Principal AI scientist - Perm- UK remote
Location: UK Remote (Candidates must be UK based)
Salary: £110,000 - £125,000
Employment Type: Permanent
The Opportunity
We're working with an innovative technology-led organisation that is transforming how AI is used within learning, assessment, and workforce skills development.
They are seeking a Principal AI Scientist to lead the scientific design, validation, and evolution of next-generation AI-powered assessment and learning solutions embedded directly into the flow of work.
This is a senior individual contributor role suited to someone with deep expertise across AI/ML, psychometrics, measurement science, and production-scale intelligent systems. The successful candidate will operate as a scientific authority within the organisation, shaping methodology, influencing product direction, and ensuring AI-driven solutions are fair, explainable, scalable, and scientifically rigorous.
The role offers the opportunity to work at the intersection of modern AI systems, applied research, and enterprise-scale product delivery.
The Role
As Principal AI Scientist, you will take ownership of the scientific and methodological direction of AI-enabled learning and assessment products.
You will work closely with product leadership, engineering teams, data scientists, and domain experts to translate advanced research into production-ready systems that deliver measurable user and business outcomes.
This position requires someone comfortable operating in highly complex environments with significant technical, ethical, and commercial considerations.
Key Responsibilities
Scientific Leadership & Product Ownership
- Lead the scientific strategy for AI-enabled assessment, learning, and skills products
- Define robust methodologies balancing innovation, scalability, fairness, validity, and explainability
- Act as the senior scientific authority for assessment and measurement decisions
- Establish scientific standards, reusable frameworks, and evaluation methodologies
- Lead validation studies to ensure reliability, consistency, fairness, and performance stability
- Define and monitor scientific KPIs including drift detection, bias indicators, and model effectiveness
- Identify and mitigate scientific and measurement risks associated with AI systems at scale
AI, Machine Learning & Modern AI Systems
- Apply AI and machine learning techniques, including LLMs and foundation models, to learning and assessment use cases
- Support development of AI-powered capabilities such as:
- Skills inference
- Adaptive assessment
- Automated content generation
- AI-driven feedback and reasoning systems
- Contribute to the evaluation and governance of agentic AI workflows
- Partner with engineering teams to ensure scientific integrity is maintained throughout implementation and deployment
- Support lifecycle monitoring and continuous improvement of production AI systems
Research, Innovation & Strategic Influence
- Translate research findings into scalable, commercially viable product capabilities
- Produce thought leadership content including whitepapers and scientific insights
- Influence product and AI strategy through scientific expertise and evidence-based recommendations
- Support internal and external discussions around responsible AI and ethical AI implementation
- Engage with enterprise stakeholders and senior leadership on scientific and AI-related topics
Required Experience
- Advanced degree (MSc or PhD preferred) in:
- Psychometrics
- Educational Measurement
- Statistics
- Machine Learning
- Artificial Intelligence
- Data Science
- Or equivalent commercial experience
- Proven experience building or leading AI-enabled assessment or measurement systems
- Deep expertise in validation methodologies, statistical modelling, and measurement theory
- Strong applied experience with machine learning and AI systems in production environments
- Practical understanding of modern AI architectures including Large Language Models (LLMs)
- Experience collaborating closely with engineering and product teams
- Ability to influence technical and strategic decisions through expertise rather than direct authority
- Experience operating in complex, high-ambiguity environments with significant business or ethical risk considerations
Desirable Experience
- Experience applying LLMs within learning, workforce skills, or assessment products
- Exposure to adaptive testing, continuous assessment, or automated item/content generation
- Experience evaluating or governing AI agentic workflows
- Background within learning technology, education technology, workforce development, or skills ecosystems
- Experience working on enterprise-scale or long-lived AI platforms
What They're Looking For
- A scientifically rigorous thinker with strong commercial awareness
- Someone passionate about responsible and explainable AI
- Comfortable balancing research innovation with practical delivery
- Strong communicator able to work across technical and non-technical audiences
- A collaborative leader who enjoys solving complex real-world problems
Package
- £110,000 - £125,000 salary
- Fully remote role within the UK
- High-impact position within a cutting-edge AI environment
- Opportunity to influence next-generation AI products at scale
Please note: Applicants must be based in the UK. Sponsorship is not available for this position.