Senior Algorithms Engineer

We are looking for an innovative algorithms engineer to join our team at Chess Dynamics, a leading design and manufacturing business serving defence industries. The role involves developing next‑generation intelligent sensing and computer vision capabilities for challenging defence applications such as electro‑optical gun fire control, ground‑based air defence, counter‑unmanned aerial systems, multi‑domain surveillance and autonomous platforms.

Responsibilities

• Research, develop, and evaluate computer vision algorithms for image classification, fine‑grained recognition, object detection, and computer vision applications.
• Investigate challenging technical problems where immediate solutions are not known, designing structured experiments and evidence‑based approaches.
• Design and improve datasets, evaluation methodologies, and automated pipelines to accelerate machine learning development.
• Analyse model performance, identify failure modes, and develop innovative solutions to improve real‑world capability.
• Develop tools and processes to improve automation, repeatability, and efficiency across the machine learning lifecycle.
• Provide technical guidance and mentoring to other engineers, supporting knowledge sharing and development of computer vision and machine learning capability within the team.
• Keep up to date with advances in computer vision, AI, and machine learning, identifying opportunities to apply emerging technologies.
• Communicate complex technical concepts, experimental results, and recommendations clearly to engineering teams, stakeholders, and customers.
• Support integration, testing, and deployment of algorithms into real‑time video processing systems.
• Produce technical documentation, reports, and presentations to support engineering decisions.

Qualifications

• Degree or equivalent experience in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Engineering, Mathematics, or Physics.
• Practical experience developing and deploying machine learning or computer vision algorithms in production or near‑production systems.
• Experience with modern computer vision architectures, including object detection, image classification, and transformers.
• Ability to analyse image datasets using image‑processing techniques to inform model development and debugging.
• Strong problem‑solving skills with the ability to break down complex, uncertain problems into achievable steps.
• Ability to take ownership of technical challenges from investigation through delivery.
• Strong programming skills in Python, with experience in C++ for production or performance‑critical systems.
• Able to apply statistical modelling techniques, Bayesian inference, uncertainty estimation, probabilistic modelling, or state estimation methods to real‑world engineering problems.
• Experience building custom loss functions, action recognition, synthetic data generation, multi‑modal neural networks, and ML development tools including experiment tracking, dataset management, model evaluation, or CI/CD pipelines.
• Experience using build systems such as CMake for cross‑platform C++ development.
• Motivated to solve difficult technical challenges and deliver meaningful real‑world impact.
• Capability to take ownership, create structure, clarity, and momentum in ambiguous situations.
• Methodical approach to experimentation, problem solving, and engineering delivery.
• Collaborative mindset with ability to drive work independently.
• Continuous pursuit of opportunities to improve tools, processes, and ways of working.
• Natural curiosity with a broad engineering mindset, able to explore different approaches and technologies.

Benefits

• Group pension plan with matched contributions up to 5%.
• Income protection scheme.
• Employee Assistance Programme providing remote GP service, second opinion, mental health pathway service and physiotherapy consultations.
• Life assurance policy including bereavement counselling and probate helpline.
• Company shares incentive plan and save‑as‑you‑earn scheme.
• Electric vehicle salary sacrifice scheme.
• Wellbeing initiatives, including access to wellbeing app and mental health support for all employees.
• Regular activities across sites to support wellbeing (sports, social activities, gym membership discounts).
• Reward platform with high street discounts, employee benefits, health, and wellbeing offerings.
• Recruitment referral bonus scheme.

Security Clearance Requirements

Due to the nature of our business, staff must obtain UK Security Clearance. Proof of identity, employment history, right to work in the UK and proof of UK residency for at least five years is required.