AI Engineer - Contract

About Oxford Dynamics

Oxford Dynamics, founded in 2019, is a rapidly expanding UK-based frontier technology company specializing in AI and robotics. Their core product, AVIS™ (A Very Intelligent System), integrates diverse data sources to enable rapid and informed decision-making for mission-critical environments. AVIS™ supports both digital decision-making tools and physical robotics platforms used in high-risk operations such as CBRN and explosive ordnance disposal. The company collaborates internationally with defense and security sectors to safeguard nations, infrastructure, and lives.

Role Overview

This contract position offers up to 6 months tenure working on advanced agentic and generative AI systems. You will be responsible for the full lifecycle of AI features from design to deployment, often within secure or regulated environments. This role demands close collaboration with internal teams, customers, and product leads, emphasizing ownership, reliable delivery, and impactful outcomes.

Key Responsibilities

• Design, develop, and enhance multi-agent AI systems utilizing frameworks such as LangGraph, Haystack, or similar technologies.
• Incorporate large language models and vision-language models into workflows focused on reasoning, search, summarization, and executing tasks.
• Deploy AI solutions across cloud, on-premises, and air-gapped secure environments.
• Create production-ready data pipelines encompassing ingestion through inference processes.
• Implement and monitor observability tools to track agent behavior, model performance, and failure cases.
• Collaborate effectively with engineers, product managers, and customers to translate requirements into functioning systems.
• Participate in evaluation frameworks, systems integration, and ongoing performance tracking activities.
• Provide technical leadership and establish design best practices for agentic AI development, mentoring junior engineers.

Required Qualifications and Experience

• Proven commercial experience delivering multi-agent or agentic AI systems in production environments.
• Strong proficiency in Python programming and practical use of LLM frameworks such as LangGraph, LangChain, or Haystack.
• Hands-on experience deploying AI/ML systems within production contexts.
• Familiarity with containerization (Docker), version control (Git), and cloud platforms, preferably AWS.
• Understanding of secure deployment methodologies including air-gapped, on-premises, and sovereign cloud setups.

Preferred Skills and Background

• Experience with multimodal reasoning and edge/offline AI deployments.
• Knowledge of Kubernetes (EKS/OpenShift) for application monitoring and management.
• Expertise in MLOps practices encompassing model evaluation, reproducibility, and monitoring.
• Competence with observability tools for agentic systems, covering model drift and performance metrics.
• Familiarity with agent orchestration patterns and communication protocols like A2A.
• Understanding MCPs for tool and context integration within agentic AI systems.
• Adherence to secure-by-design development standards such as ISO 27001, NIST, and OWASP.
• Experience in regulated sectors such as pharmaceutical or biotech is advantageous.
• Contributions to open-source AI/ML communities demonstrate a proactive engagement with the field.

Soft Skills

• A strong focus on delivering working, production-ready systems rather than prototypes.
• Ability to operate across the full stack when required.
• Excellent communication skills to engage both technical and non-technical audiences, including customer relationship management.
• Thrives in small teams that require high levels of ownership and autonomy.

Benefits and Work Environment

• Flexible hybrid working schedule, blending remote and onsite engagements.
• Engagement in one of the UK’s most dynamic growth areas: AI and Robotics.
• Opportunity to make significant contributions and learn across multiple business areas in a fast-growing company.
• 29 days annual leave plus official public holidays.

Diversity and Inclusion

Oxford Dynamics is dedicated to fostering an inclusive workplace where all employees feel free to express their authentic selves regardless of race, gender, religion, sexual orientation, age, disability, or parental status. The company believes diverse perspectives enhance their work quality and innovation.