Senior AI Engineer

Senior AI Engineer

Forward Deployed AI Enterprise AI Unit. Cambridge UK

Competitive salary and benefits

Are you ready to turn ambiguous enterprise challenges into credible production AI that moves the needle for patients and the business Do you want to ship agentic and retrieval-augmented systems that colleagues rely on every day Join our forward-deployed AI engineering team within a newly created enterprise unit in Cambridge where your work will help accelerate how we discover develop and deliver medicines.

You will be part of a hands-on group that builds with AI and ships AI. We convert scattered data and unstructured knowledge into dependable systems with measurable this role you will design and deliver end-to-end solutions lead the rigor that makes demos production-grade and partner closely with authorities across the company to bring the latest techniques into real-world use.

Based in Cambridge with a competitive salary and benefits you will have the autonomy to craft solutions from prototype to deployed service backed by strong platforms clear sponsorship and a culture that values both ambition and disciplined engineering.

Accountabilities:

• Agentic AI Development: Design implement and iterate agentic workflows that orchestrate tools sub-agents and multi-step reasoning to deliver deterministic auditable outcomes to business users.

• Retrieval-Augmented Systems: Build robust RAG pipelines and context engineering strategies that ground LLM outputs in enterprise knowledge improve factuality and reduce hallucinations.

• Evaluation and Quality: Establish ground-truth datasets LLM-as-judge and rule-based evals and regression suites that separate signal from prompt noise and ensure consistent performance over time.

• Production Software Engineering: Translate prototypes into reliable services with structured outputs clear interfaces packaging testing and traceability that meet critical software standards.

• Platform Integration and Observability: Integrate with Kubernetes and cloud platforms implement CI/CD and instrument systems for cost latency caching and evaluation dashboards to sustain performance at scale.

• Partner Teamwork: Work with subject-matter experts and product owners to turn ambiguous problems into clear specifications communicate trade-offs and land solutions that create business value.

• Secure and Scalable Deployment: Apply gateway-based inference patterns and led LLM platforms where appropriate to balance security performance and maintainability.

• Continuous Innovation: Scan the evolving AI landscape assess when fine-tuning or distillation is warranted and proactively upgrade techniques to keep solutions robust and competitive.

Essential Skills/Experience:

• Advanced University degree in mathematics computer science or another relevant numerical/computational subject area; alternatively equivalent experience in relevant research or industry. PhD or equivalent experience desirable.

• Deep and validated AI foundations ability to go deep into the maths and nuances of neural networks transformers statistics evaluation methodology applied with judgement

• Hands-on experience designing and shipping production-grade systems built around LLMs: agentic workflows RAG tool use structured outputs and multi-step orchestration

• Practical experience with modern agent-integration patterns MCP tool/skill ecosystems agent-to-agent communication sub-agents and context engineering and judgement about when to use each

• Demonstrated ability to deliver production-grade software using AI coding assistants with the subject area that critical software demands specs tests evals code review traceability not just ad-hoc prototyping

• Excellent evaluation skills: designing ground-truth datasets building LLM-as-judge and rule-based evals regression suites calibration and statistical reasoning to distinguish signal from prompt noise

• Strong Python structured-output validation packaging and focused testing practice; confident scaffolding a service from prototype to deployed

• Excellent problem-solving collaboration and communication skills; able to translate ambiguous business problems into specs collaborate with SMEs and present results to senior stakeholders

• Experience with Kubernetes and cloud platforms (Azure and/or AWS) CI/CD and LLM observability (cost latency caching eval dashboards)

Desirable Skills/Experience:

• Experience training fine-tuning or distilling models when the problem genuinely calls for it

• Familiarity with managed-LLM platforms (e.g. AWS Bedrock Azure OpenAI) and gateway-based inference patterns. End-to-end software life cycle and experience shipping and deploying production code.

• Full-stack delivery experience comfortable leading a thin frontend when needed; this is not a frontend role and professional UI skills are not required

• Interest in working on real-world enterprise problems in a research-driven organisation; pharma or life-sciences experience welcomed but not required

When we put unexpected teams in the same room we ignite bold thinking with the power to inspire life-changing -person working gives us the platform we need to connect work at pace and challenge perceptions. Thats why we work on average a minimum of three days per week from the office. But that doesnt mean were not flexible. We balance the expectation of being in the office while respecting individual flexibility. Join us in our unique and ambitious world.

Why AstraZeneca:

Here technology and science meet to change whats possible for patients. You will join a company investing boldly in digital and data to become truly data-led where unexpected teams come together to address problems that have never been solved before. We empower engineers to experiment through hackathons and real-world pilots build at enterprise scale with modern platforms and learn continuously in a supportive high-standards culture that values kindness alongside ambition. Your contribution will unlock the potential of our science streamline how we work and help bring medicines to people faster.

Step into this role to design and ship AI systems that matterbring your expertise to Cambridge and help turn pioneering ideas into real-world impact today!

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