AI/ML Researcher

At Honda we embrace inclusion in our various policies, so whilst our contracts state that the hours are as required to fulfil the role with a minimum of 37 hours per week, we offer flexibility for when you work, providing that there is no business requirement.

Whilst there is no contractual right to work from home, the flexibility we offer is that you can request to work from home for a maximum of 50% of the working days in any one month, again providing there is no business requirement to attend the office.

This position will be based from our Theale office. 

Role: 
The successful candidate will join Emerging Technology Lab (ETL) that is a part of Honda R&D Europe (UK) Ltd.  At ETL, we have nurtured a culture of collaborative innovation rooted in creativity, kindness, mutual trust, and respect. Our primary mission revolves around applied research in multi-domain software technology where we are actively sensing global business challenges. Our key output is creation of proof of concepts (PoCs), with potential of integration into next generation Honda products, platforms, and services. 

With an active involvement in European technology, regulation, and standards ecosystems, we stay attuned to the broader industry landscape. While being a technology-centric team, we remain committed to a human-centred design process, continually assessing and aligning with future customer and business value propositions.

Emerging Technology Lab is a part of Honda R&D Europe (UK) Ltd 
The team conducts projects in the connectivity and electrification domain to investigate technologies to potentially roll out to global Honda. The successful candidate will be part of a dynamic team which will work on future technologies required to deliver an interconnected Energy and Mobility ecosystem. Our focus is on scalable, adaptable and cooperative AI systems and includes research into multi-agent systems and personalised UX.
 
The candidate is mainly expected to carry out research, develop prototypes and proof-of-concept applications to demonstrate the potential of AI research findings. The candidate will bring to the team good knowledge of AI / ML approaches and experience of the real-world challenges in applying AI in domain specific areas. ML / AI does not exist in a vacuum, so experience and understanding of how to problem solve for a customer or business need and match an ML approach or tailor it to a domain specific area is essential. Additionally, the candidate should have solid software development skills to enable the demonstration or exploitation of an algorithmic approach.
 
The candidate will demonstrate advocacy for their specialist area and remain abreast of the latest AI research and trends to inform project direction and methodologies.
 
Stakeholder management is a key requirement, ensuring high quality and agreed timelines are met, including the requirement to work with both the Honda teams and wider external network. Strong communication skills are essential for building working relationships and to develop a comprehensive network both within and outside of the company. Awareness and a passion of the latest technology is a requirement, allowing research to be conducted and adding value to the EU technical direction.

Main Responsibilities:

• Work within the AI Research group under supervision of a senior researcher and collaborate with the wider interdisciplinary team to develop and integrate AI approaches into their respective research domains.
• Responsible for work packages relating to application of data science & AI / ML methods.
• Communicating complex AI concepts and results to stakeholders, including non-technical audiences.
• Researching wider technical and economic situation and actively proposing projects/ PoCs and activities to senior management (bottom-up approach).
• Travel within the UK (and EU) to attend conferences, suppliers, workshops, and seminars.

Qualifications, skills and experience:
Required

• University degree in a related field e.g. Computer Science, AI, Mathematics or a equiv. discipline
• Demonstratable experience in AI / ML R&D in industry.
• Proven fundamental knowledge in AI, ML and data science i.e signal/pattern recognition, classification, training deep neural networks.
• Experience that includes a variety of Data Science and ML frameworks or tools.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills. Ability to document simple narratives to explain complex issues/systems and be able to adapt communication style to suit different audiences.
• Proactive and self-motivated with the ability to work independently and as part of a team.
• Extensive knowledge of MS office suite (Excel, PowerPoint & Word).

Desirable

• Familiarity with ML Ops concepts and tools.
• Experience with Cloud Native software development and cloud service providers e.g. AWS
• Experience with Reinforcement Learning. 
• Post graduate qualification e.g. Masters in a related field.

Honda is committed to the principle of equal opportunity in the workplace for all employees, temporary workers, contractors, applicants and visitors. Honda also encourages respect for the individual differences and talents of others while making full use of one's own abilities, based on Honda's philosophy of respect for the individual.

At Honda, we value and celebrate diversity and are committed to being a fair, non-discriminatory company that promotes and welcomes the uniqueness and differences of people around the world. We recognise that a diverse workforce allows for different ideas and perspectives, and we encourage everyone to share them. We strive to foster a culture of belonging that is consistent with Honda's core values and lived out in the way we work and respect each other. For us at Honda, diversifying our workforce means increasing its overall strength by providing people with equal opportunities - regardless of personal characteristics or previous careers.

This commitment flows directly from the Honda philosophy and the belief that we are all working towards a common goal. Honda recruits, hires, trains and promotes the most qualified/experienced individuals at all levels without regard to race, origin, religion or belief, gender, sexual orientation, age, disability or any other protected characteristic.