Principal Machine Learning Engineer

Principal Machine Learning Engineer

Full-Time 80000 - 98000 £ / year (est.) Home office (partial)
Futureheads

At a Glance

  • Tasks: Lead the development of cutting-edge machine learning systems and pipelines.
  • Company: Innovative AI company focused on smart assistant technology.
  • Benefits: Hybrid work, competitive salary, and opportunities for professional growth.
  • Other info: Collaborative environment with a focus on continuous learning and innovation.
  • Why this job: Join a dynamic team and shape the future of AI with real-world impact.
  • Qualifications: Strong background in deep learning and experience with ML frameworks.

The predicted salary is between 80000 - 98000 £ per year.

  • Principal Machine Learning Engineer
  • Department: Engineering

About the Company

The company is building an AI-native smart assistant designed to help everyday users manage conversations, tasks, organisation, and workflows with minimal prompting.

The product focuses on creating reliable AI systems that can support long-running workflows, persistent context, multi-step reasoning, external tool interaction, and real-world task completion.

The goal is to help users complete everyday tasks significantly faster through intelligent automation.

The Role

As a Principal Machine Learning Engineer, you will be responsible for turning research direction into production-grade machine learning systems.

This role owns the execution layer of the company’s intelligence platform, covering training pipelines, inference systems, evaluation tooling, and deployment.

You will work on building scalable, reliable ML infrastructure that can support real-world AI product experiences.

Key Responsibilities

  • Build and own end-to-end ML pipelines across data, training, evaluation, inference, and deployment.
  • Fine-tune and adapt models using modern techniques such as Lo RA, QLo RA, SFT, DPO, and distillation.
  • Architect and operate scalable inference systems, balancing latency, cost, and reliability.
  • Design and maintain data systems for high-quality synthetic and real-world training data.
  • Build evaluation pipelines covering performance, robustness, safety, and bias in partnership with research leadership.
  • Own production deployment, including GPU optimisation, memory efficiency, latency reduction, and scaling policies.
  • Collaborate closely with application engineering teams to integrate ML systems into backend, mobile, and desktop products.
  • Make pragmatic trade-offs and ship improvements quickly based on real user feedback.
  • Work within real production constraints including latency, cost, reliability, and safety.
  • Technical Skills
  • Strong background in deep learning and transformer-based architectures.
  • Hands‑on experience training, fine‑tuning, or deploying large‑scale machine learning models in production.
  • Proficiency with at least one modern ML framework such as Py Torch or JAX.
  • Experience with distributed training and inference frameworks such as Deep Speed, FSDP, Megatron, Ze RO, or Ray.
  • Strong software engineering fundamentals, with the ability to write robust, maintainable, production‑grade systems.
  • Experience with GPU optimisation, including memory efficiency, quantisation, and mixed precision.
  • Personal Attributes
  • Comfortable owning ambiguous, zero‑to‑one ML systems end‑to‑end.
  • Strong bias toward shipping, learning quickly, and improving systems through iteration.
  • Able to exercise sound judgement and work independently in a fast‑moving environment.
  • Ideal Experience
  • LLM inference frameworks such as v LLM, Tensor RT‑LLM, or Faster Transformer.
  • Open‑source contributions to machine learning or systems libraries.
  • Scientific computing, compilers, or GPU kernels.
  • RLHF pipelines including PPO, DPO, or ORPO.
  • Training or deploying multimodal or diffusion models.
  • Large‑scale data processing tools such as Apache Arrow, Spark, or Ray.
  • Working Environment

The company believes the best products are built by small, world‑class teams with high talent density.

The team works collaboratively, moves quickly, and balances high‑quality delivery with continuous learning.

Team members are expected to bring structure, exercise judgement, and execute independently while contributing to a product designed to deliver practical AI benefits at global scale.

