ML Data Engineer

Methodfi; City of London; On-site; GBP 60,000 - 80,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading AI company in London seeks a talented ML Data Engineer to develop robust data pipelines for large-scale image datasets. The ideal candidate will have strong Python and Kubernetes skills, alongside a proven track record in handling unstructured data. This exciting role offers the opportunity to make a significant impact on model quality and contribute to cutting-edge projects in generative AI. Competitive salary and Skilled Worker visa sponsorship available.

Benefits

Competitive salary and equity

Skilled Worker visa sponsorship

Real impact on model quality

Ownership with support

Fast-moving growth environment

Qualifications

• Strong Python fundamentals; you write clean, maintainable code.
• Solid hands-on Kubernetes experience including containers and distributed processing.
• Proven track record with unstructured data, especially images.

Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain data-ingestion pipelines for large-scale datasets.
• Own the end-to-end data flow including filtering and validation.
• Collaborate with ML engineers to align datasets with training needs.

Skills

Python fundamentals

Kubernetes experience

Unstructured data handling

Data ingestion/pipeline tools

S3/object storage

Tools

Kubernetes

S3

Docker

Job description

About Us

Founded in the US in 2022 and now based in London, UK, Recraft is an AI tool for professional designers, illustrators, and marketers, setting a new standard for excellence in image generation.

We designed a tool that lets creators quickly generate and iterate original images, vector art, illustrations, icons, and 3D graphics with AI. Over 3 million users across 200 countries have produced hundreds of millions of images using Recraft, and we’re just getting started.

Join a universe of professional opportunities, develop and support large-scale projects, and shape the future of creativity. We are committed to making Recraft an essential, daily tool for every designer and setting the industry standard. Our mission is to ensure that creators can fully control their creative process with AI, providing them with innovative tools to turn ideas into reality.

If you’re passionate about pushing the boundaries of AI, we want you on board!

Job Description

At Recraft, we’re building the next generation of generative models across images and text. We’re looking for an ML Data Engineer to scale our data pipelines for unstructured data (primarily images) and keep our training flows fast, reliable, and repeatable. You’ll design and operate high-throughput ingestion and preprocessing on Kubernetes, evolve our internal data-pipeline framework, and work hand-in-hand with ML engineers to ship datasets that move model quality forward.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and maintain data‑ingestion pipelines to source and prepare large-scale image (and occasional text/HTML) datasets from open, publicly accessible, and permitted sources.
• Own the end-to-end flow: raw data → quality/beauty/relevance filtering → dedup/validation → ready-to-train artifacts. Operate and improve our Kubernetes-based data-pipeline framework (distributed jobs, retries, monitoring, automation).
• Work with S3-style object storage: efficient layouts, lifecycle, throughput, and cost awareness.
• Add tooling around pipelines (progress/health visualization, metrics, alerts) for observability and faster iteration.
• Collaborate closely with ML engineers to align datasets with training needs and accelerate experimentation.

Requirements

Must-have

• Strong Python fundamentals; you write clean, maintainable, production-ready code.
• Solid hands‑on Kubernetes experience (containers, jobs, batch/distributed processing).
• Proven track record with unstructured data, especially images (loading, filtering, transforming at scale).
• Experience developing data‑ingestion or parsing tools for publicly accessible sources, including handling real‑world reliability and failure cases gracefully.
• Comfort with S3/object storage and moving lots of data efficiently and safely.
• Pragmatic, detail‑oriented, ownership mindset; you enjoy making systems reliable and fast.

Nice-to-have

• Familiarity with ML workflows (PyTorch) and downstream training considerations.
• Experience with image quality scoring, captioning, or image-to-text pipelines.
• DAG/workflow visualizations or pipeline UX tooling.
• DevOps fluency: Docker, CI/CD, infra automation.

What We Offer

• Competitive salary and equity.
• We’re able to offer Skilled Worker visa sponsorship in the UK for qualified candidates.
• Real impact on model quality: your pipelines directly power training runs and product improvements.
• Ownership with support: autonomy to design and improve systems, alongside experienced ML peers.
• stack: Python, Kubernetes, S3, internal pipeline framework built for scale.
• Growth: a fast-moving environment where shipping well-engineered systems is the norm.