Job Description

Job Title:

AI Research Engineer / Senior AI Research Engineer

Posting Start Date:

22/09/2025

Job Id:

1615

School/Department:

Computer Science

Work Arrangement:

Full Time (Hybrid)

Contract Type:

Fixed-term

Salary per annum ():

32,080 (AI Research Engineer); 38,784 (Senior AI Research Engineer)

Closing Date:

12/10/2025
The University of Sheffield is a remarkable place to work. Our people are at the heart of everything we do. Their diverse backgrounds, abilities and beliefs make Sheffield a world-class university.



We offer a fantastic range of benefits including a highly competitive annual leave entitlement (with the ability to purchase more), a generous pensions scheme, flexible working opportunities, a commitment to your development and wellbeing, a wide range of retail discounts, and much more.

Overview

You will join the AI Research Engineering team within the University of Sheffield's Centre for Machine Intelligence, supporting the UKRI-EPSRC funded UK Open Multimodal AI Network's flagship Open Multimodal AI Benchmark (OMAIB) initiative. OMAIB develops open, community-driven datasets, evaluation protocols, baseline models, and deployment-centric tasks to accelerate multimodal AI solutions for Tomorrow's Engineering Research Challenges.



As an AI Research Engineer, you will work on cross-cutting technologies that support a portfolio of short, high-impact projects funded through OMAIB calls. These span domains such as healthcare, materials discovery, and transportation systems. You will collaborate with Principal Investigators, industry partners, and end-user stakeholders to provide the research and software engineering expertise needed to deliver robust, reproducible, and openly accessible outputs.



Your role will include working with other teams to implement multimodal AI solutions using best-practice software engineering and open science principles, maintaining OMAIB infrastructure such as repositories, documentation, and leaderboards on GitHub, developing models in PyTorch or related frameworks, and supporting project teams to prepare datasets, code, and evaluation protocols.



The role offers variety and opportunities to shape national-scale open research infrastructure. You will be part of a collaborative team of AI Research Engineers enabling interdisciplinary research and engaging widely with researchers, industry, and policymakers.



A CV and cover letter are required with your application. In your cover letter, please include: 1) a link to a representative piece of your writing; 2) a link to a code sample (eg GitHub or a downloadable zip), and 3) a short description of a collaboration experience.

Main duties and responsibilities

Develop findable, accessible, interoperable, and reusable (FAIR) AI / machine learning software, tools, and workflows to support multiple exploratory, high-impact OMAIB-funded projects across diverse domains. Build, deploy, and maintain multimodal AI prototypes and models using frameworks such as PyTorch, ensuring reproducibility and robustness. Build, maintain and enhance central OMAIB technical infrastructure, including open-source repositories, documentation platforms, and benchmarking leaderboards on GitHub. Work closely with project teams to advise on AI / machine learning approaches, data integration, and evaluation protocols, ensuring alignment with OMAIB's open research principles and deployment-centric focus. Contribute to the creation, curation, and release of open datasets, baseline models, and evaluation protocols for OMAIB benchmarks. Collaborate with Principal Investigators, industry partners, and end-user stakeholders to gather requirements, address technical challenges, and ensure practical, real-world relevance of outputs. Disseminate research outcomes through multiple channels, including software packaging and release, technical documentation, and contributions to academic papers, conference presentations, tutorials, and hackathons. As a member of staff, make ethical decisions in your role, embedding the University's sustainability strategy into your working activities wherever possible. Carry out other duties, commensurate with the grade and remit of the post.

Person Specification

Our diverse community of staff and students recognises the unique abilities, backgrounds, and beliefs of all. We foster a culture where everyone feels they belong and is respected. Even if your past experience doesn't match perfectly with this role's criteria, your contribution is valuable, and we encourage you to apply. Please ensure that you reference the application criteria in the application statement when you apply.

Criteria

Essential or desirable

Stage(s) assessed at

Bachelor's or master's degree in Computer Science, Engineering, Applied Mathematics, Data Science, or a related area (or equivalent experience).


Essential


Application


Ability to work effectively as part of a team, with good time and project management skills.


Essential


Application/interview


In-depth knowledge and solid practical skills in AI, machine learning, and data analysis.

Essential


Application/interview


Ability to carry out evidence-based assessment and decision making, and to develop end-user-targeted software and disseminate research outcomes.

Essential


Application/interview


Effective communication skills, both written and verbal, including report and paper writing.


Essential


Application/interview


Ability to work in an interdisciplinary environment and collaborate with researchers from subject areas other than your own to specify, develop, improve, and deliver research software.


Essential


Application/interview


Familiarity with reproducible software development using best software engineering practices, including testing, documentation, and version control.


Essential


Application/interview


Experience with PyTorch and related machine learning frameworks.


Desirable


Application/interview


Experience with collaborative software development on GitHub or equivalent platforms.


Desirable


Application/interview

Further Information

Grade

Grade 6 (AI Research Engineer) / Grade 7 (Senior AI Research Engineer)

Salary

AI Research Engineer: 32,080 per annum

Senior AI Research Engineer: 38,784 per annum

Work arrangement

Full-time

Duration

Until 31st December 2027

Line manager

Head of AI Research Engineering

Direct reports

N/A

Our website

sheffield.ac.uk/cs


For informal enquiries about this job contact Prof Haiping Lu, Head of AI Research Engineering, at H.Lu@sheffield.ac.uk

Next steps in the recruitment process

It is anticipated that the selection process will take place in the week commencing 27th October 2025. This will consist of a short presentation and an interview. We plan to let candidates know if they have progressed to the selection stage on the week commencing 20th October 2025. If you need any support, equipment or adjustments to enable you to participate in any element of the recruitment process you can contact COM-ResearchRecruitment@sheffield.ac.uk

Our vision and strategic plan

We are the University of Sheffield. This is our vision: sheffield.ac.uk/vision ().

What we offer

A minimum of 38days annual leave (41 for Senior AI Research Engineer) including bank holiday and closure days (pro rata) with the ability to purchase more. Flexible working opportunities, including hybrid working for some roles. Generous pension scheme. A wide range of discounts and rewards on shopping, eating out and travel. A variety of staff networks, providing opportunities for social interaction, peer support and personal development (for example, Race Equality, LGBT+, Women's and Parent's networks). Recognition Awards to reward staff who go above and beyond in their role. A commitment to your development access to learning and mentoring schemes; integrated with our Academic Career Pathways. A range of generous family-friendly policies + paid time off for parenting and caring emergencies
+ support for those going through the menopause
+ paid time off and support for fertility treatment
+ and more





We are a Disability Confident Employer. If you have a disability and meet the essential criteria for this job you will be invited to take part in the next stage of the selection process.

We are a research university with a global reputation for excellence. Our ideas and expertise change the world for the better, making a real difference to society. We know that when people come together with different views, approaches and insights it can lead to richer, more creative and innovative teaching and research and the highest levels of student experience. Our University Vision (www.sheffield.ac.uk/vision) outlines our commitment to building a diverse community of staff and students that recognises and values the abilities, backgrounds, beliefs and ways of living for everyone.