Principal ML Ops Engineer

The Role

Principal ML Ops Engineer

We're looking for a Principal ML Ops Engineer to act as a technical authority, people leader, and champion of ML engineering excellence at ITV.

In this role, you'll define and evolve CT&Cs ML Ops strategy; setting standards for how we build, deploy and maintain ML products at scale. You'll lead a small, talented team of ML Ops Engineers and work cross-functionally with data scientists, analysts, and product teams to deliver high-quality, reliable, and secure ML solutions that have a real impact on ITV's commercial and streaming operations.

You'll balance technical leadership with people development, helping your team grow while fostering a culture of innovation, collaboration, and continuous improvement.

This role offers the opportunity to shape the future of machine learning at ITV; influencing key technology decisions, driving adoption of modern ML Ops practices, and ensuring the highest standards in engineering delivery.

The team

CT&C is a key group within ITV's Media & Entertainment business, with several software and data engineering teams responsible for defining and overseeing the operational aspects across our strategic pillars driving innovation with a focus on delivery value to our business. We are committed to building and maintaining efficient delivery capabilities, ensuring the successful execution of projects with a focus on quality and efficiency.

Within CT&C, our Data Engineering and ML Ops teams are critical in developing the machine learning infrastructure and data products that underpin ITV's forecasting, optimisation, and automation capabilities. We work collaboratively across Commercial, Product, and Technology to enable smart, data-led decision making.

Responsibilities:

Leadership & Capability Development

• Lead and mentor a team of ML Ops Engineers; driving excellence, continuous learning and career development.
• Build and maintain a strong ML engineering capability, aligned to ITV's data strategy and delivery roadmap.
• Contribute to ITV's wider CT&C Guilds, sharing expertise and building a strong ML Ops community.
• Champion innovation: exploring emerging ML Ops tools, frameworks, and best practices to evolve our capabilities.

Technical Strategy & Delivery

• Define and refine ITV's ML Ops standards, tools, and development practices.
• Lead the design, implementation, and optimisation of scalable and secure ML infrastructure across cloud platforms.
• Work closely with data scientists to deliver robust ML products, ensuring model reliability, observability, and performance.
• Oversee continuous improvement initiatives, identifying opportunities to automate manual processes and enhance data delivery.
• Introduce design patterns, review processes, and best practices for ML product architecture and deployment.

Cross-functional Collaboration

• Partner with Data Science, Engineering, and Product teams to define ML product requirements and ensure successful delivery.
• Collaborate with Architecture and Governance teams to align with ITV's broader data and AI strategy.
• Support business stakeholders by translating technical concepts into actionable insights and solutions.

Quality, Governance & Performance

• Monitor and optimise data pipelines and ML workflows for high performance and reliability.
• Define automated quality processes to ensure accuracy, security, and compliance across all ML systems.
• Ensure all ML products meet ITV's data governance, privacy, and cybersecurity standards.
• Implement observability frameworks to proactively monitor model health and system performance.

Innovation & Continuous Improvement

• Stay at the forefront of industry trends, introducing new techniques and technologies to improve productivity and quality.
• Lead proof-of-concept initiatives and present outcomes and recommendations to leadership.
• Participate in ITV's central Data Platform community, contributing to the continuous evolution of our data ecosystem

Skills you'll need (minimum criteria)

• At least 4+ years of experience leading ML Ops or data engineering teams, with a strong track record of delivery.
• Hands-on experience as an ML Ops Engineer, building, deploying, and maintaining ML models in production.
• Proven experience with Python (PySpark preferred) and strong programming and troubleshooting skills.
• Proficiency in CI/CD platforms such as GitHub Actions, Jenkins, or similar, tailored to ML workloads
• Experience with AWS, Azure, or Google Cloud services and container technologies like Docker.
• Strong understanding of ML model performance monitoring, A/B testing, and experimentation frameworks.
• Experience implementing automated testing, data pipelines, and scalable ML infrastructure.
• Solid knowledge of data modelling, database systems, and SQL optimisation.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills with both technical and non-technical audiences.

Other things we're looking for (key criteria)

• Strong leadership and mentoring skills, with a passion for developing talent.
• Excellent problem-solving, analytical, and decision-making abilities.
• A continuous improvement mindset; proactive in identifying inefficiencies and suggesting better ways of working.
• Awareness of architecture disciplines such as Data Mesh, Data Architecture, BI, and Enterprise Architecture.
• Familiarity with data governance, data privacy, and security frameworks.
• Comfortable working in a fast-paced, agile environment where priorities can shift.
• Inquisitive and curious - staying up to date with emerging ML Ops technologies and methodologies.
• Experience or knowledge of the broadcast, OTT, or digital media industry is advantageous

Closing date: 23rd November 2025

Please note, on occasion we may receive a very large volume of applications which means applications for a role may close earlier than the referenced closing date. We'd encourage you to apply as soon as possible if interested.