Staff Engineer – Optimisation and Machine Learning

Staff Engineer – Optimisation and Machine Learning

London (Hybrid – 3 days in office) | Permanent

I’m looking to speak to Principal Optimisation Engineers who would be interested in solving complex optimisation that will benefits organisations globally in the Life Sciences industry.

You will be working on problems that actually matter, building systems that help scientists run better experiments and make genuine breakthroughs.

The Company

They are a well-funded Life Sciences automation company that's scaling fast. They're using robotics and intelligent software to fundamentally change how scientific labs operate with industrial-scale optimisation.

What You'll Actually Be Doing

You'll be the technical lead on some genuinely challenging problems:

• Optimisation at scale: Building solvers that can handle real-world constraints using OR-Tools, commercial solvers, or your own custom algorithms when nothing else works
• Production ML systems: Taking academic theories and making them work reliably in production environments (Python, Docker, Kubernetes stack)
• Pragmatic problem-solving: Knowing when to use exact methods vs when to build heuristics that actually perform at scale
• Technical leadership: Shaping the technical direction and mentoring other engineers

What We're Looking For

• Deep optimisation knowledge: You've built solvers before and understand the trade-offs between different approaches
• Strong Python engineering: Not just scripting – proper software engineering with testing, monitoring, and production deployment experience
• ML systems experience: You've taken ML models from proof-of-concept to production systems that handle real workloads
• Problem-solving mindset: You enjoy the challenge of constraints and finding elegant solutions to complex problems
• Any experience in laboratory automation, pharma/biotech, or industrial automation would be beneficial but is not essential. Applicants with strong optimisation backgrounds from supply chain or manufacturing would also be of interest.

Why This Role Works

• Real impact: Your optimisation algorithms will directly influence scientific research happening in labs worldwide
• Technical depth: Complex problems that require genuine engineering skill, not just following tutorials
• Hybrid flexibility: 3 days in London office, 2 days remote
• Strong backing: Well-funded with clear growth trajectory

This is the kind of role where your optimisation expertise will be genuinely valued and challenged. If you're tired of basic ML work and want to solve problems that actually require mathematical sophistication, let's talk.

APPLY TODAY for immediate consideration.