Data Scientist – Agentic AI - Permanent UK in London

At Satalia, a WPP company, we push the boundaries of data science, optimisation and AI to solve the most complex problems in the industry. Led by our founder and WPP Chief AI Officer Daniel Hulme, Satalia’s ambition is to become a decentralised organisation of the future, developing tools and processes to liberate and automate manual repetitive tasks, with a focus on freedom, transparency and trust.

We are a community working on diverse and challenging projects, where you can flex your technical skills whilst working alongside high performing colleagues. We offer truly flexible working, prioritise wellbeing and inclusivity, and create a safe environment for innovation and growth, where your opinion matters and achievements are celebrated.

We are at a generational moment for technology and AI. The shift from single-model applications to autonomous, collaborative agent systems represents the most significant leap since the introduction of Large Language Models (LLMs). At Satalia, we are not just observing this transformation; we are building it. These are not experimental prototypes; they are production-grade solutions that make a tangible impact for our FTSE 100 clients and WPP agency partners, at enterprise scale.

If you have been waiting for the right opportunity to go deep on agentic AI, this is it.

WHAT YOU WILL BE DOING

• Design and deliver production-grade agentic systems, from multi-agent orchestration to the AI services and models that power them.
• Assess fit of agentic solutions per use case, being intentional in system design.
• Design the most suitable orchestration pattern per use case.
• Evaluate and recommend the best suited agent development framework.
• Engineer multi-step agent workflows that are reliable, auditable and modular, supporting both linear and non-linear control flows.
• Implement agent memory and state management systems.
• Optimise context assembly for each agent interaction.
• Evaluate and select the most appropriate foundation models, embeddings and context-specific model variants; apply fine-tuning or adaptation where needed.
• Implement guardrails to ensure operation within ethical, legal, brand boundaries.
• Build services for agent use, including ML models, GenAI and task-specific APIs.
• Process multi-modal data using appropriate embeddings and vector retrieval.
• Build, evaluate and maintain robust RAG and / or GraphRAG pipelines.
• Implement fallback strategies (e.g., retries, backup tools, escalation, safe exits).
• Build and integrate MCP servers to expose and consume data and AI services.
• Use Google's A2A protocol to support independent agent communication, designing composable service boundaries and appropriate integration patterns.
• Containerise applications (Docker) – our platform team manages K8s.
• Apply AgenticOps practices, including evaluation, observability, guardrails, security, performance optimisation, CI/CD, versioning, rollback, drift detection.
• Design and implement testing strategies for non-deterministic behaviour.
• Stay abreast of the latest AI research trends and integrate them into our products.
• Maintain documentation for architectures, APIs and operational procedures.
• Communicate progress, blockers, technical approaches, challenges and potential solutions to technical colleagues and non-technical stakeholders.

WHAT WE ARE LOOKING FOR

• Educational background in Computer Science, Data Science, or similar.
• Professional experience in Data Science, AI/ML Engineering, Software Engineering, or related technical roles.
• High proficiency in Python and working knowledge of SQL.
• Experience building API services using FastAPI, Flask or similar.
• Experience with containerisation, cloud platforms and CI/CD.
• Experience with AgenticOps best practices, including evaluation, observability, safety guardrails, security, performance optimisation.
• Experience designing and building complex multi-agent systems using at least one of the major agent frameworks (e.g. ADK, AutoGen, LangGraph).
• Understanding of agent memory and state management patterns.
• Familiarity with MCP servers.
• Quality-first, test-driven mindset with focus on automated testing.
• Deep understanding of LLMs, foundation models and embeddings.
• Experience with structured and multi-modal data processing.
• Experience building and evaluating production-grade RAG systems.
• Practical experience with machine learning / deep learning models.
• Excellent communication skills with technical / non-technical audiences.
• Strong documentation and knowledge-sharing practices.

EVEN BETTER IF YOU HAVE:

• Postgraduate degree in Computer Science, Data Science or similar.
• Experience with Google's Agent Development Kit (ADK).
• Experience with Google's A2A protocol and agent coordination layers.
• Strong understanding of ML / DL algorithms and full model lifecycle experience.
• Experience with fine-tuning or model adaptation techniques.
• Experience with GraphRAG systems.
• Understanding of authentication/authorisation and API security.
• K8s familiarity for cloud-native design and debugging.

WE OFFER:

• Benefits - enhanced pension, life assurance, income protection, private healthcare.
• Remote working - café, bedroom, beach - wherever works.
• Truly flexible working hours - school pick up, volunteering, gym.
• Generous Leave - 27 days holiday plus bank holidays and enhanced family leave.
• Annual bonus - when Satalia does well, we all do well.
• Impactful projects - focus on bringing meaningful social and environmental change.
• People oriented culture - wellbeing is a priority, as is being a nice person.
• Transparent and open culture - you will be heard.
• Development - focus on bringing the best out of each other.

Satalia is home to some of the brightest minds in AI and if you’re looking to join a company who not only values autonomy and freedom, but embraces a culture of inclusion and warmth, we’d love to hear from you.

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