Mechatronics Engineer - Defence

About Faculty

Faculty transforms organisational performance through safe, impactful and human-led AI. 

We are Europe’s leading applied AI company, and saw its potential a decade ago - long before the current hype cycle.

We were founded in 2014 with our Fellowship programme, training academics to become commercial data scientists. 

Today, we provide over 300 global customers with industry-leading software, and bespoke AI consultancy for retail, healthcare, energy, and governmental organisations, as well as our award winning Fellowship. 

Our expertise and safety credentials are such that OpenAI asked us to be their first technical partner, helping customers deploy cutting-edge generative AI safely.

Our high-impact work has saved lives through forecasting NHS demand during covid, produced green energy by routing boats towards the wind, slashed marketing spend by predicting customer spending habits, and kept children safe online. 

AI is an epoch-defining technology. We want people to join us who can help our customers reap its enormous benefits safely.

We operate a hybrid way of working, meaning that you'll split your time across client location, Faculty's Old Street office and working from home depending on the needs of the project. For this role, you may be required to be client-side for up-to three days per week at times and working either from home or our Old street office for the rest of your time.

About the role:

As a Mechatronics engineer in our Defence BU, fundamentally your role is to help customers and machine learning  experts solve technical challenges in the development and operation of edge hardware; this involves applying a variety of techniques, ranging from networking and hardware integration to system control.

Faculty has a track record of successfully integrating ML capabilities, particularly computer vision solutions, into robotic systems, from waste disposal to UAV navigation. You’ll be part of extending this expertise in a hands-on role where you’re integrating state of the art models into hardware (which you may be developing) for our clients.

Your contribution won't just be limited to your technical skills. Using practical and business sense, you will help our excellent commercial team build lasting relationships with our customers, shaping the direction of both current and future projects.

What you'll be doing:

As we are a growing business, we need people who take initiative and have a passion for solving complex problems.

Your role will evolve alongside business needs, but you can expect your key responsibilities to include:

• Solving problems with the best techniques for long term maintainability.
• Advising technical teams and customers as the technical authority on robotics 
• Communicating technical content at the right level both internally and to customers.
• Fostering a collaborative work environment, sharing knowledge, and bringing the best out of everyone in the team.
• Seeking out innovative ways to help Faculty grow, for example, by developing shared technical and non-technical resources.

Who we are looking for:

• Educational background in computer science, electrical engineering, robotics or related fields
• Proven industry experience working with robotics technology, in particular: mechanical & electrical integration, machine vision, programming and route planning
• In-depth knowledge of robotics systems, including some of sensor integration, control, networking, and electronics.
• Proficiency in programming languages commonly used in robotics applications, such as C/C++, Python, ROS, and Lua.
• Experience with software development tools and environments, such as Visual Studio, Eclipse, and version control systems like Git.
• Proficiency in using simulation and modelling tools (e.g., MATLAB, Simulink) and experience with non internet connected hardware and software, including embedded systems and real-time processing.
• Practical exposure to designing, developing, testing, and troubleshooting robotics systems.
• Knowledge of robotics/ mechatronics and similar applications in a defence context e.g. UAV guidance and navigation, bandwidth limited networking, and robust hardware design.
• An interest in working alongside our customers and to learn about the commercial aspects of the job.

The following would be a bonus, but are by no means required:

• Prior commercial experience, particularly if this involved customer-facing work or project management.
• Research experience (PhD or Postdoc) as evidenced by academic publications and conference talks.
• Working knowledge of any of following domains: electronics, control theory, computer vision, navigation, networking
• An interest in using common machine learning algorithms as evidenced by previous work or side projects, with the ability to think creatively when an innovative solution is necessary.
• Familiarity with MLOps including deployment (on the edge), monitoring and scalability tooling.

What we can offer you:

The Faculty team is diverse and distinctive, and we all come from different personal, professional and organisational backgrounds. We all have one thing in common: we are driven by a deep intellectual curiosity that powers us forward each day.

Faculty is the professional challenge of a lifetime. You’ll be surrounded by an impressive group of brilliant minds working to achieve our collective goals. Our consultants, product developers, business development specialists, operations professionals and more all bring something unique to Faculty, and you’ll learn something new from everyone you meet. You’ll also have the opportunity to make your mark on a high-growth start-up now poised to expand internationally.