Machine Learning Engineering Lead

Sky
London
2 weeks ago
Create job alert
Job Overview

ID: 1854517


Date Posted: Posted 1 day ago


Location: Walthamstow


Expiration Date: 02/02/2026


Competitive


What you’ll do

We are seeking a highly skilled Lead Machine Learning Engineer to advance our personalised recommendation systems by developing efficient, low‑latency solutions that serve millions of users globally. The successful candidate will collaborate closely with data scientists, engineers and product managers to design intelligent content recommendation mechanisms and drive the ongoing advancement of our Machine Learning Platform.



  • Model Development: Design, train, and optimise machine learning models focused on user personalisation, encompassing recommendation engines, ranking algorithms, user segmentation, and content analysis.
  • Data Pipeline Engineering: Construct and maintain robust and scalable data pipelines for feature engineering and model training utilising both structured and unstructured large‑scale datasets.
  • Production Deployment: Deploy and supervise ML models in production environments, ensuring high availability, optimal performance, and continued relevance.
  • Experimentation: Lead the design and analysis of A/B tests and offline experiments to evaluate model efficacy and support continuous improvement.
  • Cross‑Functional Collaboration: Engage with multidisciplinary teams to align machine learning initiatives with business objectives and user needs.
  • Research & Innovation: Evaluate emerging research in machine learning, deep learning, and personalisation for potential integration within existing systems.

What you’ll bring

  • Demonstrated expertise in the full lifecycle of machine learning, from model development, deployment and serving to monitoring and maintenance.
  • Advanced proficiency in Python and knowledge of ML libraries/frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch).
  • Experience using ML Training frameworks (e.g., TFX, Kubeflow Pipelines SDK) and Model Serving technologies (eg. Tensorflow Serving, Triton, TorchServe).
  • Experience with high‑volume data processing and real‑time streaming architectures.
  • Strong understanding of recommendation system design and personalisation algorithms.
  • Familiarity with Generative AI and its applications in production settings.
  • Exceptional communication and analytical problem‑solving skills.
  • Proven successful experience in mentoring less experienced engineers to improve their technical skills.

A Typical Day at the Office

When you come in, you can grab a coffee or a bit of breakfast from one of the many (subsidised) cafés or restaurants on site. Settle in at your desk, have a quick look at Slack to see what's happening in the tech communities, then catch up with everyone at the team stand‑up. After that, you'll join your team and pick the first task to get cracking on. At lunchtime, you've got a few choices: head to The Pavilion for a bite with the team, pop to the onsite gym for a quick workout, or join in with a lunchtime community meetup — whatever suits you. Once you're back, you'll carry on working with your team on your current feature. Later in the afternoon, the team might fancy a quick coffee break before wrapping up the day with a team retrospective.


Global OTT Technology

Our team develops and supports market‑leading video streaming services, underpinned by state‑of‑the‑art engineering principles. We do this at huge scale: for over 50 million customers globally, spanning NBCUniversal Peacock in the US and Sky, NOW and SkyShowtime across Europe. No matter the device, the time or the place, we make sure that our diverse audiences can easily find and enjoy whatever they want to watch, choosing from the world's best entertainment, news and sport.


The rewards

There's one thing people can't stop talking about when it comes to LifeAtSky: the perks. Here's a taster:



  • Sky Q, for the TV you love all in one place
  • The magic of Sky Glass at an exclusive rate
  • A generous pension package
  • Private healthcare
  • Discounted mobile and broadband
  • A wide range of Sky VIP rewards and experiences

Inclusion & how you’ll work

We are a Disability Confident Employer, and welcome and encourage applications from all candidates. We will look to ensure a fair and consistent experience for all, and will make reasonable adjustments to support you where appropriate. Please flag any adjustments you need to your recruiter as early as you can.


We've embraced hybrid working and split our time between unique office spaces and the convenience of working from home. You’ll find out more about what hybrid working looks like for your role later on in the recruitment process.


Your office space
Osterley

Our Osterley Campus is a 10‑minute walk from Syon Lane train station. Or you can hop on one of our free shuttle buses that run to and from Osterley, Gunnersbury, Ealing Broadway and South Ealing tube stations. There are also plenty of bike shelters and showers.


