Research Engineer

Research Engineer – Fundamental AI Research

IC3 / IC4

• London - hybrid
• 12 months contract
• £70,000 - £95,000/annum doe

We are hiring Research Engineers to join a cutting-edge AI research team within a leading global technology company. This is an opportunity to work directly on frontier AI research, combining machine learning research, large language models, reinforcement learning, synthetic data, AI agents and advanced infrastructure to help accelerate the development of next-generation AI systems.

Key Responsibilities

• Conduct cutting-edge research to advance the science and technology of machine learning systems and large language models.
• Design, build and evaluate methods, tools and infrastructure that push AI capabilities forward.
• Develop

reinforcement learning environments

and generate synthetic data to improve the performance and capabilities of AI models.

• Research and experiment with

multi-agent systems

, including approaches where AI systems contribute to or accelerate AI development.

• Build robust

sandboxes, pipelines and infrastructure

that allow AI agents to operate effectively and safely.

• Write high-quality

Python code

and deliver software in collaboration with research and engineering teams.

• Run complex experiments, analyse results and apply scientific rigor to understand why particular approaches succeed or fail.
• Collaborate closely with researchers and cross-functional partners, communicating research plans, progress and results while adapting to rapidly changing priorities.

Key Requirements

• Minimum 2+ years of hands-on experience

in machine learning, artificial intelligence, recommendation systems, pattern recognition, data mining or a related field.

• Experience developing or working with

machine learning models at scale

, including programmatic interaction with LLMs and/or LLM post-training.

• Strong

Python programming skills

and hands-on experience with frameworks such as PyTorch .

• Experience working with

large AI models, datasets and complex experimental environments .

• Proven ability to design, execute and analyse complex AI/ML experiments using a structured and scientific approach.
• Bachelor’s degree

in Computer Science, Computer Engineering or another relevant technical field, or equivalent practical experience.

• Direct experience or strong knowledge of

Generative AI, LLMs, reinforcement learning or multi-agent systems is highly desirable.

• Comfortable working in a

highly ambiguous, fast-moving environment

, with the ability to work independently, handle shifting priorities and contribute across both research and engineering activities.

Why This Role?

This is not a typical contractor engineering role focused on narrow, isolated tasks. You will be deeply embedded within an advanced AI research team, working alongside researchers and engineers on genuine research problems.

The team is focused on areas at the frontier of AI, including recursive self-improvement, reinforcement learning, synthetic data, AI agents and large-scale model development .

You’ll have the opportunity to work on challenging technical problems, develop expertise in emerging AI technologies and potentially contribute to research publications, subject to applicable publication policies.

A research-focused Master’s or PhD in AI/ML would be advantageous but is not essential.

Areas

Machine Learning | Generative AI | LLMs | Reinforcement Learning | AI Agents | Python | PyTorch