ML/AI Engineer

Job summary

Closing date: 31August 2026

Interview dates: (in person) 28 & 30 September 2026

About us

At The Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman, we make final decisions on complaints that have not been resolved by UK Government departments and the NHS in England. We work closely with people to understand where, how and why public services sometimes fall short and fail to put people first. We share findings from our casework to help Parliament scrutinise public service providers. We also share our findings more widely to help drive improvements in public services and complaint handling.

Our culture is open, friendly and supportive. We listen, we learn, and we treat everyone with dignity and respect. Inclusion and wellbeing are at the heart of how we work, and we strive to create a workplace where every colleague feels valued, supported and able to thrive.

We work in a modern, flexible way built on trust and autonomy. You will split your time between working from home and spending around 40% of your week in our Manchester office, where collaboration and connection with your team are an important part of how we work.

Job description

The role

As an ML/AI Engineer, you will design, build and operate secure, scalable and reliable AI-enabled systems that support the delivery of live digital services. Working across the full machine learning lifecycle, you will develop, test, deploy and continuously improve ML and AI models, ensuring they perform effectively in production environments.

You will be responsible for ensuring AI solutions are technically robust, observable, explainable and maintainable, with appropriate controls in place to manage model, service and data risks. Working closely with multidisciplinary teams, you will help embed AI capabilities into services while ensuring compliance with governance, assurance and security requirements.

This role is ideal for someone passionate about delivering innovative AI solutions responsibly, balancing technical excellence with a strong focus on user impact, safety and trust.

Person specification

What we are looking for

• experience with cloud‑based ML platforms and pipelines

• strong software engineering skills applied to ML and AI systems

• deep practical knowledge of production MLOps/LLMOps concepts including monitoring and versioning

• experience working with the Microsoft data and ML stack including Azure SQL, Cosmos DB, Model foundry, and Azure Databricks

We recognise the value of lived experience. If you have experience of complaining about any public body, we strongly encourage you to apply.

Benefits

Our benefits:

• Civil Service Pension scheme

• 32.5 days annual leave (plus bank holidays on top)

• hybrid working, 40% office based

• flexible working

• access to a free, confidential Employee Assistance Programme offering 24/7 advice and support from professionals and counsellors

• comprehensive learning and development programme

• employee discount scheme across hundreds of retailers

• bicycle loan scheme

• season ticket loan

• gym membership subsidy

• paid for professional memberships

• eye test reimbursement.

Things you need to know

Artificial intelligence

Artificial intelligence can be a useful tool to support your application, however, all examples and statements provided must be truthful, factually accurate and taken directly from your own experience. Where plagiarism has been identified (presenting the ideas and experiences of others, or generated by artificial intelligence, as your own) applications may be withdrawn and internal candidates may be subject to disciplinary action. Please see our candidate guidance (opens in a new window) for more information on appropriate and inappropriate use.

Selection process details

How to apply (and how to do well)

You will answer four scored questions at application stage. We use these to shortlist and longlist, so your answers matter.

• choose real examples (from professional settings)

• focus on what you did, not what “we” did as a group

• explain your thinking: what you looked at, what you decided, and why

• keep it clear and specific, avoid generic statements

Please do not use AI to write your answers. We need to assess your skills, and applications may be rejected if answers appear AI-generated.

If your examples are very short, mostly opinion-based, or don’t describe a specific situation and outcome, you are unlikely to score well.

Inclusion & Wellbeing

Equality, diversity, inclusion, and wellbeing are vital to the way we work and our culture. We want our colleagues feel included, valued, and supported at work. It is essential that we are representative and accessible for the people who work here and those who use our service.

Actions we take to embed this include:

• an anonymised shortlisting process to make sure it is fair and unbiased

• monitoring the demographic trends in our workforce and making measured, sustained efforts to improve our diversity at all levels

• providing wellbeing support and opportunities for personal and professional development for all colleagues

• creating spaces for connection and engagement through our employee network groups and social clubs

• part of the disability confident scheme

• providing reasonable adjustments

• engaging in regular inclusion learning to enhance the cultural competency of our organisation.

We know the value of having diverse, representative teams across our organisation. Which is why we particularly encourage applications from candidates who are likely to be underrepresented within the team. These include people who are:

• Asian, Black, Mixed Ethnicity or another ethnic background

• disabled

• LGBTQ.

Contact and important information

If you would like to learn more about the role, please contact Kevin Clarke, Principal Data Engineer, [email removed]

• Interviews: held onsite

• Feedback: we do not offer feedback at application stage

• Right to work: we can only consider candidates with the right to work in the UK.

• Sponsorship: we are unable to offer sponsorship (we do not have a licence).

• Applications: we do not accept CVs—please apply via the application form (‘apply now’).

• Agencies: no agencies; applications from individuals only.

• Early closure: we may close the advert early if we receive a high volume of applications.

• Salary: non negotiable

Important notice: fraudulent job postings

We have been made aware that some websites are falsely advertising job vacancies for the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman (PHSO). We only advertise job vacancies through these official channels:

- our website

- LinkedIn

- Civil Service Jobs

- GOV.uk

- Indeed