Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineer - KTP Associate (Fixed term 24 months)

Closing Date: 23.59 hours BST on Sunday 02 June 2024

Interview Date: See advert

JCR Group Limited T/A Bodyswaps and The College of Computing at Birmingham City University (BCU) are seeking to appoint an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineer Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Associate in the broad area of Generative AI and Large Language Models (KTP Associate).

The successful candidate will be employed by Birmingham City University and situated on-site at Bodyswaps (London). Bodyswaps is an award-winning VR platform that brings realistic simulations and AI-enabled feedback to soft skills training. Here, learners can practise and fail safely without repercussions, while building the communication, teamwork and leadership skills needed for successful careers. Since 2019, London-based Bodyswaps has helped a wide range of educational institutions and corporate clients to unlock human potential in the workplace. For more information, please go to: https://bodyswaps.co/

This KTP will be to help develop new cutting-edge communication skills training simulations - driven by AI and language models. This project will investigate Bodyswaps’ pedagogy and leverage advances in Generative AI and Large Language Models to enable trainees to practise conversations with lifelike AI avatars inside highly customisable scenarios. During training, the learner will receive highly personalised feedback in order to boost their performance.

This position forms part of the Knowledge Transfer programme (KTP), co-funded by grant from Innovate UK and Bodyswaps. It is essential you understand the fundamentals of how a KTP works between a business and the University and the vital role you will play if you successfully secure this position. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineer KTP Associate will have access to a wider range of benefits including a personal development budget of £4,000 to upskill during the project. For more information, please go to: http://bcuadvantage.co.uk/funding/knowledge-transfer-partnerships.

The successful candidate recruited for this position will be employed as an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineer (KTP Associate) and will work in collaboration with leading academics at Birmingham City University (BCU) to apply knowledge and technical innovation, delivered on site at the company. The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineer (KTP Associate) should have a minimum 2.1 University qualification and graduated within the last five years and hold at least an undergraduate degree in a relevant subject area.

Location and Reporting:

• The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineer (KTP Associate) will be based at the Bodyswap's site
• The successful candidate will have full access to Birmingham City University's resources such as offices, labs, and library to complete the KTP project (a workplan has already been written with KPIs and outcome deliverables)
• The Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineer (KTP Associate) will be supervised and mentored by both a lead academic and academic supervisor, academics from BCU's College of Computing, as well as a company supervisor located at Bodyswaps who's aim is to assist the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engineer (KTP Associate) to deliver the knowledge into Bodyswaps and successfully deliver the 24 month KTP project on behalf of Bodyswaps and Birmingham City University

 Main activities and responsibilities

• Establish the organisation's requirements and aligning these to the project goals
• Develop, finetune and integrate ML models (including GenAI + LLMs) that can be used in VR/AR environments
• Work with datasets to train and test machine learning models
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including designers, artists, and developers to build customisable training simulations
• Optimise LLMs for performance and accuracy either through RAG, constraints, or fine tuning
• Stay up to date with the latest developments in LLMs, Multimodality and VR/AR technologies
• Manage GenAIOps, LLMOps, DataOps, ModelOps, MLOps and RAGOps for the entire project lifecycle  
• Design and facilitate workshops to share and transfer knowledge

Skills and experience

Person Specification: 

You should have a good first degree and postgraduate degree in Computer Science or Data Science, or a related discipline, excellent programming skills, and great communication skills and experience of successfully working as part of a team. Relevant work experience in industry would be an advantage.

We expect the post holder to have the following technical knowledge and personal skills: 

 Essential 

• A master's degree or PhD (awarded, recently submitted, or near completion) in computing or a closely related discipline
• Proven work experience in designing, developing, and implementing GenAI and Large Language models into real-time systems
• Proven work experience with the development of ML models and frameworks (e.g., Scikit-Learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch)
• Experience in data pre-processing techniques, feature engineering, and model evaluation metrics
• Design, implementation and utilisation of network APIs
• Experience with version control tools (e.g. Git)
• Typescript, Node, front-end frameworks like React/Vue
• Demonstrable experience in Large Language Models (LLMs) is essential

Desirable

• C# Unity experience - character rigging/animation, shaders etc
• Experience with Vector Databases (e.g., Activeloop Deep Lake, Pinecone, Chroma)
• Proven work experience with cloud computing platforms (e.g., AWS, Azure, GCP) and their services
• Experience of projects with LLMs or GenAI (ideally with relevance to VR/AR)
• Experience in utilising Design Thinking and facilitating workshops

Personal Skills:

Essential:

• Strong communication skills, both written and verbal, with the ability to work with and convey technical concepts to academics and non-technical stakeholders
• Able to work effectively under pressure and meet targets and delivery outputs within time and budget
• Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment, as well as independently on projects
• Excellent problem-solving and critical-thinking abilities, with a keen eye for detail
• Able to undertake independent research and to communicate this research comprehensively and accurately through journal papers, conferences, workshops/seminars
• Enthusiastic, self-motivated and able to take a proactive role in delivering the proposal's work plan successfully
• Practical interpersonal skills to establish good working relationships with colleagues, stakeholders and industrial partners
• Excellent analytical, problem-solving, and computational skills, along with being Adept at applying knowledge to commercial projects, driving value, and making an impact where possible
• Ability to work collaboratively in a team environment, as well as independently on projects

Interviews to take place week commencing 17th June 2024

For more information please contact Iain Rice, iain.rice@bcu.ac.uk or Nouh Elmitwally, nouh.elmitwally@bcu.ac.uk

Further details:   

Job Description

The appointed candidate will normally be employed through our subsidiary company BCU Support Services Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Birmingham City University. Appointees with prior LGPS membership who wish to enter the LGPS scheme will be able to do so, and will be employed by Birmingham City University directly.