Lead MLOps Engineer

Lead MLOps Engineer – AI Consultancy

Manchester | £80k–£100k + Equity + Benefits

We’re hiring a Lead MLOps Engineer to drive the technical direction of MLOps across our growing AI consultancy (Manchester City Centre, 3 days on-site). This is a senior, hands-on role combining architecture, delivery leadership and management.

What you’ll be doing

• Acting as technical lead on complex client engagements
• Designing and overseeing end-to-end ML platforms and MLOps architectures
• Managing Mid and Senior engineers
• Defining technical standards and MLOps best practices
• Working with clients to translate business goals into scalable ML solutions
• Supporting project scoping, pre-sales, and technical strategy

What we’re looking for

• Significant experience delivering production-grade ML systems
• Deep expertise in Python and modern ML frameworks
• Strong cloud and infrastructure background (AWS, Azure, or GCP)
• Extensive experience with Docker, Kubernetes, CI/CD, and IaC
• Proven ability to build, deploy, monitor, and operate ML systems at scale
• Comfortable leading a team while staying hands-on
• Excellent stakeholder communication skills
• Eligible for SC clearance

Nice to have

• Experience building internal MLOps platforms or tooling
• Strong views on observability, reliability, and ML monitoring
• Experience with LLMs, agents, or emerging AI technologies

Perks

• £80k–£100k salary
• EMI share scheme
• Generous L&D budget
• 25 days holiday (rising to 30)
• Pension