Job Description:

AI Engineer
Salary: Up to £65,000
Location: Stroud

Security: BPSS before start; eligibility for UK SC clearance required

KO2 is partnering with an innovative technology company developing advanced sensing and communications technology. They are looking for an AI Engineer to join a small, high-impact team at an exciting early stage of growth.

The role

Our client is hiring an AI Engineer to design and build the embedded software, data pipelines and machine learning systems behind their sensing and communications technology. You will take ideas from a clean sheet through to efficient, tested code running in live deployments.

You will join a small team that owns the full software development lifecycle, giving you real influence over the company's products as they develop.

What you will do

• Design and implement robust, real-time embedded software in C and C++ for microelectronics, sensors and other subsystems.
• Implement and optimise communication protocols.
• Build automated CI/CD pipelines for machine learning, manage model versioning, and monitor live models for data drift and performance degradation.
• Develop generative AI and large language model (LLM) systems, including retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) and fine-tuning.
• Build scalable ETL/ELT pipelines using tools such as Spark or dbt, ensuring data is high quality, time-stamped and ready for both training and real-time inference.
• Design and deploy data collection systems for remote environments, along with load-balanced staging and production IoT data services.
• Maintain and correct records in SQL-based databases.
• Carry out unit, integration and hardware-in-the-loop (HiL) testing, alongside structured test protocols, so that live deployments are fault tolerant, reliable and long-lasting.
• Contribute across the full software development lifecycle (SDLC), from clean-sheet design to efficient, working code.
• Align technical solutions with market research and customer requirements.

What our client is looking for

Essential

• At least two years' industry experience.
• A degree-level qualification or above.
• Fluency in C, C++ and Python, with experience of SQL-based databases.
• An analytical mindset: you enjoy breaking complex problems down and building them back up into elegant, efficient code.
• High standards: you write clean, well-commented code that other developers can follow and build on.
• A collaborative approach: you can speak "hardware", "physics" and "software", and bridge the gap between engineering disciplines.
• Ability to achieve SC clearance, if you already hold it even better.

Desirable

• Experience with optical sensors.
• Camera optical frame processing.
• Knowledge of coordinate systems used in computer vision and robotics.
• MLOps experience.

How to apply

If this sounds like the right next step for you, apply now with your CV or get in touch with Laurence Powell at KO2 Recruitment for a confidential conversation.