Senior Machine Learning Engineer

at Hawk-Eye Innovations Ltd
Published January 10, 2023
Location London, United Kingdom
Category Machine Learning  
Job Type Full-time  

Description

Machine Learning Engineer - Senior

The Machine Learning team sits within our Computer Vision Engineering Department, who are responsible for delivering real-time, end-to-end solutions for tracking balls, players and other relevant sports objects, for the purposes of sports officiating and data analytics.
One example of our tracking products is SkeleTRACK - a real-time ball and skeletal tracking currently deployed to major US sports leagues and European football leagues.  Our Computer Vision and Machine Learning team are almost entirely responsible for building this technology.  We are now looking at how we improve and extend this into more sports and services - more than likely solving more complex and challenging problems!
A day in the life of a Machine Learning Engineer 

As a Machine Learning engineer at Hawk-Eye Innovations, you will be part of an agile team that is responsible for the end to end pipeline for our Machine Learning models.  This involves tasks such as working with our annotation teams to get the best annotated data and providing them with the best tools on our annotations platform; keeping track of live model performance and detect common failure cases; integrating models and features into our SkeleTRACK products; keeping up to date with the latest research; and designing new ML models, whether real-time or otherwise.
You will partner closely with our product team to establish requirements and develop innovative solutions to the most complex challenges within sports technology.  You can expect to solve significant problems whilst leading and coaching more junior members of the team as we brainstorm solutions, conduct research and find the best approach.  You will be working in a weekly Kanban cycle to deliver game-changing technology and will support the configuration and deployment of our products that are delivered on a global scale.
DepartmentSoftware Engineering - Machine Learning
Employment TypeFull Time
LocationLondon, UK
Workplace typeHybrid

Key Responsibilities

Key Responsibilities

We innovate to build incredible ball and player tracking solutions, applying that to sports officiating but also broadcast video, coaching and fan engagement.  Computer Vision and Machine Learning is pivotal to all of this and is the core competency of the Hawk-Eye Engineering team.
You will be working with a highly skilled set of engineers.  As the business and team have grown rapidly, so has the emphasis on creating a team and structure that can enable us to continue to create innovative solutions and products.

Senior Engineer

As a Senior Engineer, you will be one of the senior members of the team.  Technically, you will be a developing domain expert and expected to help influence the direction of our development.  Your responsibilities will include:
  • Being a technical mentor to the development team, influencing decisions within the team;
  • Building strong relationships within the machine learning team and communicating effectively both the engineering and product teams;;
  • Maintaining modern architecture and design practices;
  • Understanding requirements and delivering solutions with little direction;
  • Being a thorough and excellent software engineer, writing code with minimal guidance;
  • Leading R&D initiatives, keeping up to date with industry trends;
  • Attending CV/ML conferences;
  • Being a pragmatic problem solver.

Skills Knowledge and Expertise

Skills, Knowledge and Expertise

Must have a good understanding of:
  • Python
  • Relevant libraries (Pytorch, Pytorch-ignite, Numpy, