Senior AI & Data Engineer UK Permanent

Core responsibilities & objectivesDesign, build, and maintain batch/streaming data pipelines, ingestion, cleaning, normalisation, enrichment, deduplication.Build and own ML/LLM pipelines end-to-end: document parsing, chunking, embeddings generation, vector indexing, agentic tool calling, multi-step workflows, retries, fallbacks, and state handling.Write production-grade, well-tested Python that processes large volumes of data and documents reliably.Own pipeline health: if data is stale, broken, or wrong, it's on you.Work autonomously to project deadlines with minimal hand-holding. Key qualifications & skills (non-negotiable)7+ years in backend data-heavy development or data engineeringPreviously worked in StartupHighly proficient in PythonHands-on experience with large datasets and high-velocity data streams (Kafka, Flink, Spark).Strong with pipeline orchestration tools (Airflow, MLflow, or equivalent).Solid SQL skills (Postgres, BigQuery, or Snowflake) and NoSQL experience (DynamoDB, OpenSearch, Elastic).Real experience with LLM workflows: RAG architectures, embeddings/vector DBs, prompt engineering, function/tool calling, observability.Deep understanding of ETL/ELT patterns and data processing at scale. Preferred background (strong signals)Experience with AWS data stack at scale.Exposure to healthcare, life sciences, or regulated industries.Built and shipped data, ML and LLM-powered pipelines in production.Has debugged a pipeline and knows why observability matters.Worked in a fast-moving startup where "that's not my job" doesn't exist. What will get you rejected"I set up the pipeline, someone else monitors it" mindset.Tutorials and side projects but no production experience at scale.Can't explain trade-offs between streaming vs. batch, or why you chose one vector DB over another.Needs detailed specs before writing a line of code.No curiosity about healthcare or what the data actually means. Interested? We're a distributed team solving hard problems that will reshape the healthcare industry for a generation. If you want ownership, not just tickets, we'd like to hear from you.