Machine Learning R&D Engineer (KTP Associate)

In partnership with Buro Happold, Birmingham City University are looking to appoint a high calibre graduate (graduated within the last five years) as a Machine Learning R&D Engineer (KTP Associate). As a Machine Learning R&D Engineer Associate, you will develop Machine Learning (ML) solutions that will innovate and transform key engineering activities in Buro Happold. You will work closely with Buro Happold’s computational team to build reusable AI/ML datasets, develop and optimise ML models, facilitate their deployment within the company, and co-define data-driven solutions that have the potential to revolutionise the Architecture, Engineering and Construction (AEC) industry.

This role presents an exciting opportunity to work in collaboration with leading academics at Birmingham City University, to apply knowledge and technical innovation, delivered on site at the company. The Machine Learning R&D Engineer (KTP Associate) should have a minimum 2.1 University qualification in a relevant subject area and graduated within the last five years. This Knowledge Transfer Project (KTP) is co-funded by a grant from Innovate UK and Buro Happold Limited. It is therefore essential you understand the fundamentals of the KTP collaboration between a UK business and a University works to deliver benefits for each (the company, the university, and the graduate).

Personal Training & Development Budget: The Machine Learning R&D Engineer (KTP Associate) will have access to a wider range of benefits including a personal development budget of £3,000 to upskill during the project. The successful candidate will be employed by Birmingham City University and seconded to work full-time onsite at Buro Happold Limited to deliver the 18-month KTP project in partnership Birmingham City University and Buro Happold Limited.

Buro Happold Limited is an international, integrated consultancy of engineers, designers and advisers (about 3000 employees worldwide) that designs and delivers a wide range of construction projects. Buro Happold covers several domains of expertise, including structural engineering, façade design, MEP engineering, and many others. Buro Happold has a long history of developing and applying innovative computational solutions and is now investing into AI/ML innovation to increase their design efficiency and transform key workflows, ultimately sustaining BH’s position as one of the key leaders in the AEC sector.

The successful candidate will have full access to Birmingham City University’s resources such as offices, labs, and library to complete the KTP project. The Machine Learning and R&D Engineer (KTP Associate) will be supervised and mentored by both a lead academic and academic supervisor from Birmingham City University’s College of Computing and Digital Technology within the Faculty of Computing, Engineering and Built Environment (CEBE) as well as a company supervisor located at Buro Happold Limited.

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

• Understand the main workflows of BH, interfacing with domain experts to understand basic concepts of different domains of work (e.g. Structural engineering, façade design, electrical engineering).
• Define a ML R&D strategy for the collected use cases, performing literature review, understanding challenges, and proposing achievable goals with a clearly defined plan and timeline.
• Help develop reusable datasets suitable for training ML models, using Buro Happold’s extensive data sources.
• Select and fine-tune computer vision models leveraging the developed datasets to identify and classify elements.
• Contribute to the development of an Ontology/Knowledge Graph (KG) to represent key engineering concepts.
• Collaborate with other Computational Team’s engineers to facilitate the deployment of the models within BH’s workflows.
• Write periodic reports to show progress and participate in team planning/review activities.
• Co-author papers and participate in conferences and dissemination activities.

Competencies, Skills and Experience:

• Relevant degree with a minimum of 2.1 and ideally a Master’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field.
• Excellent programming skills, good communication skills, and experience of successfully working as part of a team.
• Proficiency in Python and its standard coding practices and common libraries.
• Experience with ML models and knowledge of at least one ML framework (PyTorch preferred).
• Proven ability to manipulate, query and visualise data and training/evaluation results.
• Understanding of Information Extraction and Retrieval techniques, NLP, and large language models.
• Familiarity with cloud computing platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP), Azure preferred.
• Experience with version control tools (i.e. Git).

Personal Skills:

• Proactive in identifying risks, blockers and communicating requests for support.
• Ability to convey technical concepts to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Clear communication and presentation skills, both written and verbal.
• Willingness to learn and undertake training activities where needed.

For further information please contact AbdulRahman Alsewari at rahman.alsewari@bcu.ac.uk, Edlira Vakaj at edlira.vakaj@bcu.ac.uk and Franco Cheung at franco.cheung@bcu.ac.uk.

Salary range: £45,000 - £55,000 per annum.