Retrieval and Agent Intelligence - Software Research Engineer(PAYE)

Founded in 1987, Huawei is a leading global provider of information and communications technology (ICT) infrastructure and smart devices. We have 207,000 employees and operate in over 170 countries and regions, serving more than three billion people around the world.

Our vision and mission is to bring digital to every person, home and organization for a fully connected, intelligent world. To this end, we will drive ubiquitous connectivity and promote equal access to networks; bring cloud and artificial intelligence to all four corners of the earth to provide superior computing power where you need it, when you need it; build digital platforms to help all industries and organizations become more agile, efficient, and dynamic; redefine user experience with AI, making it more personalized for people in all aspects of their life, whether they’re at home, in the office, or on the go.

This spirit of innovation has led Huawei to work in close partnership with leading academic institutions in the UK to develop and refine the latest technologies. With a shared commitment to innovation and progress, both parties have worked together to achieve common goals and establish a strong partnership. The partnership between UK and Huawei help to develop the technologies of the future that will transform the way we all communicate, work and live.

For the past 30 years we have maintained an unwavering focus, rejecting shortcuts and easy opportunities that don't align with our core business. With a practical approach to everything we do, we concentrate our efforts and invest patiently to drive technological breakthroughs.

This strategic focus is a reflection of our core values:

• Staying customer-centric,
• Inspiring dedication,
• Persevering,
• Growing by reflection.

Huawei’s vision is a fully connected, intelligent world. To achieve this, we work to inspire passion for basic research around the world. Our combined passion drives development across the global innovation value chain. Huawei has the largest Research and Development organization in the world with 96,000+ employees in research centers around the globe. In the UK, we already have design centers in Cambridge, London, Edinburgh and Ipswich. We continue to explore and define new research directions and new services. We have expanded our collaborations with academic researchers; researched new network architectures, integration of communications and key enabling technologies; and developed the fundamental theories of these technologies. We invite you to join us on this exciting journey and drive your career forward.

Job Summary

Huawei is looking for a Software Research Engineer with interest in Research to join a team of Retrieval and Agent Intelligence (RAI) Researchers in Huawei UKRD Edinburgh Office. The ideal person will have prior experience working in a research driven environment, collaborated with researchers, and have actively participated in the design and development of research prototypes and systems. Our topics are related to development of novel and effective knowledge retrieval and agentic AI technologies so ideally you should have some experience with NLP/LLM, Information Retrieval and Machine Learning tools and pipelines, with experience implementing strict validation boundaries as well as an obsession with optimisation. The environment is highly collaborative (within the RAI team, and with other teams abroad) and good communication skills are necessary.

Key Responsibilities:

As a software research engineer you will collaborate with top researchers in the area for designing and developing high quality research prototypes and related production ready services. Since we always deal with novel state-of-the-art problems, good analytical and problem-solving skills would be beneficial and ability to contribute to the solutions would be valuable.

A successful applicant will be responsible to:

• Act as the crucial bridge between abstract AI research and hardened, production-grade software architecture.
• Develop prototypes and production systems of the next generation knowledge retrieval and agentic AI technologies, such as hybrid GraphRAG with late interactions, knowledgable agents, dynamic context compression, highly efficient agent memory, advanced goal and state management for long horizon reasoning and planning.
• Be part of internal engineering efforts, with responsibility of data preparation, algorithms, modelling, engineering and product scaling and support.
• Development of open-source software.
• Support the deployment for software developed.

Person Specification:

Required:

• Degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence or other Mathematical discipline
• At least 3 years of project experience in the field of software engineering
• Experience with advanced retrieval mechanics
• Algorithmic mindset for non-determinism
• Test Driven Development
• Python, Docker, Git
• Good software engineering practices (clean, reusable, and high-quality code, CI/CD)
• Have good attitude and interested in quickly picking up with new technologies

• Knowledge of Knowledge Graph and Graph Database.
• Knowledge of LLM and agent related technologies, such as hallucination handling, knowledge distillation, memory, skills, reasoning and planning.
• Knowledge of modern multi-modal ingestion frameworks
• Experience with either NLP, or Machine Learning techniques.