Senior Machine Learning Engineer - Conversational AI

Deliveroo; London (KY); Hybrid; USD 159,000 - 225,000; Full time

Job summary

Deliveroo is seeking a Senior Machine Learning Engineer for its London team to shape decision-making systems that impact customer experience, trust and fairness. The role sits in a hybrid environment with three days in the office, focused on real-world ML at scale for a three-sided marketplace.

You will own the full ML lifecycle, advance Generative AI workstreams, and collaborate with product managers to turn complex problems into robust, scalable ML solutions.

Qualifications

• Significant experience as an ML Engineer or Data Scientist with production-grade Python.
• Proven ownership of productionising Generative AI/Agentic AI projects, including a deep understanding of LLMs, transformers, and fine-tuning.
• Proven ability to deploy and manage models using modern infrastructure tools such as Docker, Kubernetes, and CircleCI.
• Strong foundational knowledge of traditional ML and evaluation techniques, balanced with a bias for simplicity and measurable business impact.
• A collaborative mindset with experience mentoring peers and a drive to solve complex, real-world problems at scale.

Responsibilities

• Own the full ML lifecycle: Lead the design, development, and productionisation of machine learning models used in customer support and high-stakes decision systems.
• Architect for reliability: Build robust monitoring, evaluation, and alerting frameworks to detect model underperformance, drift, or unexpected behaviour in real-time.
• Collaborate on product strategy: Partner closely with Product Managers to turn ambiguous customer problems into robust, scalable ML solutions.
• Drive technical excellence: Provide technical leadership in areas with unclear ownership, setting the gold standard for ML quality, reliability, and maintainability.
• Bridge science and engineering: Work with data scientists and engineers across the global organisation to embed models into high-performance, scalable systems.

Skills

Python

Generative AI

LLMs

Docker

Kubernetes

CircleCI

Mentoring

Collaboration

Go

Tools

Go

Job description

Senior Machine Learning Engineer - Conversational AI

Join us in our mission to transform the way people shop and eat, where impact, innovation and growth drive everything we do. Our Engineering teams tackle complex technical challenges across a global, three-sided marketplace, building and scaling systems that serve millions of customers, riders and partners every day.

From real-time logistics to resilient infrastructure and marketplace optimisation, we design, build and operate technology that powers Deliveroo’s growth at scale.

We’re looking for a Senior Machine Learning Engineer to join our London team. In this role, you’ll help shape the decision-making systems that directly impact customer experience, trust, and fairness at Deliveroo. This role is based in our London office with a hybrid setup, typically 3 days in the office.

What You’ll Be Doing

You’ll be joining the Care team. Care is an area with significant opportunity and real customer impact; you’ll take ownership of existing models and help define strong ML foundations in spaces that are still evolving, from LLM-powered automation to customer compensation logic.

Here’s what your day-to-day might look like:

• Own the full ML lifecycle: Lead the design, development, and productionisation of machine learning models used in customer support and high-stakes decision systems.

• Architect for reliability: Build robust monitoring, evaluation, and alerting frameworks to detect model underperformance, drift, or unexpected behaviour in real-time.

• Collaborate on product strategy: Partner closely with Product Managers to turn ambiguous customer problems into robust, scalable ML solutions.

• Drive technical excellence: Provide technical leadership in areas with unclear ownership, setting the gold standard for ML quality, reliability, and maintainability.

• Bridge science and engineering: Work with data scientists and engineers across the global organisation to embed models into high-performance, scalable systems.

What You’ll Need to Thrive

Essential

• Significant experience as an ML Engineer or Data Scientist, with a proven ability to write high-quality production code in Python.

• Demonstrated ownership of productionising Generative AI workstreams or Agentic AI projects, including a deep understanding of LLMs, transformers, and fine-tuning.

• Proven ability to deploy and manage models using modern infrastructure tools such as Docker, Kubernetes, and CircleCI.

• Strong foundational knowledge of traditional ML and evaluation techniques, balanced with a bias for simplicity and measurable business impact.

• A collaborative mindset with experience mentoring peers and a drive to solve complex, real-world problems at scale.

Nice to Have

• Experience with evaluation harnesses and frameworks specifically designed for Generative AI.
• Familiarity with observability, monitoring, and safety techniques for deployed GenAI systems.
• Experience working with strongly typed languages, such as Go.

Why Join Us?

• Solve meaningful problems at real scale Work on a complex, always-on marketplace that impacts millions every day.
• See your impact, fast Ship, test and improve ideas quickly in a low-hierarchy, high-ownership environment.
• Grow through challenge and ownership Take on big, ambiguous problems and accelerate your career with strong support.
• A culture built for builders High standards, collaboration, flexible working and continuous learning.
• Share in the success you help create Competitive salary and equity options, so you’re rewarded for the impact you make.

Want a deeper look at how we build? Check out our Tech Blog.

Our Global Structure

Deliveroo is now part of DoorDash, bringing together teams with even greater reach, scale, and ambition. Depending on your role, you may collaborate with teammates, systems, and leaders across DoorDash and Wolt. Together, we’re unlocking new possibilities as one global team.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

At Deliveroo, we know that a great workplace reflects the world around us and that true diversity and inclusion make us stronger, more creative, and better at what we do. We’re committed to fostering an environment where everyone can do their best work and feel they belong.

We believe in equality of opportunity and welcome candidates from all backgrounds regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion, or belief.

If you have a disability or long-term health condition and need support to apply for one of our roles, or require any reasonable adjustments during the recruitment process, you’ll have the opportunity to let us know once you’ve submitted your application. We’ll share details on how to request support so we can ensure you have a fair and equitable experience.

If you’re excited about making a real impact in a fast-moving marketplace and growing your career alongside ambitious, supportive teams, we’d love to hear from you!