AI/ML Specialist – Human-Machine Interaction (Internship)

About Huawei Research and Development UK Limited

Founded in 1987, Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. We have 207,000 employees and operate in over 170 countries and regions, serving more than three billion people around the world. Our vision and mission is to bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world.

To this end, we will drive ubiquitous connectivity and promote equal access to networks; bring cloud and artificial intelligence to all four corners of the earth to provide superior computing power where you need it, when you need it; build digital platforms to help all industries and organizations become more agile, efficient, and dynamic; redefine user experience with AI, making it more personalized for people in all aspects of their life, whether they’re at home, in the office, or on the go.

This spirit of innovation has led Huawei to work in close partnership with leading academic institutions in the UK to develop and refine the latest technologies. With a shared commitment to innovation and progress, both parties have worked together to achieve common goals and establish a strong partnership. The partnership between UK and Huawei helps to develop the technologies of the future that will transform the way we all communicate, work and live.

For the past 30 years we have maintained an unwavering focus, rejecting shortcuts and easy opportunities that don't align with our core business. With a practical approach to everything we do, we concentrate our efforts and invest patiently to drive technological breakthroughs. This strategic focus is a reflection of our core values: Staying customer-centric, Inspiring dedication, Persevering, Growing by reflection.

Huawei’s vision is a fully connected, intelligent world. To achieve this, we work to inspire passion for basic research around the world. Our combined passion drives development across the global innovation value chain. Huawei has the largest Research and Development organization in the world with 96,000+ employees in research centers around the globe. In the UK, we already have design centers in Cambridge, London, Edinburgh and Ipswich. We continue to explore and define new research directions and new services. We have expanded our collaborations with academic researchers; researched new network architectures, integration of communications and key enabling technologies; and developed the fundamental theories of these technologies.

We invite you to join us on this exciting journey and drive your career forward.

Job Summary

The Huawei London Research Center is seeking a highly skilled and inventive AI/ML Specialist to join our Human-Machine Interaction (HMI) Laboratory. In this role, you will develop custom machine learning models including traditional ML pipelines, small language models (SLMs), and solutions built on top of foundational models, to bring new concepts and user experiences to life. Working alongside researchers, designers, and engineers, you’ll transform forward-looking product ideas into working AI-driven systems. Whether building a model from scratch or adapting cutting-edge pre-trained models, your work will play a critical role in shaping future human-machine interactions across devices and environments.

Key Responsibilities:

• Design and implement ML models for novel product ideas, user behaviours, and interaction concepts.
• Build and fine-tune SLMs, traditional machine learning models, or applications leveraging foundational LLMs, depending on the use case.
• Translate abstract or early-stage HMI ideas into practical AI/ML implementations.
• Collaborate closely with UX, design, and engineering teams to align models with real-world product and user needs.
• Communicate and collaborate with national and international teams.
• Evaluate, prototype, and deploy ML solutions that support interactive systems, personalisation, user modeling, and intelligent interfaces.
• Stay up to date with the latest research in ML, LLMs, and HCI-related AI applications.

This job description is only an outline of the tasks, responsibilities and outcomes required of the role. The jobholder will carry out any other duties as may be reasonably required by his/her line manager. The job description and personal specification may be reviewed on an ongoing basis in accordance with the changing needs of Huawei Research and Development UK Limited.

Person Specification:

Required:

• Strong experience in machine learning, including supervised, unsupervised, and deep learning methods.
• Proven ability to build models from scratch as well as adapt or fine-tune pre-trained models (e.g., LLMs, vision models).
• Hands‑on experience with model training, inference pipelines, and deploying AI in research scenarios.
• Ability to work in open‑ended, exploratory contexts and rapidly prototype AI solutions based on new ideas.
• Strong communication skills with the ability to collaborate across design and technical disciplines.

Desired:

• Experience with human‑AI interaction, user modeling, or intelligent UX systems.
• Familiarity with natural language processing, multimodal models, or context‑aware systems.
• Knowledge of HCI principles, design thinking, or concept‑driven prototyping.
• Background in AI product development, academic research, or applied innovation environments.

What we offer:

• Assign with an industry expert as Mentor.
• Fixed term employment contract up to two years.
• 33 days annual leave entitlement per year (including UK public holidays).
• Group Personal Pension.
• Employee Assistance Programme.
• Life insurance.
• Corporate social events.