Research Scientist: Knowledge and Semantics

Location(s): UK, Europe & Africa : UK : Great Baddow 

BAE Systems Digital Intelligence is home to 4,500 digital, cyber and intelligence experts. We work collaboratively across 10 countries to collect, connect and understand complex data, so that governments, nation states, armed forces and commercial businesses can unlock digital advantage in the most demanding environments.

BAE Systems Digital Intelligence Defence Innovation and Technology is seeking to recruit a team lead for our Knowledge and Semantics team. The Data and Decision Support  Capability has a diverse range of teams working in: reinforcement learning, NLP, knowledge graphs, applications of LLMs, computer vision, AI for RF and EW, sonar and acoustics.

You will have the opportunity to work with these colleagues in multi-disciplinary teams and to work on a wide range of data science topics for customers across the defence, security and commercial sectors as well as on internal BAE Systems AI programmes. You will also have the opportunity to maintain strong links with academic partners  and SMEs as well as to grow technical research areas of interest to you.

We are looking for candidates who are adaptable, enthusiastic and highly motivated.  You will have experience of leading a team of researchers working in NLP, LLM applications, text-mining, knowledge graphs and/or graph machine learning and with a vision on how to develop solutions for practical applications of ML in these domains. You will have a proven record of successful proposal writing and delivery to funding bodies relevant to the Defence sector. You should have existing skills in Machine Learning (ML), will need to be a proficient programmer in Python, with extensive experience in the use of libraries and toolboxes to support efficient development.

Candidates will also have the opportunity to mix technical challenges with customer-facing and project support tasks. In addition to a solid academic background and excellent written and verbal communication skills, we are interested in candidates with experience in NLP, text-mining, knowledge graphs and/or graph machine learning and with a vision on how to develop solutions for practical applications of ML in these domains.

Typical Responsibilities:

• Propose and lead novel research in given topic areas, often in partnership with leading UK Universities.
• Lead technical delivery of project teams. Prepare and deliver technical reports, technical proposals and supporting material.
• Develop prototypes and proof of concept demonstrators.
• Take ownership of tasks in projects and deliver to challenging standards.
• Effectively present results to both technical and non-technical audiences.
• Communicate effectively with project stakeholders (external customers, internal BU leads, different engineering teams).
• Undertake mentoring and management of junior staff working in the Knowledge and Semantics Team.

Knowledge, Skills and Experience:

• PhD qualified with at least 4 years’ experience post PhD, ideally working in the Defence or National Security sectors.
• You will have experience of leading R&D teams with a minimum of 5 developers.
• You will have a strong record of securing funding for and delivering innovative R&D into Defence and NS customers.
• Of particular interest are candidates with the following experience (evidenced by a track record of publications, industry experience, open-source available code or equivalent academic work):

• Predictive Graph Machine Learning, Causal Machine Learning or Neuro-Symbolic AI.
• Natural Language Processing, including Information extraction, text-mining and entity linking. Experience with modern (e.g. transformer-based) NLP models is desirable but not essential.
• Application of LLMs to Defence problems.
• The taxonomy of Graph Machine Learning tasks and experience in using graph ML in applied or foundational settings.
• Graph-structured data, designing and utilising relational and graph databases, and knowledge of graph algorithms. Familiarity with one or more query languages (e.g. SQL and Cypher) is desirable but not essential.
• Familiarity with knowledge representation, ontology design and semantic or LLM based reasoning is desirable but not essential.

• Essential: Experience in software development in Python
• Essential: Experience with at least one ML framework: TensorFlow, Pytorch.
• Ability to work in a secure environment is essential.
• Desirable: Experience with one or more graph machine learning packages (PyTorch-Geometric, PyKeen etc.) and knowledge graph toolkits (Neo4j)

Security Clearance

Only those with the permanent and unrestricted right to live and work in the UK will be considered for a position within BAE Systems Digital Intelligence. Due to the nature of our work successful candidates for this role will be required to go through Government SC clearance prior to starting with us. https://www.gov.uk/guidance/security-vetting-and-clearance

Life at BAE Systems Digital Intelligence 

We are embracing Hybrid Working. This means you and your colleagues may be working in different locations, such as from home, another BAE Systems office or client site, some or all of the time, and work might be going on at different times of the day.

By embracing technology, we can interact, collaborate and create together, even when we’re working remotely from one another. Hybrid Working allows for increased flexibility in when and where we work, helping us to balance our work and personal life more effectively, and enhance well-being.

Diversity and inclusion are integral to the success of BAE Systems Digital Intelligence. We are proud to have an organisational culture where employees with varying perspectives, skills, life experiences and backgrounds – the best and brightest minds – can work together to achieve excellence and realise individual and organisational potential. 

Division overview: Capabilities

At BAE Systems Digital Intelligence, we pride ourselves in being a leader in the cyber defence industry, and Capabilities is the engine that keeps the business moving forward. It is the largest area of Digital Intelligence, containing our Engineering, Consulting and Project Management teams that design and implement the defence solutions and digital transformation projects that make us a globally recognised brand in both the public and private sector.

As a member of the Capabilities team, you will be creating and managing the solutions that earn us our place in an ever changing digital world. We all have a role to play in defending our clients, and this is yours.