Senior AI Developer in Leeds

At WorkNest, we’re constantly exploring how AI and machine learning can strengthen cybersecurity from automating threat detection to improving how we protect our clients’ data. We turn ambitious ideas into practical solutions that organisations rely on to stay secure, all as part of the wider WorkNest family. WorkNest Secure is a CHECK and CREST accredited consultancy leading the way in innovation. We specialise in Penetration Testing as a Service (PTaaS), delivered through our award-winning GuardNest platform, and we’re expanding it into a full Security Operations Portal.

This is a hands-on engineering role in a forward-thinking team driving AI adoption in cybersecurity at enterprise scale. As our AI Developer, you’ll be pioneering how AI is used in cyber transforming how we detect and respond to threats, optimising security operations, and unlocking new proactive defence capabilities across WorkNest’s offerings. You will be involved in every stage of the AI solution lifecycle from initial ideation and prototyping, through model training and validation, to production deployment and continuous improvement of AI-driven security solutions.

If you are excited by the idea of building intelligent systems that stop cyberattacks before they happen and working at the cutting edge of tech, this role is for you.

• AI Solution Development: Design, develop, and implement scalable AI/ML solutions to tackle cybersecurity challenges. This could mean building models for anomaly detection, automating penetration testing tasks, or integrating large language models (LLMs) and intelligent agents into our platforms to identify vulnerabilities and recommend fixes in real-time.
• Full AI Lifecycle Ownership: Own the end-to-end AI development lifecycle. You will gather and prepare data, develop and train machine learning models, evaluate their performance, and deploy them into our production environment.
• Innovation & Research: Stay at the cutting edge of AI and cybersecurity. You’ll continuously research emerging AI techniques and evaluate how they can apply to our domain.
• Standards & Reusability: Contribute to defining best practices, templates, and tools for AI engineering within our team.
• Collaboration & Knowledge Sharing: Work closely with cross-functional teams. You’ll translate cybersecurity needs into AI solutions, gathering requirements from domain experts.
• Platform Integration: Help embed AI capabilities into our existing products and workflows.

• Strong Software Engineering Skills: Proven development experience with Python (and ideally one other language).
• AI/ML Expertise: Hands-on experience developing and deploying machine learning or AI models to solve real problems.
• Cybersecurity Interest: A strong interest or background in cybersecurity will help you hit the ground running.
• Cloud & DevOps Experience: Familiarity with deploying applications or models on cloud platforms.
• Analytical Mindset: Excellent problem-solving skills with a strong focus on performance, reliability, and accuracy.
• Passion And Curiosity: A genuine enthusiasm for AI innovations and their applications.
• Communication & Collaboration: Great communication skills and a team-player attitude.
• Degree And Experience: A degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Engineering or related field is preferred.

Joining WorkNest Cyber means you’ll be at the forefront of a pivotal change in the cybersecurity industry—the infusion of AI into cyber defence. You’ll be innovating with purpose, knowing that your work helps businesses stay secure against ever-evolving threats. We offer a flexible hybrid work environment. Most importantly, you’ll be part of a passionate, growing team where your ideas can shape the future of our products and where continuous learning is part of the job.