Software Engineer

at  Oxford Economics

London
We are seeking a skilled Software Engineer with expertise in Generative AI and Large Language Models (LLMs) to help grow adoption across our organisation. As part of our AI Platform team, you will play a pivotal role in developing and deploying systems that leverage the power of LLMs and generative AI. Your responsibilities will include interpreting AI use cases, building and integrating solutions, optimising performance, and ensuring seamless deployment. If you are passionate about AI, thrive in an agile environment, and have a knack for effective communication and stakeholder management, we’d love to hear from you!
As our lead AI Engineer, you will work with the in-house team behind our first wave of AI Assistants and Tools in use across Oxford Economics. Your team will be part of an established team of customer-focused individuals who are passionate about solving complex problems at scale. Our databanks and modelling software provide clients across the world with advanced economic forecasting technology covering a range of industrial and commercial scenarios. Your team will own and maintain its own software and be responsible for ensuring the quality and information security of your deliverables.

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE: REQUIRED

• At least 4 years of software development experience across the product lifecycle in a modern engineering environment (APIs, CI/CD, Cloud infrastructure, Git, Agile, Scrum)
• Proficiency in programming languages: Python, Typescript and C#.

Commercial experience in the following:

• Writing production features leveraging LLMs and generative AI
• Adding vector search to production applications using vector databases
• Interacting with relational datasets with dynamic SQL
• Cloud computing platforms – Azure, AWS, or GCP
• Serverless architecture, azure function apps or similar (such as AWS lambda).

Solid understanding of the following concepts:

• How embedding models work and how they are used for semantic search.
• Information retrieval systems in general and how to use traditional IR tools and systems to monitor, measure, and optimize the results of our retrieval systems.
• Prompt engineering in the context of production applications, knowing the capabilities and limitations of LLMs, and having a good intuition of where and when we should delegate functionality to them.
• Strong Problem-Solving Skills and ability to identify critical issues and propose effective solutions.
• Ability and collaborate effectively with cross-functional teams.
• Understanding of microservices architectures and distributed systems
• Understanding of data structures, algorithms, and software design principles
• Experience building and maintaining large-scale software systems
• Knowledge of modern software engineering practices (CI/CD, containerization)
• Comfortable working independently and handling ambiguity

SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE: DESIRED

• University honours degree qualification preferably in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, or other quantitative fields, or related work experience
• Domain experience / demonstrable interest in economics-related fields
• Experience or familiarity with AI model evaluation techniques
• Understanding of the state of the art in generative AI, including RAG, LoRA, RLHF and others
• UI/UX: Ability to create intuitive user interfaces.
• Working understanding of Dev Ops, CI/CD and integrating systems into a deployment pipeline including cloud development (Azure preferred)
• An understanding of object-orientation, idiomatic and pattern-oriented, modern software design, programming principles and development best practices
  Oxford Economics is an equal opportunity employer that is committed to diversity and inclusion in the workplace. We prohibit discrimination and harassment of any kind based on race, color, sex, religion, sexual orientation, national origin, disability, genetic information, pregnancy, or any other protected characteristic as outlined by governmental or local laws.

• AI Integration: Collaborate with the product team to integrate AI features into our platform such as NLP, chatbot frameworks, and AI model APIs that enhance product value.
• Software System Development and Maintenance: Design, develop, and maintain software systems integral to LLMs and Generative AI. These systems form the backbone of your platform, directly contributing to its core functionality.
• Optimization and Efficiency: Optimize existing software for performance, scalability, and reliability. Improving current systems ensures efficiency, scalability, and user satisfaction.
• Security and Vulnerability Prevention: Implement robust security measures, including following our SDLC, conforming to ISO27001 and protecting against SQL injection attacks. Security is paramount to safeguard user data and prevent vulnerabilities.
• Communication: Implement APIs for seamless communication between our platform and key external services e.g. OpenAI.
• Data Privacy and Compliance: Work with our Head of Information Security to ensure data privacy and compliance with relevant regulations and that relevant legal and ethical considerations are incorporated to build trust.
• User Authentication and Access Control: Implement secure authentication mechanisms for user access. Define access controls and permissions for different user roles to ensure proper data handling and user management.
• User Insights and Experience: Ensure correct instrumentation and management of performance and usage data to allow integration of valuable usage data to help drive business strategy.
• System Stability and Performance: Conduct load testing to optimize performance. Monitor system performance proactively and address bottlenecks to maintain system health.
• Pricing Strategy and Collaboration: Work with senior business stakeholders and product owners to implement pricing models tied to usage that can drive adoption and successful product monetization.