Data Scientists

About us   

Fusion the process that powers the sun and stars is one of the most promising options for generating the cleaner carbon-free energy that our world badly needs. UKAEA leads the way in realizing fusion energy partnering with industryand research organisations to achieveground-breaking advancements. Our goal is to bring fusion electricity to the gridby developing the power stations of tomorrow and the skilled workforce to deliver them.   

About the Job 

The Data Solutions Unit within UKAEAs Computing Division delivers innovative research development and specialist support across data engineering artificial intelligence machine learning FAIR data architectures high-performance computing and advanced digital technologies. Working at the forefront of fusion research the team develops secure scalable data solutions that enable scientists and engineers to optimise their work accelerate discovery and support the development of future fusion technologies through collaboration with academia industry and partners across UKAEA. 

This is an opportunity to shape the future application of artificial intelligence in fusion research working at the intersection of AI HPC and scientific discovery. As part of the Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning team you will provide research expertise in the application of AI/ML to complex fusion challenges. You will contribute to research programmes as part of a team of UKAEA and international collaborators to develop innovative solutions using advanced computing environments including High-Performance Computing (HPC). With significant autonomy you will influence research directions develop new opportunities publish impactful research and represent UKAEA as a leading voice in AI-enabled fusion research. 

What youll be Doing 

We are recruiting for multiple roles across the AI areas outlined below. If you are interested in applying please indicate your preferred area(s) of interest as part of your application: 

Enterprise AI Specialist: 

• Corporate AI solutions (MS-Copilot Google Gemini Enterprise) 

• Data privacy/protection rules and UK government regulations (Export Control regional Cloud deployment data sovereignty) 

• Open-source LLM deployment (Ollama vLLM Open WebUI) 

• Large LLM deployment on parallel GPU architectures 

• Advanced LLM applications (AI-assisted coding LLM integration in engineering products) 

• Knowledge Graphs (Neo4j GraphRAGs) 

Advanced Control Specialist: 

• AI control methods (Reinforcement Learning supervised learning preference optimization) 

• Applied control systems (Robotics experimental control systems) 

• Portability of AI/ML models onto control hardware (real-time workflows compiled models FPGA porting) 

AI and HPC Specialist: 

• Optimisation of AI workflows on parallel GPU architectures 

• Porting of AI workflows on specialised hardware (Nvidia GH200 AMD Mi300x Google TPUs AWS) 

• Large-scale deployment on Cloud Compute architectures 

AI for Engineering applications Specialist: 

• Application of AI to Digital Engineering workflows. 

• Open-source CAD software (FreeCAD OpenSCAD LibreCAD) 

• Proprietary Engineering software (Ansys CATIA Simulia Siemens-NX) 

• CAD Meshing for simulations (Gmsh CGAL CUBIT Ansys-PyPrimeMesh) 

• Engineering data visualisation (Blender Omniverse USD VTK) 

• Systems Engineering (MBSE Ansys-Twin-Builder Dassault-3DX) 

Foundation Models Specialist: 

• Transformers architectures 

• Vision Transformer models 

• Fine-tuning and transfer learning 

• Scientific Foundation Models 

• Large-scale data engineering 

What youll Bring 

• A PhD degree in a computational mathematical or physical science discipline with Post-Doctoral and professional experience (or equivalent experience in either a commercial or research environment) relevant to the area of AI/ML for fusion science. 

• Recognised internationally as an expert in the field of AI for fusion 

• Track record of publishing research in the area of AI for fusion or a similar area of research with transferable knowledge to fusion science. 

• Demonstrable experience of at least one compiled programming language (e.g. C Fortran C Rust) or advanced scripting language (e.g. Python Julia R) 

• Good experience of the UNIX operating system particularly the command line interface 

• Ability to work within a diverse team but willingness to take significant personal responsibility 

• Excellent written and spoken English 

UKAEA is an onsite organisation and this role requires regular onsite presence (usually between 3-5 days in any given week) in line with business needs. We actively support flexible working arrangements where this is compatible with the role. 

Benefits  

We have a generous range of benefits (see the full list here) and highlights include:    

• A salary of 64820 (inclusive of a 6500 specialist allowance)  

• Up to 7% corporate performance bonus  

• Final salary defined benefits pension scheme with an equivalent of21.5% employer pension contribution   

• 25 days annual leave 2.5 privilege days and 8 Bank Holidays    

• 3 days of site closure over Christmas break   

• Flexible working options plus family-friendly leave provisions   

Our commitment to ED&I  

UKAEAs mission is clean energy for all and we welcome talented people from all backgrounds to help us achieve this goal. We are committed to equality diversity inclusion and accessibility and strive to ensure fair representation across our workforce.  

Please email  if you have any questions or require adjustments to help you participate fairly in our recruitment process for example changes to the way we interview or share information. As a Disability Confident Employer we are committed to providing an inclusive and accessible recruitment experience for all candidates.  

We particularly encourage applications from groups currently underrepresented in STEM including women and people from diverse ethnic backgrounds. All appointments are made on merit and further information can be found here.    

Additional information 

International travels for short periods of 3-5 days are typical of roles at this level to nurture collaborations and attend key conferences and workshops in this area of research. 

Remote Work :

No

Employment Type :

Full-time