On campus, you’ll find 13 subsidised restaurants, cafés, and a Waitrose. You can keep in shape at our subsidised gym, catch the latest shows and movies at our cinema, get your car washed, and even get pampered at our beauty salon.


We’d love to hear from you

Inventive, forward‑thinking minds come together to work in Tech, Product and Data at Sky. It's a place where you can explore what if, how far, and what next.


But better doesn't stop at what we do, it's how we do it, too. We embrace each other's differences. We support our community and contribute to a sustainable future for our business and the planet.


If you believe in better, we'll back you all the way. Just so you know: if your application is successful, we'll ask you to complete a criminal record check. And depending on the role you have applied for and the nature of any convictions you may have, we might have to withdraw the offer.


#J-18808-Ljbffr

Related Jobs

View all jobs

Machine Learning Engineering Lead

ML & AI Engineering Lead: Generative AI & MLOps

Senior Machine Learning Operations Engineer

Lead Software Engineer - Agentic AI/Machine Learning

Machine Learning Engineer

Tech Lead - Data Engineering

Subscribe to Future Tech Insights for the latest jobs & insights, direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service.

Industry Insights

Discover insightful articles, industry insights, expert tips, and curated resources.

How to Write a Machine Learning Job Ad That Attracts the Right People

Machine learning now sits at the heart of many UK organisations, powering everything from recommendation engines and fraud detection to forecasting, automation and decision support. As adoption grows, so does demand for skilled machine learning professionals. Yet many employers struggle to attract the right candidates. Machine learning job adverts often generate high volumes of applications, but few applicants have the blend of modelling skill, engineering awareness and real-world experience the role actually requires. Meanwhile, strong machine learning engineers and scientists quietly avoid adverts that feel vague, inflated or confused. In most cases, the issue is not the talent market — it is the job advert itself. Machine learning professionals are analytical, technically rigorous and highly selective. A poorly written job ad signals unclear expectations and low ML maturity. A well-written one signals credibility, focus and a serious approach to applied machine learning. This guide explains how to write a machine learning job ad that attracts the right people, improves applicant quality and strengthens your employer brand.

Maths for Machine Learning Jobs: The Only Topics You Actually Need (& How to Learn Them)

Machine learning job adverts in the UK love vague phrases like “strong maths” or “solid fundamentals”. That can make the whole field feel gatekept especially if you are a career changer or a student who has not touched maths since A level. Here is the practical truth. For most roles on MachineLearningJobs.co.uk such as Machine Learning Engineer, Applied Scientist, Data Scientist, NLP Engineer, Computer Vision Engineer or MLOps Engineer with modelling responsibilities the maths you actually use is concentrated in four areas: Linear algebra essentials (vectors, matrices, projections, PCA intuition) Probability & statistics (uncertainty, metrics, sampling, base rates) Calculus essentials (derivatives, chain rule, gradients, backprop intuition) Basic optimisation (loss functions, gradient descent, regularisation, tuning) If you can do those four things well you can build models, debug training, evaluate properly, explain trade-offs & sound credible in interviews. This guide gives you a clear scope plus a six-week learning plan, portfolio projects & resources so you can learn with momentum rather than drowning in theory.

Neurodiversity in Machine Learning Careers: Turning Different Thinking into a Superpower

Machine learning is about more than just models & metrics. It’s about spotting patterns others miss, asking better questions, challenging assumptions & building systems that work reliably in the real world. That makes it a natural home for many neurodivergent people. If you live with ADHD, autism or dyslexia, you may have been told your brain is “too distracted”, “too literal” or “too disorganised” for a technical career. In reality, many of the traits that can make school or traditional offices hard are exactly the traits that make for excellent ML engineers, applied scientists & MLOps specialists. This guide is written for neurodivergent ML job seekers in the UK. We’ll explore: What neurodiversity means in a machine learning context How ADHD, autism & dyslexia strengths map to ML roles Practical workplace adjustments you can ask for under UK law How to talk about neurodivergence in applications & interviews By the end, you’ll have a clearer sense of where you might thrive in ML – & how to turn “different thinking” into a genuine career advantage.