Senior AI/ML Scientist

About the Role

Level: 4
Department: COO
Location: Southampton or London
Contract type: Permanent

Key Accountabilities

• AI/ML Solution Delivery: Hands on end-to-end development and deployment of both traditional and GenAI-based machine learning models, including discovery analytics, experimental design, model development, benchmarking, enhancement and deployment.
• LLM & RAG Integration: Design and implement new Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) pipelines and enhance existing frameworks, applying advanced techniques in data chunking/splitting, vectorization, knowledge graph representation (GraphRAG), and query retrieval and evaluation.
• Model Evaluation & Prompt Engineering: Design and execute experiments to benchmark and evaluate model performance using both classical metrics (precision, recall, F-score) and GenAI-specific techniques (LLM-as-a-Judge, ROUGE, BERTScore). Develop and refine prompts to optimise GenAI model reasoning, accuracy, and overall effectiveness.
• Cross-Functional Collaboration: Work closely with business partners, stakeholders, and technical teams (data engineering, platform engineering) to translate business requirements into impactful AI solutions.
• Research & Innovation: Stay abreast of emerging tools, techniques, and best practices in LLMs, RAG, GenAI, model development & evaluation techniques and proactively apply new knowledge to drive innovation.

About You

• Qualifications: Advanced degree (MSc or PhD) in Machine Learning, Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence, or a related field.
• Track record: Proven track record of delivering AI solutions from research to production in real-world applications.
• Knowledge: Strong foundation in machine learning algorithms and deep learning concepts including Neural Networks and Transformer-based architectures. Knowledge in developing and deploying scalable models on Databricks, Azure, and AWS, leveraging tools such as FastAPI and Docker. Proficient in model tracing and observability for LLM in production and implementing evaluation frameworks for model quality and reliability. Strong understanding of software engineering best practices, including version control, testing, and CI/CD for production-ready AI systems. Domain expertise in financial services or other regulated industries is highly desirable.
• Experience: Strong experience in AI/ML research and development, specializing in deep learning-based NLP, Information Retrieval, and Generative AI. Proven expertise in RAG/GraphRAG pipeline development and evaluation, including advanced retriever-reranker techniques. Experience in building knowledge bases and ontologies is highly desirable. Extensive experience in defining and implementing evaluation metrics for GenAI systems such as Recall, Precision, NDCG, LLM-as-a-Judge, BERTScore, BLEU score, and hallucination detection. Provide mentorship and technical guidance to junior AI Scientists.
• Skills: Strong proficiency in Python and experience with frameworks such as NumPy, Pandas, Scikit-learn, and modern Generative AI libraries (e.g., LangChain, LlamaIndex, Azure AI Foundry). Hands on experience with PyTorch, leading LLM libraries such as Hugging Face, LangChain, LangGraph, and LlamaIndex. Skilled in hypothesis formulation, defining evaluation metrics, conducting literature reviews and building reproducible prototypes with critical outcome analysis.
• Mindset: Rapid Experimentation - Comfortable with a fail fast, learn fast approach, iterating quickly to validate ideas and accelerate innovation. Exceptional problem solving skills and a strong passion for innovation.
• Communication: Excellent communication and collaboration abilities, thriving in cross functional environments.

Benefits

• Holiday: 182 hours (26 days).
• Quilter Incentive Scheme: All employees are eligible to participate.
• Pension Scheme: Non contributory company pension scheme that can be boosted through personal contributions.
• Private Medical Insurance: Single cover as standard with options to increase cover to include your partner or children.
• Life Assurance: 4x your salary.
• Income Protection: 75% of salary, less state benefits, payable after 26 weeks of absence.
• Healthcare Cash Plan: Jersey employees only.

Inclusion & Diversity

We value diversity and strive to promote inclusivity in all aspects of our culture. We believe in equal opportunities for all, ensuring that no applicant encounters less favourable treatment based on anything but their skills, qualifications, experience, and potential. We celebrate the unique contributions of a diverse workforce and create a respectful, nurturing environment where every colleague can thrive.

We are committed to treating all our job applicants fairly and with respect.