Machine Learning Engineer Ref. 3722

Job Description

Flexible working: we support full time, part time (minimum three days a week), compressed hours, job share and other flexible working patterns. Due to the sensitive nature of our work, this role is primarily office based. Home working is not guaranteed and is based on business needs.

About us
We’re MI6, also known as the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS). Our mission is to protect the security and economic wellbeing of the UK from overseas threats such as regional instability, terrorism, and cyber-attacks. Working across the globe and in close partnership with MI5 and GCHQ, we help the Government to counter these threats through the provision of secret intelligence. A role in MI6 will see you providing vital support to this work, within a supportive and encouraging environment that puts the emphasis on teamwork.

The role
Enhancing how we operate today will better prepare us for the challenges of tomorrow. That’s why we’re creating dedicated teams focused on bringing Artificial Intelligence (AI) into some of our most mission critical areas. As a Machine Learning Engineer, you’ll be at the heart of our efforts, working with our technical teams to design, build and operate mission-critical machine learning capabilities. This includes everything from infrastructure and MLOps through to training, fine-tuning, deployment, and live model management. While you’ll be hands-on in engineering, your work will also be advisory, ensuring models are reliable, scalable, and fit for use.

Day to day, you’ll collaborate with multidisciplinary teams of data scientists, researchers, and hosting specialists, acting as the subject-matter expert for ML deployment, reliability, and best practice. You’ll be the critical bridge between research and production, making sure ideas don’t stay theoretical but instead become robust, impactful systems.

A large part of your role will be leading on the technical evaluation of environments and workflows, driving innovation-led initiatives, and continuously improving how we monitor, measure, and optimise model performance. Just as importantly, you’ll champion model explainability, transparency, and ethical AI as core engineering principles. Across multiple projects, you’ll also support and mentor junior ML engineers, help software engineers design ML-ready hosting environments, and translate complex systems into a clear, practical understanding for non-technical stakeholders.

About you
There's no single route into this role – what matters most is your genuine, end-to-end understanding of the ML lifecycle and real, practical experience of model deployment, monitoring, and optimisation. This may come from working as a Machine Learning Engineer already, years spent as a Software Engineer building applied ML systems, or a data science background grounded in strong mathematical foundations.

You'll have seen at least one full project lifecycle through from start to finish, ideally within an environment with centralised standards and platforms. With your background of managing model lifecycles and deployments, you'll know what it takes to fine-tune and operationalise models in live environments, and you'll be comfortable working across platforms with the ability to adapt to customer-embedded models as needs evolve. Hands-on experience working alongside scientists and within deployment environments is central to this role, as is familiarity with MLOps tooling, scheduling, and orchestration. You'll be comfortable working in cloud environments and with ML lifecycle tools such as Weights & Biases, and you’ll have Python experience too. Experience with Docker or Kubernetes is beneficial, but not essential.

You’re also curious, self-directed, and always keen to learn more. You're comfortable with ambiguity, calm under pressure, and able to see beyond the immediate task. You communicate clearly, work well within technical communities, and bring the resilience to keep things moving should any obstacles arise.

Training and development
We take professional development seriously, and you’ll be joining a community that invests in helping people grow their skills. You’ll have access to a broad mix of learning opportunities, including in-house and online training, technical deep dives and development pathways shaped around your interests and the needs of the organisation. This includes support to strengthen your capability across modern AI techniques, Cloud technologies and wider analytical or engineering practices.

We use the Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework (formerly known as DDaT) as a compass to provide guidance and tools to support you. You can find out more about the framework here: Government Digital and Data Profession Capability Framework. You’ll also have opportunities to work with external professional bodies and training providers who offer routes to specialist accreditation, advanced AI training or broader professional recognition. Whether you choose to deepen your expertise in a specific technical area or broaden your capability across new domains, you’ll have the guidance and support you need to progress.

Alongside formal training, you’ll benefit from mentoring, peer support and a collaborative community that shares knowledge openly. You’ll have opportunities to rotate across different teams, explore emerging technologies and contribute to shaping how MI6 evolves its AI and data science capability. As you develop, you’ll have the space to experiment, expand your expertise and play an active role in strengthening our AI practice across the organisation.

