Research Engineer (Smart Junctions)

We’re looking for a passionate innovator to join our smart junctions research team. You’ll have a big impact on social, environmental and safety issues whilst shaping the team and product as we scale. Salary: £60,000-£80,000. Based in Old Street, London with WFH and flexible hours.
About the role We recently started using AI algorithms to control traffic lights; leveraging real time data from our sensors to provably reduce congestion at junctions. You will drive our research and development of the next phase of algorithms, with a focus on new optimisation regimes, city-wide scaleup and multi-agent systems, tackling large-scale, multi-junction problems. You will directly help us to improve transport and save lives by improving air quality, and reducing emissions of road transport by promoting sustainable modes.
Your job will be to develop the software and algorithms within this optimisation engine to deliver successful outcomes in live production systems (and in simulation). You will work hand in hand with production engineering teams and your research peers to produce a product which is performant, reliable and resilient.
This is a perfect opportunity for someone with hands-on experience at building innovative software products and a passion for solving urban societal problems in the real world. Prior experience with machine learning or deep learning techniques, or working on similar problems, would help you to have an impact in this role. Prior experience with control systems would also be a bonus.
You will report to the Smart Junctions Research Team Lead, within a team of 4 people. Your time will mostly be spent hands-on writing code and directly pushing the product forward, with about 10% of your time spent coordinating with your team and stakeholders, and another 10% reserved for you to explore ‘off-sprint’ ideas and relevant pet-projects.

Example research topics you’ll be tackling:

• How to make journeys safer and smoother for vulnerable road users, without exacerbating congestion.
• How to make the system scalable across whole cities.
• How to maintain system performance in a chaotic environment with many unplanned events, like emergency road closures.
• How to make the actions of a complex control system explainable and intuitive.
• How to ensure the system is robust and reliable in a noisy and imperfect world.
• How to empower customers to keep the behaviour of the system aligned with changing policy objectives.

What you will be doing:

• Writing code for both research and production systems towards complex traffic signal optimisation at city scale
• This includes Python and Golang components, with various other languages for configuring or querying parts of the system, which you can learn on the job
• Helping to steer the development path of algorithms through whiteboarding and collaborative problem solving
• Communicating with product and other teams to ensure your team’s outputs have impact for customers

What we need from you:

• MSc in computer science, engineering or similar discipline. Any equivalent experience through a different career path is very welcome.
• Experience with tackling both complex and open-ended problems, including real world application.
• Comfortable taking responsibility of driving algorithms from ideation to detail-oriented debugging
• Strong professional experience with either Python or Golang, and keen to learn new technologies
• Collaborative problem solver: you find solutions and get buy-in from stakeholders
• Excellent communicator: you enjoy sharing your thinking and progress with the team

What would be a bonus:

• Experience with Machine Learning running in the real world, especially Deep Reinforcement Learning
• Experience with similar problems such as control systems or urban traffic management
• Excited to apply AI and innovative technologies to improve the sustainability and safety of our cities

What we Offer:

• 25 days of holiday
• Flexible working hours and work from home
• Up to 30 days per year work from abroad
• Up to 3 flexible bank holiday days
• 3% employer pension contribution
• £200 total working from home budget
• £850 per year learning and development budget
• Enhanced parental leave
• Up to 3 ‘childcare’ or ‘dependant’ days per year
• Mental health support through Spill
• Discounted gym memberships through GymFlex
• £50 per person per quarter team social budget
• Additional entertainment budget and company parties
• Office food and drinks
• Optional Bupa healthcare and dental care through salary deduction
• Eye care vouchers
• Seasonal Flu jabs
• Cycle to work scheme
• Payroll giving through salary sacrifice

Hiring Process:

• 30 minute first round interview with either the hiring manager or head of research
• 1 hour pair-programming task with a member of the research team
• 2.5 hour final interview: panel interviews on soft and hard skills, and a meeting with our CTO

You don't need to have done all of these things before, but to excel in this role you will need to be keen to learn and comfortable working in a dynamic, fast paced environment. If you're close to what we're looking for, please consider applying. Experience comes in many forms, skills are transferable and passion goes a long way.
We offer flexible working policies and a benefits package that includes a personal development budget, cycle to work scheme, and regular, varied events. This is an exciting opportunity to help create the future of an energetic company dedicated to revolutionising the way our cities work.