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Principal Machine Learning Engineer employer: Futureheads

As a Senior Scala Developer with us, you'll be part of a dynamic team dedicated to delivering impactful solutions for the public sector. We pride ourselves on fostering a collaborative work culture that values technical leadership and innovative problem-solving, offering you the chance to grow your skills while working on meaningful projects. With flexible remote working options and opportunities for long-term engagement, we ensure that our employees are supported in their professional development and well-being.

Futureheads

Contact Details:

Futureheads Recruitment Team

StudySmarter Expert Advice🤫

We think this is how you could land Principal Machine Learning Engineer

Join Local Tech Meetups

Get out there and mingle with fellow developers by joining local tech meetups. It’s a fantastic way to meet people who might be working at Futureheads or know someone who does. Plus, you can pick up some trendy tech skills and trends while you're at it!

Contribute to Open Source Projects

Show off your coding chops by jumping into open-source projects. Not only does this give you practical experience, but it also gets you noticed in the dev community. You'll create a killer portfolio that speaks volumes about your skills to Futureheads.

Tap into Online Developer Communities

Don’t underestimate the power of online developer communities like GitHub, Stack Overflow, and even Reddit. Participate in discussions, share your projects, and build your visibility. We can often find opportunities through these channels that can lead to a full-time gig at companies like Futureheads.

Explore Job Boards Specifically for Tech Roles

Keep your eyes peeled on job boards that focus on tech roles. Sites like TechCareers or Stack Overflow Jobs can often have listings for companies like Futureheads that might not show up on broader job sites. Make it a habit to check these regularly, and don’t hesitate to apply directly through our website!

We think you need these skills to ace Principal Machine Learning Engineer

SQL
Python
Problem-Solving Skills
Data Engineering
Communication Skills
Automation
Data Pipeline Development

Some tips for your application 🫡

Show off your coding skills:When applying for a software engineering role, it's super important to showcase your coding skills. Make sure your CV includes your tech stack, any relevant programming languages you’re comfortable with, and examples of projects you've worked on. If you have a GitHub profile, link it up! We love to see code in action.

Tailor your portfolio:For a full-time role, we’d expect to see some solid examples of your work in your portfolio. Make sure to include at least two or three projects that highlight your problem-solving skills and your ability to work with different technologies. Focus on the projects that are most relevant to the position at Futureheads.

Craft a killer cover letter:Your cover letter is your chance to stand out—make it personal! Explain why you want to work at Futureheads and how your skills align with the role. Show us your passion for software development. We dig enthusiastic candidates who understand the value of collaboration and continuous learning!

Be clear and concise:When it comes to writing your CV and cover letter, clarity is key. Avoid jargon that could confuse us and stick to simple, direct language. Highlight your achievements with quantifiable results where possible, and keep everything easy to read. A well-organised application goes a long way!

How to prepare for a job interview at Futureheads

Brush Up on Your Coding Skills

For a full-time software engineering role, it's crucial that we stay sharp with our coding abilities. Expect technical questions that might involve solving problems on the spot or discussing algorithms. Practise on platforms like LeetCode or HackerRank to get comfortable with the types of questions that often come up.

Know Your Tools and Frameworks

Make sure we’re well-acquainted with the tools and technologies listed in the job description. Familiarise ourselves with any specific frameworks or programming languages mentioned. If Futureheads uses React or Node.js, for instance, be ready to discuss how we’ve used them in previous projects or coursework.

Showcase Your Projects

Bring along a portfolio that highlights our best work. This could be code samples, GitHub repositories, or any side projects we’ve built. Make sure we can talk through our thought process for each project, especially the challenges we faced and how we solved them—this shows our problem-solving skills in action.

Prepare for Behavioural Questions

While technical skills are key, full-time positions also require cultural fit. Be ready to discuss our previous experiences and how we handle teamwork, conflict, and deadlines. Brush up on the STAR method—Situation, Task, Action, Result—to clearly articulate our past experiences when discussing how we've contributed to a team.