Senior Machine Learning Engineer

Data Freelance Hub; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 80,000 - GBP 100,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading data solutions company in Greater London is seeking a Senior Machine Learning Engineer. The ideal candidate will have over 6 years of experience and deep expertise in NLP and LLMs. Responsibilities include designing and deploying advanced NLP systems and collaborating with cross-functional teams. The role requires strong Python skills and familiarity with cloud ML platforms like AWS. This opportunity offers a dynamic work environment focused on rapid experimentation and innovation.

Benefits

25 days of annual leave

Comprehensive private insurance coverage

Group Life Insurance

Subsidised gym membership

Qualifications

• 6+ years in machine learning with expertise in NLP and LLMs.
• Experience in model deployment and optimization.
• Hands-on experience with Retrieval-Augmented Generation.

Responsibilities

• Design, experiment, and deploy state-of-the-art NLP and LLM models.
• Collaborate with engineers and product teams to align ML capabilities.
• Drive rapid experimentation and maintain a learning-oriented mindset.

Skills

Experience in machine learning

Deep expertise in NLP and LLMs

Strong Python skills

Experience with cloud ML platforms

Familiarity with Docker and Kubernetes

Tools

Hugging Face

OpenAI API

PyTorch

TensorFlow

Job description

Senior Machine Learning Engineer

As a Senior Machine Learning Engineer, you’ll take ownership of designing, building, and deploying advanced NLP systems and LLMs. You’ll experiment, iterate, and build quickly, working alongside a cross‑functional team in a dynamic, fast‑fail environment. Your work will have a direct impact on our product and business as we push the boundaries of what’s possible with AI.

What You Will Be Doing

• Build & Iterate Fast: Design, experiment, and deploy state‑of‑the‑art NLP and LLM models. Quickly test hypotheses, optimise, and iterate based on real‑world feedback.
• Lead Innovation: Push the envelope with cutting‑edge NLP techniques and models (transformers, GPT, BERT, etc.) to solve challenging problems in language understanding, generation, extraction, and more.
• Shape the Product: Collaborate with engineers, product teams, and business leaders to align machine‑learning capabilities with product goals.
• Fail Fast, Learn Fast: Drive rapid experimentation and maintain a learning‑oriented mindset to pivot quickly when necessary.
• Scale and Optimise: Take models from prototypes to production, optimising for performance, scalability, and efficiency.

What Type Of Person Fits The Role

• Experience: 6+ years in machine learning, with deep expertise in NLP and LLMs/SLMs.
• LLMs: Strong knowledge of large language models (LLMs) and experience with frameworks and libraries like Hugging Face, OpenAI API, LangChain, DeepSpeed, LlamaIndex, LiteLLM, vLLM, etc.
• Experience in model deployment and optimisation for inference speed and scalability is a plus.
• Prompt Engineering: Proven ability to design and optimise prompts for LLMs, including techniques like few‑shot, zero‑shot, chain‑of‑thought, and prompt tuning.
• RAG: Hands‑on experience with Retrieval‑Augmented Generation (RAG) to improve model performance in tasks such as question answering and document retrieval.
• Skills: Strong Python skills, experience with cloud ML platforms (AWS preferred), and ML frameworks (PyTorch, TensorFlow). Familiarity with Docker and Kubernetes for containerisation and deployment.
• Mindset: Entrepreneurial attitude with a "Build Fast, Fail Fast" approach, thriving in agile, iterative environments.

About UnderwriteMe

UnderwriteMe is an Insurtech software business and subsidiary of Pacific Life Re (PL Re), a global life and pensions reinsurance firm. We have a vision to help everyone purchase protection insurance by data and disruptive technology to transform our partners and markets in order to make their underwriting processes as quick and efficient as possible.

Our Core Products Are

• Decision Platform – a B2B enterprise platform that provides a best‑in‑market Underwriting Rules Engine used by over 30 insurers.
• Protection Platform – a B2B2C marketplace used by over 15,000 advisors to power quoting and purchase of protection products in the UK.

Working for UnderwriteMe means being part of a technology company that is committed to bringing a fresh and dynamic approach to insurance. You’ll be working with a team of highly technical experts with backgrounds in software, fintech & insurance. All team members are valued for their unique qualities, and we support their individual ambitions at every step. We thrive on achievement, but also know how to have fun and relax; we host team‑building days, social activities and wellbeing initiatives. We also support community engagement through volunteering and charity events.

Benefits (Only For Permanent And Fixed Term Employees)

• 25 days of annual leave with option to buy/sell more days
• Adoption and fertility leave
• Generous enhanced parental leave
• Comprehensive private insurance coverage for employee and dependents
• Group Life Insurance coverage of 9x basic annual salary and Group Income Protection up to 75% of basic annual salary
• Optical benefits
• 15% combined employee/employer contributions to savings & retirement
• Subsidised gym membership
• Access to Employee Assistance Program
• Cycle to Work and Electric Car Salary Sacrifice Scheme
• Time off for volunteering
• Charitable matching of employee donations

Accessibility

As part of our commitment to accessibility for all, UnderwriteMe will, upon the request of the applicant, provide accommodation during the recruitment process to ensure equal access to applicants with disabilities. Please contact us about your needs, and we will consult with you to ensure suitable accommodation is provided.

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