AI / ML Engineer

We’re working with a high-calibre engineering team building production-grade AI systems for complex, real-world environments, where performance, reliability, and security matter just as much as model capability. This is not a “prototype and demo” AI role. You’ll be working on deployed machine learning systems and LLM-based applications, focused on making modern AI usable in constrained, secure, and high-trust environments.

The team is building systems that go beyond model development—into inference optimisation, agentic workflows, evaluation, and real-world deployment constraints (including edge and air-gapped environments).

What you’ll be doing:

• You’ll work across the full lifecycle of applied AI systems.
• Designing and building machine learning systems and production AI services.
• Working deeply with LLMs in real-world deployment settings.
• Building and optimising inference pipelines for performance and efficiency.
• Developing agent-based systems, retrieval pipelines, and prompt-driven workflows.
• Creating evaluation frameworks to measure model and system performance.
• Contributing to how AI systems are deployed in constrained and secure environments.
• Working closely with engineers to move from research concepts to production systems.

Technical focus:

• Strong foundation in machine learning fundamentals.
• Excellent software engineering and system design skills.
• Experience with MLOps practices and production ML systems.
• Deep understanding of LLM internals and inference optimisation, including KV caching and speculative decoding.
• Experience fine-tuning and evaluating LLMs (advantageous).
• Building LLM systems including: Prompt engineering and design, agentic workflows, evaluation harness, retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) pipelines.
• Experience working in edge, constrained, or air-gapped environments (advantageous).
• Interest or exposure to AI safety, security, or explainability (advantageous).

Why Newcastle:

• This is a full-time onsite role (Mon–Fri) in a modern engineering hub based in central Newcastle.
• The environment is designed for deep technical work in a collaborative, high-calibre engineering team.
• Modern office with excellent facilities.
• Social but focused engineering culture.
• Many recent relocations and strong support network.
• Stable working hours (09:00–18:00) with flexibility where needed.
• Strong relocation support for UK-based candidates.

What they’re looking for:

• Engineers who combine ML depth with strong systems thinking.
• Strong grounding in machine learning theory and practice.
• Excellent Python / systems engineering ability.
• Ability to design and ship production AI systems end-to-end.
• Curiosity about how LLMs actually work under the hood.
• Pragmatic mindset—focused on performance, reliability, and usability.
• Comfortable working across research concepts and production constraints.
• Strong communicator who can work across technical teams.
• Excellent academic record with 2:1 or above from a Russell Group University or equivalent.

Package:

• Salary up to £90,000 dependent on experience.
• Bonus.
• 25 day holiday.
• Private healthcare (Bupa).
• Pension contribution.
• Strong career progression in a scaling platform.
• Social, tight-knit team culture with regular events and Friday early finishes.
• Strong relocation support for UK-based candidates.

Must have UK right to work (no sponsorship available).