AI / ML Engineer

AI / ML Engineer

Fixed Term, 12 months

Full Time, 37 hours per week

£47,615 to £56,017 per annum

Location: Chelmsford

Working Style: Anywhere worker

Closing Date: 7th June 2026

Interviews: expected to be held w/c 22 June 2026

Essex County Council’s Data, Analytics and Performance function provides high quality data, analytics, and AI-driven insight to support evidence based decision making and improve outcomes for residents. Within this environment, the AI/ML Engineer plays a pivotal role in delivering responsible, secure, and sustainable AI and machine learning solutions.

The Opportunity

As an AI/ML Engineer you will lead the end to end MLOps lifecycle—enabling the organisation to harness data and AI safely, ethically, and at scale. Working closely with Data Scientists, Data Engineers, Information Governance, and service teams, you will deploy, monitor, and maintain robust machine learning systems aligned to public sector governance, responsible AI principles, and UK Local Government standards.

With experience in Microsoft Azure, you will embed Azure native tooling and best practice by default, building repeatable, well governed ML pipelines that support both operational and strategic service needs. The role will also support the development of internal AI capability, coaching colleagues and contributing to the council’s growing approach to responsible and transparent AI adoption.

To read more about our business area, please visit Policy, Economy, Investment and Property

Accountabilities

• Deliver end to end MLOps pipelines using Azure Machine Learning, including training, validation, testing, and deployment workflows, to ensure machine learning solutions are delivered consistently, safely, and at scale, reducing reliance on ad hoc development, improving reproducibility, and enabling ECC to move AI solutions from experimentation into reliable operational use that supports front line services and strategic priorities.
• Deploy and manage machine learning models using Azure ML managed online endpoints, batch endpoints, and (where appropriate) Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS), to enable resilient, secure, and scalable model hosting, reducing operational risk, accelerating deployment cycles, and ensuring models remain performant, monitored, and supportable throughout their lifecycle.
• Ensure all machine learning systems are robust, transparent, explainable, and auditable, aligned with Responsible AI principles and UK GDPR, to maintain public trust, support regulatory compliance, and ensure activity supported by AI is fair, lawful, and defensible, enabling ECC to deploy responsible AI with confidence.
• Implement monitoring and alerting for model performance, data drift, bias, fairness, explainability, and operational health, to detect degradation early, maintain service quality, and reduce the risk of incorrect or biased outputs, ensuring AI solutions continue to deliver reliable insights and outcomes as data and service conditions change.
• Design, build, and maintain production grade data pipelines that support model training, inference, and retraining, to ensure data used by ML systems is timely, accurate, secure, and fit for purpose, enabling dependable AI outputs and reducing downstream operational and reputational risk arising from poor data quality.
• Ensure responsible, ethical, and legally compliant use of data across AI solutions, working in line with Information Governance policies, Local Government Cyber Standards, DPIA, and Responsible AI assessments, to safeguard data, uphold statutory obligations, and embed governance by design into AI delivery, enabling compliant innovation across ECC services.
• Coach and support Data Scientists, Analysts, and other colleagues in Azure Machine Learning and MLOps best practice, to raise organisational capability, reduce delivery bottlenecks, and promote consistent, well governed approaches to AI development, supporting sustainable scaling of AI across the council.
• Contribute to organisation wide AI capability building and adoption, sharing best practice, advising on technical feasibility, and shaping standards, to enable ECC to make informed, strategic use of AI technologies, improving efficiency, service quality, and evidence based decision making across the organisation.
• Individual and team objectives will be defined annually within the performance management framework.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience

• Educated to degree level in a quantitative field (e.g. Data Science, Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, or Engineering) or equivalent by experience.
• Strong hands on experience deploying ML solutions in production using Azure Machine Learning.
• Expertise in Azure native MLOps, including model endpoints, pipelines, registries, environments, and compute management.
• Skilled in Python engineering for production ML workflows, including testing, packaging, and API frameworks (FastAPI/Flask).
• Familiarity with responsible AI principles, fairness, explainability, and UK GDPR compliance.
• Experience working in multidisciplinary teams and engaging with service stakeholders.
• Ability to distil complex technical concepts into actionable insights for non technical audiences.

Desirable

• Experience with Azure ML AutoML, Prompt Flow, Responsible AI dashboards, and advanced monitoring capabilities.
• Integration of ML operational metrics into Power BI.
• Relevant certifications (e.g., Azure AI Engineer Associate, Azure Data Scientist Associate, Azure Administrator/Architect).

Why Essex?

As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we’re committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost. Recognised in the top three of the latest IMPOWER index for productivity, we ensure everyone matters in Everyone's Essex. With flexible working options and a focus on innovation, whether you are looking to develop your career or contribute to the local community, Essex is the ideal place for you. 

In March 2026, the Government announced that councils in Greater Essex will be reorganised into five new unitary authorities from April 2028. In addition to this, Greater Essex has been accepted on to the devolution priority programme, where we will work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority. You can read more about these changes, and what this may mean for this role, on our careers site.

Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.

Once you’ve secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs.

At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles, including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.

As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service

Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.

If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community

If you have queries or require anything further, please email resourcing.team@essex.gov.uk

Follow us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Further details can be found on our careers page.

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