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AI/ML Engineer | Defence Tech

AI/ML Engineer | Defence Tech

On site

Newcastle upon tyne, United kingdom

£ 130,000 /year

Full Time

13-03-2026

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Skills

Problem-solving

Job Specifications

AI/ML Engineer (all levels - junior to Tech Lead)

Newcastle (in office)

£50,000-£130,000

Defence Tech Start-up

As the AI/ML Engineer you'll work alongside some of the best engineers/teams in the country, solving problems no one else has before. This is focused on software, data and intelligence capabilities. Hard technical problems + meaningful real-world impact.

It'll be useful if you already have some (happy to upskill if needed) of the following experience:

System design skills
Familiarity with MLOps practices
Knowledge of LLM principles (e.g. inference optimisations/KV caching, speculative decoding, and parallel decoding)
Experience in fine-tuning and evaluating LLMs
Prompt design, agentic workflows, eval harnesses, and retrieval pipelines
Experience developing modules for edge, constrained, or air-gapped environments
Exposure to explainable AI or AI safety/security

Typically, they tend to muck in where needed, so having a broad skillset, or at least a willingness to learn other skills is a big plus - happy to take specialists in one area.

They're a new consultancy, focused on solving complex software and data problems for defence and national security organisations.

They’re building the team from scratch in Newcastle and are deliberately setting a very high bar, hiring engineers from top universities who are among the strongest technically in their field.

The work is very problem-solving focused, small teams tackling complex systems, often working on completely new challenges every few months.

They’re hiring for, and value, people who:

Enjoy working on challenging systems
Truly understand problem-solving, from first principles
Enjoy variety
Are adaptable and articulate/able to communicate internally as well as externally

Requirements:

2:1 or 1st Class bachelors degree from a leading university in a STEM subject
Eligibility to obtain security clearance
Experience in defence environments a big plus, but not required, as long as you're happy working within this world.

About the Company

A tech-recruitment organisation who's mission is to help companies hire talent to fulfil their potential. We specialise in connecting top talent with exceptional opportunities across Engineering, Product & Data. We strive to match skilled professionals with organisations that align with their expertise and career goals. Our specialist areas include: Engineering: Engineering Leadership Backend & Full Stack Front End & Web Quality Mobile Infrastructure & DevOps: SRE Infrastructure Networking DevOps Platform Data: Engin... Know more