iO Associates
Head of Machine Learning

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Head of Machine Learning
Location: Oxford (Hybrid)
Salary: £130,000 - £160,000 + Package
Clearance: Active SC Clearance (or SC eligible)
Overview
iO Associates are currently supporting a high-growth defence company in sourcing a Head of Machine Learning to spearhead their technical vision, scale a world-class engineering team, and drive the deployment of mission-critical AI.
This role bridges exploratory research and robust field execution. You will take complete ownership of the end-to-end ML roadmap—from raw, multi-modal signal intake through to deployment on resource-limited processing units—acting as the primary technical authority across internal engineering groups, executive leadership, and defence clients.
Core Competencies & Leadership Requirements
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Engineering Leadership: Demonstrated track record steering, mentoring, and expanding teams of researchers and ML developers. Proven skill in transitioning early-stage concepts through testing and into validated, production-ready systems.
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Neural Architecture & Frameworks: Advanced grasp of deep learning paradigms, model training, and network design (specifically in Python using PyTorch or TensorFlow). Experience handling continuous or non-tabular data streams, including acoustic inputs, time-series, audio, computer vision, radio frequencies, or radar.
Reasons to use Rodeo
I’m in my final year doing Economics and I don’t know whether to apply for grad schemes now or do a masters first. What do you think?
Honest answer — it depends on where you want to end up. A lot of top grad schemes (Big 4, civil service, banking) don’t need a masters. Let’s look at the ones you’d be competitive for now, and we can decide if a masters actually adds anything.
Also worth knowing: most autumn 2026 applications are open now. Timing matters more than you think.
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Grad scheme, placement, apprenticeship? Not sure what you want yet — that's fine. Your agent talks it through with you and turns "I have no idea" into a shortlist.
Graduate Consultant — 2026 Scheme
Why you're a good match
StrongYour economics background and your summer at a regional bank line up with what PwC looks for on the consulting scheme. Applications close in four weeks.
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Every day your agent scans the market matching roles against what actually matters to you, not just keywords on a CV.
Why you're a good match
You’ve got the grades and the economics background, and your bank internship is exactly the experience this scheme looks for. Apply soon — deadlines close within the month.
Experience fit
Your summer at the bank plus your econometrics coursework map directly to the day-one responsibilities on this scheme — client modelling, market briefings, and deal support.
Only hits
No noise. No "maybe this fits." Just roles with a clear explanation of why they're right — and where to focus when applying.
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Embedded AI & Optimization: Practical experience deploying models onto hardware with strict processing, memory, or thermal constraints. Deep understanding of efficiency techniques including network pruning, weight quantization, model distillation, and hardware-level acceleration.
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ML Infrastructure & Pipeline Engineering: Grounding in full-lifecycle MLOps environments—covering data pipeline architecture, annotation workflows, synthetic data generation, version control, experiment tracking, and automated CI/CD testing frameworks.
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High-Level Communication: Skilled at detailing intricate algorithmic trade-offs, performance metrics, and technical roadmaps to varied audiences—from software engineers to commercial directors, military staff, and key external stakeholders.
Secondary / Specialist Expertise


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Acoustics & Spatial Signal Processing: Exposure to sound-event classification, direction-of-arrival tracking, microphone arrays, beamforming algorithms, or spatial audio.
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Streaming & Low-Latency Architectures: Hands-on experience with causal temporal networks, recurrent architectures, or real-time transformers optimized for continuous data processing.
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Edge Hardware & Systems Integration: Exposure to edge processing units (such as ARM architectures, NVIDIA Jetson modules, or NPUs) and feeding ML intelligence directly into situational awareness displays or command-and-control (C2) platforms.
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Defence & Mission-Critical Systems: Domain background in counter-UAS, autonomous platforms, robotics, or aerospace tech. Understanding of safety-critical AI, explainability standards, NATO guidelines, or military test and evaluation workflows.
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Fast-Paced Growth & Innovation: Experience operating within agile, scaling technology environments, with a history of supporting patent filings, technical publications, or strategic research partnerships.
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