AI/ML Data Engineer

Who we are...

Verdantix's mission is to deliver independent, accurate, and actionable research and advisory services. We empower the world's most innovative corporations, technology and services vendors, and investors with granular insights and data-driven analysis. Our team is a curious, collaborative group of expert analysts, data engineers, commercial specialists, creative professionals, and thought leaders working together to help clients achieve their most important goals.

The role...

Within the Technology function, the AI/ML Engineer will be a core technical contributor responsible for building, maintaining, and evolving the Verdantix AI capabilities. The role will design and own backend system components essential to delivering a RAG model to downstream system components including an orchestration layer, hybrid search pipelines, embeddings, permission gatekept retrieval logic, summarisation layer, etc.

Initially the AI/ML Engineer will collaborate closely with our external technical agency deliver the MVP and will subsequently take ownership of the maintenance, reliability, and optimisation of these essential system components. The role will be central to objectives to deliver AI-driven capabilities across all Verdantix digital products, including report content on core client portal, relational data visualisations, software catalogues, as well as future AI applications and internal tooling.

Salary opportunity is £70,000 - £80,000 depending on experience level, plus a very competitive quarterly bonus scheme.

This is a hybrid role which requires 3 days a week in the office during probationary period and will decrease to 2 days upon successful completion.

What you'll be doing...

• Building and maintaining backend components of Verdantix's first AI RAG system, including:
• Retrieval orchestrator
• Document/record indexing pipelines
• Embeddings generation & model registry
• Hybrid search (vector + keyword)
• Permission-aware retrieval and filtering
• Summarization & synthesis pipelines (LLM-powered)
• Ensuring the RAG architecture is scalable, secure, performant, and aligned with internal AI governance.
• Working directly with the external backend agency to deliver Version 1 of the AI platform.
• Performing knowledge transfer activities and progressively assume full ownership of the deployed RAG system.
• Developing APIs and microservices that expose AI capabilities to the client-facing React portal and internal tools.
• Implementing robust monitoring, observability, logging, and performance optimisation for all AI backend services.
• Ensuring correct model usage, prompt orchestration, and runtime management across services.
• Maintaining and optimise embedding models, vector stores, and metadata schemas.
• Building ingestion and enrichment pipelines for structured and unstructured content (reports, insights, internal notes, client briefings).
• Implementing backend guardrails to ensure that retrieval and generation comply with user permissions and the access model defined by Product and Data teams.

About you...

• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, Decision Sciences, Data Science, Engineering, or related field.
• 5+ years of professional back-end development experience, with 2+ years focused on AI/ML systems.
• Relevant experience with building and/or maintaining RAG systems, vector search platforms, semantic search pipelines, etc.
• Strong proficiency with Python, Vector databases (pgvector - ideally, Pinecone, Elasticsearch/OpenSearch, Weaviate), Embedding models (Azure models, Qwen, OpenAI, HuggingFace, etc.), Prompt engineering & LLM orchestration, Document ingestion, chunking strategies, and metadata optimisation
• Solid understanding of MLOps principles: model registry, versioning, evaluation, observability, and deployment.
• Experience operating in cloud environments for service deployments.
• Knowledge of authentication/authorization patterns (OAuth, custom permissioning) and integrating them into AI retrieval logic.
• Strong problem-solving mindset with the ability to architect clean and robust AI systems under real-world constraints.
• Comfortable as the internal expert for the AI backend and its lifecycle.
• Passion for exploring new LLM techniques and applying them pragmatically in production environments.
• Collaborative team player who thrives in a growing engineering organisation and is comfortable working with agencies, vendors, and cross-functional teams.
• Experience operating in Azure environments (Azure AI Search, Azure App Services, Azure Container Apps, Azure Kubernetes Service, Storage, Azure DevOps pipelines).
• Building hybrid search pipelines, working with text-to-SQL access patterns.

Additional benefits we offer...

• Competitive salary (with annual review)
• Performance-driven quarterly bonus scheme
• Pension with enhanced employer contribution
• Generous holiday entitlement, accruing an extra day with every year worked (local capping applies)
• Quarterly employee recognition scheme
• Hybrid working option, with the aim of promoting flexibility and work-life balance
• Private medical insurance, including online GP service, mental health support and discounted gym memberships
• Enhanced family-friendly benefits
• Weekly 'flexi-hour' to extend a lunch break or finish early on your day of choice
• Cycle to work scheme - tax-efficient purchase of a bike, bike accessories, or both
• Time off for volunteering when done through our partner OnHand: an app for local volunteering and climate action
• Multiple social events throughout the year, including Company Ramble & Sports Day
• Strong focus on learning and development with career plans for all employees
• Dog-friendly office
• Fantastic colleagues with a great sense of humour!

Why Verdantix...

Since our foundation in 2008, we have been built our company around five values. They encapsulate what we stand for, the way we do business and the impact we have on the communities we serve.

• Independence
• Accuracy
• Confidentiality
• Curiosity
• Sustainability

At Verdantix, we believe innovation and technology have the power to transform how organizations approach their biggest challenges. We are a diverse collective, united by intellectual curiosity and a desire to solve complex challenges with inquisitiveness, rigour, accuracy and unparalleled expertise.

We work as one team across research, commercial, and operational functions, valuing impact over hierarchy and transparency over silos. Every team member contributes to the growth of Verdantix, and we make it a priority to include everyone in shaping big decisions, from growth strategies to new product launches.

We're looking for people who are motivated by challenge, energized by collaboration, and who don't take themselves too seriously - a sense of humour goes a long way here. If you're excited to join a growing team where your skills and ideas will make a real difference, we'd love to hear from you.

Verdantix is a winner of 'The 2021 Queen's Award for Enterprise in the International Trade' category. The Queen's Awards for Enterprise are the most prestigious awards in the United Kingdom. Verdantix won the Queen's Award due to its sustained growth in international trade over the last three years - including through the pandemic. This rapid, consistent growth reflects demand for the high-quality research and advisory services that Verdantix provides to clients in seventeen countries.

Verdantix is an equal opportunities employer and is committed to providing a work environment that is free from all forms of discrimination. We want our recruitment process to reflect that. Please tell your recruitment partner directly if there's anything you need to make our interview process more accessible.