£60000 - 90000 GBP

Onsite WORKING

Location: Central London, Greater London - United Kingdom Type: Permanent

Machine Learning Engineer - Defence & National Security

Locations: Poole | Hereford | Remote (UK-wide with travel)

£60,000 - £90,000 + benefits

Our client is a specialist AI consultancy delivering safe, impactful, and human-centric AI solutions to government, defence, and national security organisations. With over a decade of experience and a track record of supporting hundreds of global customers, they are at the forefront of applied AI - taking cutting-edge research into real-world deployment at scale.

They are now hiring a Machine Learning Engineer to join their Defence & National Security team. This role offers the opportunity to design, build, and operationalise production-grade AI systems that directly impact high-stakes projects in the UK.

What you'll be doing

• Designing, building, and deploying software, infrastructure, and MLOps systems that leverage machine learning.
• Working in cross-functional teams with engineers, data scientists, product managers, and designers.
• Developing scalable, reusable tools that accelerate ML delivery.
• Providing technical expertise to customers and mentoring junior engineers.
• Contributing to the scope, design, and technical delivery of complex projects.
• Embedding best practices for AI systems in production, balancing technical, ethical, and operational requirements.

What we're looking for

• Active SC clearance(minimum 5 years UK residency required).
• Strong software engineering skills, with proficiency in Python.
• Experience across the ML lifecycle, including deploying models built in PyTorch, TensorFlow, or Scikit-learn.
• Hands-on cloud experience with AWS, Azure, or GCP.
• Knowledge of Docker and Kubernetes, with practical containerisation experience.
• Understanding of probability, statistics, and ML techniques.
• Strong communication skills, able to engage with technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Experience mentoring or leading junior engineers is an advantage.

Travel & Location

• Open to applicants from anywhere in the UK.
• Travel to Poole or Hereford up to 2/3 days per week
• Majority of work can be done remotely.

Why join

• Salary range: £60,000 - £90,000 depending on experience.
• Work on AI projects with direct impact in defence and national security.
• Join a high-calibre team working at the cutting edge of applied AI.
• Hybrid working with flexibility across the UK.
• Opportunity to shape how machine learning is operationalised at scale.

This role is ideal for an engineer who wants to take machine learning beyond theory and into live operational systems that solve critical national challenges. If you have the technical depth, the clearance, and the drive to deliver meaningful outcomes, this is a chance to do work that truly matters while developing your career alongside some of the brightest minds in applied AI.