Platform Recruitment
Senior Machine Learning Engineer
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Senior Machine Learning Engineer
Senior Machine Learning Engineer, Defence
Location: London Salary: Up to £100,000
A specialist applied AI company supporting the Defence and National Security community is seeking a Senior Machine Learning Engineer to lead client engagements and own production ML solutions in demanding environments.
This is not a back-fice engineering role. You will be embedded onsite with clients, translating complex operational challenges into robust, deployable ML systems and leading technical scoping, architectural decisions—from initial concept to live operation. The environments can be constrained, yet the challenges are high, and the rewards substantial.
Requirements
Must possess:
- Existing UK Developed Vetting (DV) clearance
- Or eligibility and commitment to obtain it
- Right to work in the UK
- Previous consideration of onsite London-based work commitment
About the Role
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You will:
- Collaborate directly with clients and stakeholders
- Bridge technical gaps between operational needs and deployable ML solutions
- Guide architectural choices in fast-paced, uncertain environments
- Take full ownership of systems from proof of concept to full-scale deployment
Requirements
** Qualifications & Experience**
-
A degree in Computer Science, Applied Mathematics, Statistics, Physics, or a related field
-
Or equivalent practical ML/engineering experience
-
Proven Python Engineering skills with:
- Clean, testable, production-ready code
- Hands-on experience in Docker, Linux, CI/CD, MLOps
- Proficiency in cloud platforms and model serving architectures
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Experience leading in technically ambiguous environments, including:
- Technical scoping
- Decision-making for high-stakes solutions
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Mentoring less-experienced engineers
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Existing DV clearance, or ability/willingness to acquire and maintain it
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Preferred Experience
- Work with government/defence entities or military clients
- Experience with NLP, LLMs or image processing pipelines
- Hands-on with data processing/streaming tools, such as:
- Spark, Kafka
- Building microservices in Python using:
- Flask, FastAPI
- Proficient in interactive visualisation tools including:
- Streamlit, Plotly, Gradio
- Ability to produce high-quality technical documentation
Why Join Us?
At this level:
- You’ll directly influence ML solution design for critical national security operations
- Have meaningful impact shaping technical standards across the team
- Mentor future engineers
- Work with systems of genuine national security significance
- Compensation reflects seniority and clearance requirements
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