Lead Machine Learning Engineer

Lead Machine Learning Engineer London (remote) | £90,000 to £95,000 FTC role A rare opportunity to take ownership of Machine Learning Engineering within a large, established organisation that is genuinely investing in data and AI. This role offers the chance to lead ML engineering capability, productionise high-impact use cases, and shape how machine learning is delivered at scale across the business. The Company They are a well-established UK organisation with a strong reputation for combining technical excellence with a people-first mindset. With a nationwide presence and a long-standing history, they are now accelerating their investment in modern data platforms, cloud technologies, and applied AI. The data function has strong executive backing and is transitioning to a modern Azure-based lakehouse architecture to support scalable analytics and machine learning. The Role As Lead Machine Learning Engineer, you will take technical ownership of ML engineering and play a key role in building out the wider capability. Key responsibilities include: • Leading the design and delivery of end-to-end machine learning pipelines aligned to business priorities. • Productionising existing ML and NLP proof-of-concepts and scaling them into robust, supported solutions. • Implementing best practices across MLOps, data pipelines, model deployment, and monitoring. • Working closely with Data Scientists to support model development, maintenance, and optimisation. • Supporting large-scale data processing use cases, including unstructured document and NLP workloads. • Contributing as a technical thought leader within an agile, engineering-led environment. • Supporting cloud migration, data integration, and platform evolution in Azure and Databricks. Your Skills and Experience You will be a highly hands-on engineer with strong commercial experience delivering machine learning solutions into production. Essential experience: • Strong software engineering background with hands-on ML Engineering delivery. • Python and SQL in production environments. • Azure and Databricks for data and machine learning workloads. • NLP and LLM use cases, including fine-tuning and deployment. • Building and maintaining production ML pipelines and MLOps processes. • Stakeholder engagement and the ability to translate business needs into technical solutions. • 7-8 years experience Desirable experience: • API development using FastAPI or similar frameworks. • Architectural exposure alongside hands-on delivery. • End-to-end platform or product delivery experience. What They Offer • Salary of £90,000, with flexibility up to £95,000 for the right candidate. • Annual bonus and comprehensive benefits package. • 25 days annual leave with the option to purchase more. • Private medical insurance, health cashback plan, digital GP service, life assurance, and income protection. • 35-hour working week with flexible start and finish times. • Primarily remote working with occasional office attendance. • Initially offered as a fixed-term contract with strong potential to become permanent. How to Apply If you are an experienced ML Engineer looking to lead, build, and scale machine learning capability in a supportive and forward-thinking environment, apply now to learn more about this opportunity.