Rodeo
ResourcesPartnersSign in

iO Associates

Head of Machine Learning

Oxford
£130k – £160k/yr
Posted about 14 hours ago
Sign up to applySee more jobs like this

How your CV stacks up

1Upload CV
2Analyse CV
3Improve CV

Upload your CV to see how well it fits this job role

?%

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

  • 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.

  • 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.

Start with a chat, not a search bar

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.

P

Graduate Consultant — 2026 Scheme

PwC·London, UK
£35,000/yr

Why you're a good match

Strong

Your 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.

See breakdown
Save jobNot relevant
View details

It searches the market for you

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.

See breakdown
Strong

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.

See breakdown
Strong

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.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • 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

Get help with your application

Your very own career expert that helps elevate your application to the next level.

Get help applying for this job
  • Acoustics & Spatial Signal Processing: Exposure to sound-event classification, direction-of-arrival tracking, microphone arrays, beamforming algorithms, or spatial audio.

  • Streaming & Low-Latency Architectures: Hands-on experience with causal temporal networks, recurrent architectures, or real-time transformers optimized for continuous data processing.

  • 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.

  • 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.

  • Fast-Paced Growth & Innovation: Experience operating within agile, scaling technology environments, with a history of supporting patent filings, technical publications, or strategic research partnerships.

Trusted by 25,000+ job seekers

“It took my CV and asked me questions relevant to understanding what kind of jobs to suggest for me. Suggestions were almost perfect. Jobs were exactly what I’ve been looking for.”

Jessica, London

Get help applying for this job

Skills

Machine Learning
Engineering Leadership
Deep Learning
Python
PyTorch
TensorFlow
Embedded AI
Model Quantization
MLOps
CI/CD
Acoustics
Signal Processing
Edge Computing
Computer Vision
Robotics
Deployment

Location

Oxford, England, United Kingdom

Sign up to applySee more jobs like this