindset with proven ability to establish, track, and optimize key performance indicators for infrastructure utilization, cost efficiency, and system reliability.

Experience building and scaling high‑performing engineering teams in fast‑growing or matrix organizational environments.

Familiarity with responsible AI governance frameworks, compliance requirements, and industry best practices for AI safety and ethics.

Additional Information

Jealott's Hill International Research Centre UK is situated in pleasant semi‑rural surroundings between Bracknell and Maidenhead and is the place of work for approximately 800 Syngenta scientists and support staff.Jealott’s Hill is one of the main global research and development sites and key activities include research into discovery of new active ingredients, new formulation technologies, product safety and technical support of our product range.

What we offer

Extensive benefits package including a generous pension scheme, bonus scheme, private medical & life insurance.

Up to 31.5 days annual holiday.

We offer a position which contributes to valuable and impactful work in a stimulating and international environment.

The opportunity to develop and apply your science within the chemical industry.

The chance to work as part of a global team to address the current and future needs of the agricultural sector.

Learning culture and wide range of training options.

Syngenta has been ranked as a top 5 employer and number 1 in agriculture by Science Journal.

Syngenta is an Equal Opportunity Employer and does not discriminate in recruitment, hiring, training, promotion or any other employment practices for reasons of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, age, sexual orientation, marital or veteran status, disability, or any other legally protected status. Learn more about our D&I initiatives here: https://www.syngenta.com/careers/working-syngenta/diversity-and-inclusion