Rewards and benefits
You’ll receive a starting salary of £63,823 plus other benefits including:

• 25 days of annual leave automatically rising to 30 days after 5 years' service, and an additional 10.5 days of public and privilege holidays
• opportunities to be recognised through our employee performance scheme
• an interest-free season ticket loan
• an excellent pension scheme
• a cycle to work scheme
• facilities such as a gym, restaurant and on-site coffee bars (at some locations)
• paid parental and adoption leave.

Equal opportunities
At MI6 diversity and inclusion are critical to our mission. To protect the UK, we need a truly diverse workforce that reflects the society we serve. This includes diversity in every sense of the word: those with different backgrounds, ages, ethnicities, gender identities, sexual orientations, ways of thinking and those with disabilities or neurodivergent conditions. We therefore welcome and encourage applications from everyone, including those from groups that are under-represented in our workforce such as women, those from an ethnic minority background, people with disabilities and those from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Find out more about our culture, working environment and diversity on our website.

Offer Of Interview
We are committed to providing equitable opportunities throughout the recruitment process to support candidates with disabilities. As part of this, we aim to ensure that a fair and proportionate number of disabled applicants who best meet the essential minimum criteria for this position, will be offered an interview, if it is practical for us to do so. (This is known as the Offer of an Interview.) To secure an interview for this role, the minimum criteria (in order of application process) are:

• You will be required to reach the minimum pass mark for the Situational Judgement Test which looks at your ability to problem solve. If you meet this criterion, you will be directed to complete an application form
• You have experience of creating and rigorously evaluating systems that utilise Machine Learning, operating under experienced supervision – to be assessed at application sift
• Demonstrate the ability to use modern software engineering processes and an understanding of MLOps – to be assessed at application sift.
• You have started to work independently under supervision, and can demonstrate an ability to turn high-level technical objectives into packages of work to undertake yourself – to be assessed at application sift

There is a wide range of extra support available throughout the recruitment process to enable you to do your best, see our website for information on reasonable adjustments we can offer.

What to expect
Our recruitment process is fair, transparent, and based on merit. Here is a brief overview of each stage, in order:

1. An initial online application form including pre-screening questions to ensure you meet our eligibility criteria
2. Online Situational Judgement Test (SJT) rating the appropriateness of your responses to a series of short scenarios. The SJT tests criteria important for all roles in our organisation
3. Application sift looking at your skills and motivation for the role and organisation
4. An online HR interview focusing on motivation and competencies important to the role.
5. If successful at the HR interview, you will be invited to a face to face technical assessment. (Please note the role maps to “Data Scientist” on the a forementioned GDDPC framework. We will assess you against this framework by asking questions about your previous projects and experiences.)
6. If successful, you’ll receive a conditional offer of employment

Please note, you must successfully pass each stage of the process to progress to the next. Your application may take around 6 - 9 months to process including vetting, so we advise you continue any current employment until you have received your final job offer.

Before you apply
To work at MI6, you need to be a British citizen or hold dual British nationality. Read about our eligibility criteria.

This role requires the highest security clearance, known as Developed Vetting (DV). It’s something everyone in the UK Intelligence Community undertakes. Find out more about the vetting process.

Please note we have a strict drugs policy, so once you start your application, you can’t take any recreational drugs and you’ll need to declare your previous drug usage at the relevant stage.

Before you apply, we advise you to consider setting up a separate email address for your contact with us, to ensure your personal and application correspondence remain separate. Try to avoid having identifying features in your email address, such as your first and/or surname and date of birth. This is good practice and will help you to manage your application with us more securely.

The role is based in Central London, so you’ll need to live within a commutable distance. Please consider any financial implications and practicalities before submitting an application. An interest-free loan is available to assist with relocating into privately rented accommodation to take up the offer of employment.

We offer reasonable reimbursement of travel costs for candidates attending in-person appointments during the recruitment and vetting process. Full details will be provided with your interview or assessment invitation.

Reimbursement is discretionary and will only be made in line with the Candidate Expenses Policy, as amended from time to time. Candidates must book their own travel, using the most economical option, and provide original hardcopy receipts for reimbursement.

Please note, you should only launch your application from within the UK. If you are based overseas, you should wait until you visit the UK to launch an application. Applying from outside the UK will impact on our ability to progress your application. You should not discuss your application, other than with your partner or a close family member.

Right to withdraw statement:
Please be aware that we reserve the right to bring forward the closing date for this role from the original closing date once a certain number of applications have been received. Please be mindful of this and submit your application at your earliest convenience to avoid disappointment.