Thesis work - Context Engineering for AI Agents in Enterprise Analytics

LKAB; Gällivare kommun; Remoto; SEK 391.000 - 392.000; Part-time

Vantaggi offerti da questo lavoro

Travel reimbursement

Accommodation can be provided

Descrizione del lavoro

LKAB invites thesis students to join the Analytics team to translate theoretical knowledge into practical analytics development. You’ll work on context-aware agentic development, building a scalable evaluation suite and hands-on experiments using LKAB's data platform.

Start in January 2027 with optional on-site visits to Luleå/Malmberget/Kiruna; remote work possible. Compensation options include SEK 35,000 for 30 ECTS or SEK 20,000 for 15 ECTS, plus travel and accommodation support.

Competenze

• You are enrolled in a Master of Science in Engineering or a related field with focus on software development, data, or AI.
• You have strong programming skills in Python and Git and working knowledge of SQL and data modeling.
• You show interest or experience in agentic development, AI agents, and evaluating them.

Mansioni

• Build an agent environment that interfaces with LKAB's BI platform and data warehouse via MCP servers and CLIs.
• Develop an evaluation suite of development tasks drawn from business contexts, with ground truth reports.
• Conduct ablation studies by incrementally adding/removing context blocks and comparing model performance.

Conoscenze

Python

Git

SQL

Data modeling

Agentic development

AI agents

LLMs

BI tools

Cloud tools

Data warehouses

Strumenti

MCP servers

CLIs

Descrizione del lavoro

As a thesis student with us, you’ll have the opportunity to put your theoretical knowledge into practice while gaining unique insight into our operations. You’ll become part of our team, contribute to our development, and acquire valuable experience that strengthens both your skills and your CV. We look forward to hearing your ideas and supporting your growth!

The sustainable transformation begins with us

We are facing our greatest challenge yet – ensuring that Sweden and Europe have what it takes to transform. So that we can live the lives we want, both today and tomorrow. In the same way that we strive to improve the future, we are committed to developing everyone who joins us on this journey, both personally and professionally.

Would you like to be part of laying the foundation for the way we live – and for the world around us?

Background of the assignment

The Analytics team at LKAB develops and maintains the company's analytics products, delivered as a portfolio of apps on the team's data platform. AI agents that build semantic models, reports and dashboards through MCP servers and command-line interfaces (CLIs) have quickly become practical tools in analytics development, both across the industry and in the team's own work. The question is no longer whether agents are capable of building analytics products, but what they need to know to build them correctly: how key metrics are defined, which conventions and business rules to apply, and where the same term can mean different things in different parts of the business. Both research and industry experience suggest that it is this context, rather than the capability of the AI model itself, that is the main bottleneck. Yet there is little evidence, based on real data from large industrial companies like LKAB, on how context should be leveraged to create the most value from agentic development.

Problem statement

The Thesis Addresses Three Research Questions

• How much does context (such as metric definitions, business rules, ontologies, conventions and verified examples) improve the quality of agentic development, and what is the value of each new context block relative to the effort needed to produce it?
• To what extent can a robust context layer narrow the gap between less and more capable AI models?
• In a pull request-based workflow, what share of the agent's errors is caught by automated quality gates, and what share only by human review?

To answer these, you will build an agent environment where AI agents work against the team's BI platform and data warehouse through MCP servers and CLIs, with automated quality gates. You will also build an evaluation suite of real development tasks, drawn from both well-defined and ambiguous parts of the business, with existing validated reports as ground truth. The evaluation is set up as a controlled experiment that adds context incrementally, removes individual context types (ablation), compares a less and a more capable AI model, and repeats each run several times. The suite is designed to be re-run as AI models evolve, so that the findings stay relevant over time.

The context layer, agent environment and evaluation suite are meant to be implemented in the real workflow of the development team, and stay in use by the team after the thesis is completed.

What you bring

You are currently enrolled in a Master of Science in Engineering or a master’s program in computer science, computer engineering, data science, engineering physics, or a related field, with a focus on software development, data, or AI.

You have strong programming skills, are comfortable with Python and Git and have a working knowledge of SQL and data modeling. You have experience with, or a strong interest in, agentic development methodologies, AI agents, large language models and how to evaluate them. Experience with BI tools, cloud tools, data warehouses and modern data platforms is a plus but not a requirement.

You are self-motivated and curious, enjoy building things that work in the real world, and are comfortable designing and running your own experiments. You will work closely with the Analytics team and gain first‑hand insight into how LKAB uses data and AI in practice.

Compensation For Thesis Projects And Practical Benefits At LKAB

• 35 000 SEK for a thesis equivalent to 30 ECTS credits.
• 20 000 SEK for a thesis equivalent to 15 ECTS credits.

In Addition To Financial Compensation, We Offer

• Travel reimbursement between the study location and LKAB
• Accommodation can be provided when physical presence on‑site is required

More information

Start:January 2027

Location: Luleå/Malmberget/Kiruna. Alternatively, remote work with occasional on‑site visits

Scope: 30 ECTS

For more information about the thesis project, you are welcome to contact the supervisor/mentor: Olof Hallqvist, [e-mail]

If you have any questions regarding practical matters beyond the thesis project itself, please feel free to contact [e-mail]

We appreciate your commitment and will get back to you if we consider your application suitable for the assignment. Thank you for wanting to do your thesis with us!