Head Of Machine Learning Engineering (AI)

TL;DR

Head of Machine Learning Engineering (AI): Defining and leading the ML strategy and delivery for core customer experience products with an accent on search, pricing, payments, and conversational interfaces. Focus on building and scaling high-performance ML and AI capabilities, managing multi-disciplinary teams, and ensuring operational excellence in production.

Location: Hybrid role based in London (requires minimum 60% office attendance)

Company

hirify.global is Europe's leading rail and coach travel app, committed to creating a greener, more sustainable future for travel across 40+ countries.

What you will do

• Define the vision, strategy, and roadmap for ML systems across the Core Experience domain.
• Lead and mentor multiple ML teams, including 2 managers and ~10 individual contributors.
• Own the pillar’s budget, including cloud infrastructure, vendor costs, and third-party tools.
• Drive delivery of ML systems spanning ranking, recommendations, forecasting, and agentic AI.
• Establish operational maturity via SLIs/SLOs, monitoring, and incident management practices.
• Collaborate with cross-functional leadership to advance AI governance, privacy, and security frameworks.

Requirements

• Proven experience leading production ML teams, specifically managing through team leads.
• Strong track record of delivering measurable business impact via ML systems like ranking, recommendations, or forecasting.
• Deep understanding of the full ML lifecycle, including MLOps tooling, production scalability, and reliability.
• Hands-on experience with budget management, infrastructure costs, and vendor oversight.
• Ability to operate effectively across strategic, technical, and organizational leadership levels.
• Excellent communication skills for cross-functional stakeholder management.

Nice to have

• Experience with AWS cloud infrastructure (EMR, ECS, Athena).
• Experience deploying conversational or agent-based systems in customer-facing products.
• Background in travel, transport, or complex digital marketplaces.
• Experience with cross-functional delivery in product-led organizations.

Culture & Benefits

• Private healthcare and dental insurance.
• Flexible 28-day Work from Abroad policy.
• Clear career progression with personal learning budgets and dedicated learning days.
• 2-for-1 share purchase plans and EV Scheme.
• Commitment to inclusive and diverse team culture.