Job Details
Salary: Competitive Plus Benefits
Location: London Store Support Centre, London, EC1M 6HA
Contract type: Permanent
Business area: Sainsbury's Tech
Closing date: 29 July 2026
Requisition ID:
Job Title
Senior Machine Learning Engineer
Job Overview
As a Senior Machine Learning Engineer, you will play a pivotal role in designing, building, and optimising a Machine Learning system for Advert Classification. We are looking for a leader competent across modern ML tooling, methodologies, and design practices, while also able to design hybrid systems that integrate LLMs.
The lead is expected to drive the ML design and build lifecycle, arriving at a reliable and performant system, supporting a team of Data Scientists in delivery. Systematic evaluation of performance with data is a critical part of our ML initiatives; the lead will drive strategy and operationalise automatic machine evaluation with metrics and best practice MLOps.
You will partner with Data Scientists and Software Engineers to ensure the system is reliable, performant, and production ready. You will also contribute to engineering excellence across Machine Learning and MLOps by driving best practices, mentoring other engineers, and shaping the technical direction of data and ML workflows across our domain.
Key Responsibilities
- Lead the design and build of high quality, scalable, and reusable Machine Learning systems using Sainsbury's engineering standards and best practices.
- Design and optimise Machine Learning modules for Advert classification, applying the ML Lifecycle and best practice in model selection and development.
- Lead the design and implementation of supporting Machine Learning Operations, applying best in class approaches to data versioning, model re training, and data observability.
- Implement automation tools and frameworks for experiment tracking, data and model observability to streamline deployment and monitoring of machine learning models in production.
- Lead the system evaluation methodology, including evaluation strategy, data generation, and evaluation metrics.
- Provide guidance to mid level Data Scientists on best practice and methodological choices when optimising machine learning modules and the system overall; offer technical guidance on emerging technologies in data engineering and machine learning to enhance their skills and career growth.
- Collaborate and support with data scientists across the lifecycle, including EDA, data transformation, model selection, feature engineering, and model selection.
- Optimise data processing workflows and storage solutions to improve performance and reduce costs.
- Work closely with cross functional teams, including software engineering and product management, to deliver data solutions that meet business needs.
- Promote a culture of knowledge sharing within the engineering teams by organising regular technical workshops, brown bag sessions, and code reviews.
- Encourage continuous learning and improvement, fostering a collaborative and inclusive team environment.
- Have 6-10 years of experience designing and building Machine Learning systems end to end, including strong experience implementing MLOps.
Qualifications
- Strong understanding of modern Machine Learning methodologies, Data Science, and accompanying algorithms.
- Good experience integrating LLMs as hybrid AI ML systems.
- Academic background with at least a BSc in Computer Science.
- Experience in modern Computer Vision, having built image detection systems end to end.
- Strong understanding of ML deployment and management on modern Cloud platforms, specifically MS Azure and AWS.
- Strong analytical and problem solving skills.
- Excellent communication skills, able to explain complex concepts to non technical stakeholders.
- Ability to work independently as well as collaboratively within cross functional teams.
Leadership and Communication
- Provide technical direction, set standards, and lead by example in science and engineering excellence.
- Facilitate Scrum ceremonies when required (stand ups, planning, grooming).
- Communicate clearly and transparently, creating an inclusive environment where diverse opinions are encouraged.
- Strong team player with a collaborative approach to working with cross functional teams within the Media Agency.
- Open to feedback and willing to provide constructive criticism to others.
- Be available for the team, responding within a reasonable time frame, and if not possible, clearly signpost alternative contacts who can guide.
- Build a community across the Media Agency.
- Contribute to a positive and inclusive atmosphere within the team.
Knowledge Sharing and Empowerment
- Commitment to fostering a learning culture within the team and ensuring knowledge transfer across all levels.
- Support and mentor C3s and C4s engineers by providing them opportunities to lead initiatives and contribute to the technical roadmap.
Deliver Through Others
- Share domain expertise proactively and help establish the engineering direction for the team.
- Support spikes, POCs and early investigative work.
- Lead by example in communication, visibility, accountability and role modeling Sainsbury's values.
Benefits
Starting off with colleague discount, you will be able to get 10% off at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat after 4 weeks. This increases to 15% off at Sainsbury's every Friday and Saturday and 15% off at Argos every pay day. We also have pensions scheme and life cover, and you may be eligible for a performance related bonus of up to 20% of salary, depending on how we perform.
Your wellbeing is important to us too. You will receive an annual holiday allowance, and you can buy additional holiday. We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, interest free car loan of up to £10k, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, pay advance, and access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers. There is also an Employee Assistance Programme, and you will be eligible for private healthcare. We provide up to 26 weeks' pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks' pay for paternity leave.