Senior Machine Learning Engineer
The Team
At Deliveroo we have a world-class data science organisation, with a mission to enable the highest quality human and machine decision-making. We work throughout the company - in product, business and platform teams to answer some of the most interesting questions out there. For example, how do data and technology help restaurants to grow as consumer habits change? How can we predict what someone wants to order for dinner long before the idea has even crossed their mind? At Deliveroo these are just some of the tough problems we are solving - and there is no challenge that cannot be yours. No solution is owned by a particular team, which means the scope for growth and personal impact is enormous.
Data Scientists and ML Engineers at Deliveroo report into our data science management team, and we have a strong, active data science community, with guest lecturers; a robust technical review process; a career progression framework; and plenty of opportunities to learn new things.
This is a hybrid role based in London with expectations to come into the office three times a week.
The Role
We are looking for an experienced LLM Engineer to join our Catalogue Gen AI team at Deliveroo. Our team is responsible for generating high-quality metadata for millions of items and thousands of partners on our platform. This metadata powers a wide range of systems, including recommendation engines, dispatching algorithms, safety checks, and other critical decision-making processes across Deliveroo.
You will play a key role in developing in-house language and vision-language models using techniques such as fine-tuning and distillation. In addition to advanced prompt engineering, you will help us experiment with and evaluate various model architectures—including both open-source and commercial offerings—to identify the best solutions for our use cases.
The work you do will directly impact customer experience at scale. You’ll collaborate closely with a cross-functional team of ML engineers, data scientists, and product managers to build robust and scalable ML systems. Our team relies on tools like PyTorch, Hugging Face, and internal infrastructure for model training, deployment, and experimentation.
Requirements
Strong understanding of machine learning fundamentals and the practical trade-offs involved in applying them
3-5+ years' experience with deep learning and NLP
Experience with Pytorch or other deep learning frameworks
Hands-on experience fine-tuning LLMs or working with frameworks such as Hugging Face Transformers
Proven experience deploying ML models to production and maintaining end-to-end ML pipelines
Solid communication skills - in person, in writing, in code, and code-review; to technical and non-technical audiences
Pragmatic mindset with a focus on simplicity, scalability, and business impact
Why Deliveroo
Our mission is to be the definitive food company. We are transforming the way the world eats by making food more convenient and accessible. We give people the opportunity to eat what they want, as they want it, when and where they want it.
We are a technology-driven company at the forefront of the most rapidly expanding industry in the world. We are still a small team, making a very large impact, looking to answer some of the most interesting questions out there. We move fast, value autonomy and ownership, and we are always looking for new ideas.
Workplace & Benefits
At Deliveroo we know that people are the heart of the business and we prioritise their welfare. Benefits differ by country, but we offer many benefits in areas including healthcare, well-being, parental leave, pensions, and generous annual leave allowances, including time off to support a charitable cause of your choice. Benefits are country-specific, please ask your recruiter for more information.
Diversity
At Deliveroo, we believe a great workplace is one that represents the world we live in and how beautifully diverse it can be. That means we have no judgement when it comes to any one of the things that make you who you are - your gender, race, sexuality, religion or a secret aversion to coriander. All you need is a passion for (most) food and a desire to be part of one of the fastest-growing businesses in a rapidly growing industry.
We are committed to diversity, equity and inclusion in all aspects of our hiring process. We recognise that some candidates may require adjustments to apply for a position or fairly participate in the interview process. If you require any adjustments, please don't hesitate to let us know. We will make every effort to provide the necessary adjustments to ensure you have an equitable opportunity to succeed.