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About the Role

Scale’s rapidly growing Global Public Sector team is focused on using AI to address critical challenges facing the public sector. This is a very senior, hands-on role where you will work at the earliest stage of engagements, shaping the technical approach with clients, defining the technology, and turning ideas into working prototypes. You will mentor engineers and raise the bar for how we design, build, and deliver solutions.

Responsibilities

Take on the hardest technical problems across programs, stepping in where projects are stuck or the path forward is unclear.
Lead the technical side of early engagements, working with clients to scope problems, shape proofs of concept, and keep the scope needed to prove value as small as possible.
Build working prototypes quickly, from AI agents and evaluation pipelines to data and knowledge systems, and take the most promising ones to production.
Define the technology and architecture solutions are built on, keeping them cohesive, secure, and reusable across clients.
Mentor engineers across a young organization through pairing, design and code reviews, and set the bar for engineering excellence.
Partner with Directors, VPs, and client executives to navigate high-stakes business and technical trade-offs, including travel to client sites as engagements require.
Turn patterns from the field into reusable capabilities, contributing components back to our core platform so every engagement starts further ahead.
Lead from the front on agentic engineering, both in the AI systems we build and in how our teams use coding agents day to day, and push the boundaries of what’s possible with AI.

Requirements

A strong engineering background, with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Mathematics or a related quantitative field (or equivalent practical experience).
10+ years of post-graduation engineering experience, with demonstrated proficiency in languages such as Python, TypeScript/JavaScript, Java, or C++.
5+ years of experience applying AI/ML in production environments, such as building generative/agentic AI applications, RAG systems or evaluation pipelines.
Strong problem-solving skills, with a track record of taking ambiguous, early-stage problems from a blank page to a working prototype and into production.
Deep expertise in system design and architecture, including experience with cloud-based machine learning tools and platforms (e.g. AWS, GCP, Azure).
Experience mentoring engineers and raising the technical bar of a team or organisation.
Comfort working directly with clients, from their engineering teams to senior executives.
Excellent written and verbal communication skills to collaborate effectively in a cross-functional environment.
Past experience in a forward deployed engineering role.
Experience working at a startup, particularly as a founding engineer.
Experience building and deploying large-scale AI solutions.
Experience delivering technology programs for governments or regulated industries.
Experience deploying solutions on-prem or in customer-controlled environments.
Current or previous UK government security clearance (e.g. SC or DV).

Skills

Python
TypeScript/JavaScript
Java
C++
AI/ML
Generative/Agentic AI
RAG systems
Evaluation pipelines
System design
Architecture
AWS
GCP
Azure
Agentic engineering

Location

London

Work Type

Onsite

Experience Level

Principal
10+ years of post-graduation engineering experience
5+ years of experience applying AI/ML in production environments

Education Level

Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Mathematics or a related quantitative field (or equivalent practical experience)

About the Company

At Scale, our mission is to develop reliable AI systems for the world’s most important decisions. Our products provide the high-quality data and full-stack technologies that power the world's leading models, and help enterprises and governments build, deploy, and oversee AI applications that deliver real impact. We work closely with industry leaders like Meta, Ernst & Young, Mayo Clinic, Time Inc., the Government of Qatar, and U.S. government agencies including the Army and Air Force. We are expanding our team to accelerate the development of AI applications.

Equal Opportunity

We believe that everyone should be able to bring their whole selves to work, which is why we are proud to be an inclusive and equal opportunity workplace. We are committed to equal employment opportunity regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability status, gender identity or Veteran status.
We are committed to working with and providing reasonable accommodations to applicants with physical and mental disabilities. If you need assistance and/or a reasonable accommodation in the application or recruiting process due to a disability, please contact us at accommodations@scale.com. Please see the United States Department of Labor's Know Your Rights poster for additional information.
We comply with the United States Department of Labor's Pay Transparency provision.