AI & ML Engineering Specialist
Category: Data & AI
Location: London, United Kingdom

Do you want to build foundational ML models that can transform how medicines are discovered, moving from large-scale biological image/cell data towards virtual experiments? In this senior, hands-on engineering role, you will help take cutting-edge ML from experimentation to robust, production-ready systems used by scientific partners across early research at Novo Nordisk.

Your new role
As an AI & ML Engineering Specialist, you will be a senior, hands-on technical contributor who bridges between the technical and scientific elements. You are expected to confidently translate complex ML into clear, usable outcomes for scientific stakeholders.

Key responsibilities include:

• Act as a technical specialist in designing, developing, and operating end-to-end machine learning and AI systems for example supporting Biological Foundation Models (Bio AI).
• Work with researchers to train and optimise large scale ML models, pipelines, and agentic workflows under tight compute, latency, and robustness constraints, making deliberate trade offs aligned with scientific and organisational priorities.
• Ensure the full ML lifecycle, from exploratory prototyping and experimentation to production deployment, monitoring, and continuous optimisation is implemented.
• Design, building & optimising autonomous and agent based systems in a biological research context where appropriate.
• Work closely with stakeholders across biology, AI research, and adjacent areas, to clarify requirements and translate complex needs into scalable ML and agent enabled solutions.
• Ensure technical, regulatory, and ethical excellence in all ML and agentic systems, embedding data protection, model governance, and responsible AI principles by design.

Your new department
You will join Bio Data & AI Engineering within AI & Digital Innovation (ADI) in R&D at Novo Nordisk and work with talented and dedicated colleagues in both UK, DK and US. ADI’s core mission is to speed up development, improve precision, and strengthen R&D by embedding AI, data science, and data at the heart of drug discovery and development. This includes accelerating the pipeline through computational methods and digital innovation. By leveraging data and AI, we aim to quickly identify drug candidates, reduce development time and costs, and better serve patients in line with Novo Nordisk’s goals.

Your skills and qualifications
We are looking for a senior engineer who stays hands-on and can move confidently between deep technical delivery and stakeholder collaboration.

What you bring:

• Bachelor’s or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Bioinformatics, Data Science, or a related field.
• Significant hands‑on experience in AI or Machine Learning Engineering, delivering production‑grade ML solutions in complex environments.
• Strong proficiency in software engineering with Python and experience with high-performance computing and/or cloud platforms (AWS and/or Azure).
• Hands-on experience with modern ML frameworks, such as PyTorch, Hugging Face, and SciKit-Learn, for training, evaluating and deploying large scale models.
• Proven experience designing and operating end‑to‑end ML pipelines, including ingestion, training, evaluation, deployment, monitoring.
• Experience with ML workflow orchestration and productionisation, e.g. using Nextflow or comparable orchestration frameworks.
• Familiarity with foundation models and/or self-supervised learning in scientific or life science domains.
• Practical experience with MLOps and CI/CD practices, including model versioning, automated validation, and lifecycle management.
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate with cross‑functional stakeholders, translating complex technical work into practical outcomes.

Working at Novo Nordisk
Every day we seek the solutions that defeat serious chronic diseases. To do this, we approach our work with determination, constant curiosity and a commitment to finding better ways forward. For over 100 years, this dedication has driven us to build a company focused on lasting change for long-term health. One where diverse thinking, shared purpose and mutual respect come together to create extraordinary results.

What we offer
There is, of course, more on offer here than the uniqueness of our culture and the extraordinary results we produce. Being part of a global healthcare company means opportunities to learn and develop are all around us, while our benefits are designed with your career and life stage in mind.

We are an equal opportunities employer, and we commit to an inclusive recruitment process and equality of opportunity for all our job applicants. If you're a person with a disability, if you're neurodivergent, and need any adjustments to be made during the application and selection process, please send an email to ebhn@novonordisk.com.