Senior ML Engineer

United Kingdom Source: WhatJobs

£110,000–£160,000

Aveni is redefining how financial institutions use AI. We build real, production-ready agentic systems that reshape how banks, advisers and financial services firms operate, replacing fragmented processes with intelligent, end-to-end workflows. We have been recognised as Fintech of the Year for two consecutive years and awarded Best Specialist Technology Service at the Professional Adviser Awards 2025.

Backed by leading investors including Puma Private Equity, and commercially supported by Lloyds Banking Group and Nationwide Building Society, we previously completed one of Scotland’s largest Series A rounds. Since then, we’ve continued to grow rapidly as adoption of AI in financial services accelerates, and we’re now scaling our team to meet that demand.

The Role

We’re looking for a Senior ML Engineer (FinLLM / NLP) to help drive the next generation of AI systems powering financial services. This role focuses on developing, fine-tuning and deploying advanced language models that operate at production scale within highly regulated environments.

You’ll work alongside our NLP team, software engineers, and product leaders to build cutting-edge solutions that transform how financial organisations use AI. This is a hands-on role where you’ll shape both the technical direction and practical deployment of large language models and NLP systems within our platform.

What You’ll Do

Build and optimise LLM-powered systems
Architect, fine-tune and optimise machine learning models including LLMs and classical ML approaches
Experiment with modern architectures such as Transformers and Mixture-of-Experts
Apply efficient training and fine-tuning techniques including LoRA and parameter-efficient methods
Develop robust evaluation approaches to measure model quality and reliability
Develop scalable AI systems
Build and deploy production-grade NLP pipelines and services
Ensure models operate efficiently with low latency and high availability
Integrate models into scalable cloud infrastructure and real-world applications
Data strategy and model training
Lead the acquisition, processing and governance of large structured and unstructured datasets
Apply exploratory data analysis and validation techniques to improve training pipelines
Ensure data privacy and governance standards suitable for financial services
Engineering best practices
Contribute to DevOps and MLOps pipelines
Implement robust version control, testing and CI/CD workflows
Support reliable deployment and monitoring of models in production environments
Technical leadership
Mentor engineers and contribute to the technical growth of the team
Work closely with product, engineering and data teams to deliver AI solutions
Stay at the forefront of AI and NLP research, applying new approaches where they add value

What We’re Looking For

Essential experience

Significant experience building, training and deploying machine learning models
Strong Python skills with experience using NumPy, Pandas, SciPy and modern ML frameworks such as PyTorch or TensorFlow
Experience working with large-scale unstructured data
Experience building and deploying production-ready NLP systems
Familiarity with API integrations and data acquisition pipelines
Experience implementing software engineering best practices including Git and agile development
Experience working with cloud environments (preferably AWS)

Nice to have

Experience with containerisation technologies such as Docker or Kubernetes
Experience with frameworks such as vLLM or NeMo
Knowledge of financial services NLP applications
Experience designing evaluation methodologies for LLM outputs
Experience building intelligent agents or multi-agent systems
Skills and mindset
Strong analytical problem-solving skills
Ability to design scalable, production-ready AI systems
Clear communication with both technical and non-technical stakeholders
Passion for AI innovation and continuous learning
Leadership and mentoring capability

Qualifications

MSc or equivalent experience in a relevant field such as AI, Machine Learning, Computer Science, or Data Science

Join Us in Making a Difference

At Aveni, we believe that diversity drives innovation. We’ve built our business to ensure an inclusive workplace where everyone feels valued and empowered to contribute their best work. If you’re passionate about technology and its ability to drive positive change for the future of financial services, we’d love to hear from you.

Even if you don’t meet 100% of requirements, we’d like to hear from you anyway if you believe you’d fit in.

Benefits at Aveni

What you’ll love:

Remote-first working across the UK
Work abroad policy
Co-working spaces available
34 days holiday (including flexible bank holidays) and your birthday off
Company-wide off-sites
Optional Personal Development Plan
Flexible benefits platform
Protection essentials including Life Insurance, Income Protection, Critical Illness cover, and Pension (up to 5% matched employer contribution with optional increased contributions)
Private health and dental care
Potential share options
Enhanced family leave