Lead AI Research Engineer

AVEVA is creating software trusted by over 90% of leading industrial companies.

Position:
Lead AI Research Engineer

Location:

Cambridge, London, Milan, Gallarate, Madrid, Derry, Frankfurt, Malmo, Paris

Employment Type:

Full-time

We are seeking an experienced AI technologist to join our AI Investigation and Incubation team. This is a hands‑on engineering lead role, focused on researching, prototyping, and validating emerging AI technologies to drive innovation and real‑world use cases.

The ideal candidate will have a passion for both exploring new frontiers in AI and turning AI research into working systems with expertise making architectural trade‑offs, and proving feasibility through code, experiments, and deployable prototypes. A strong technical foundation with experience working at the intersection of AI research and incubation is critical for this role.

• Research and evaluate emerging AI technologies with a clear focus on practical applicability and deployability
• Investigate, develop, fine‑tune, evaluate, and benchmark AI/ML models
• Design, build, and iterate on working prototypes, proof‑of‑concepts, and pilots
• Assess AI approaches for scalability, reliability, cost, security, and operational feasibility
• Make and document AI investigation and architectural decisions related to model deployment and integration
• Drive technical and scientific publications on AI research
• Collaborate closely with cross‑functional teams to ensure AI proofs‑of‑concept, prototypes, and pilots can transition to later stage development and/or downstream products
• Clearly document findings and present actionable recommendations to technical and non‑technical stakeholders
• Mentor and coach junior team members

• 10+ years of experience in AI research and development, ML engineering, or equivalent industry experience with at least 3 years in a technical lead position
• Bachelor's degree in Computer Science, AI/ML, Engineering or a related technical field; advanced degree preferred
• Proven track record leading and delivering large‑scale technical investigations or complex AI cross‑functional initiatives with measurable outcomes
• Expertise in Python and deep experience with deep learning frameworks (e.g., Jax, Tensor Flow, PyTorch) and state‑of‑the‑art ML techniques (building, training, evaluating, deploying ML models)
• Practical experience with modern AI paradigms such as: world models, foundation models, and multi‑modal language models; agent‑based systems and orchestration; and context retrieval and augmentation techniques
• Exceptional communication and presentation skills; can articulate complex technical concepts to both technical and non‑technical audiences, including senior leadership
• Ability to connect AI capabilities to practical industrial or enterprise use cases

• Exposure to AI governance, security, or compliance considerations
• Experience deploying ML models in cloud environments (Azure preferred, AWS acceptable)
• Familiarity with MLOps practices (model versioning, evaluation, monitoring, iteration)
• Experience working with non‑ideal, real‑world data rather than curated research datasets
• Exposure to industrial, IoT, manufacturing, energy, or asset‑intensive domains
• Experience working in both enterprise and start‑up environments

• AI concepts progress beyond research into validated, working prototypes and pilots
• Technical investigations result in clear go / no‑go recommendations
• Prototypes and pilots demonstrate feasibility for real‑world deployment, not just benchmark performance
• Strong collaboration with cross‑functional technical and non‑technical teams to enable transition into later stage development, where appropriate
• Ability to meaningfully influence AI roadmaps and technology direction through evidence‑backed work

Our global team of 2000+ developers work on an incredibly diverse portfolio of over 75 industrial automation and engineering products, which cover everything from data management to 3D design. AI and cloud are at the centre of our strategy, and we have over 150 patents to our name.

Our track record of innovation is no fluke – it’s the…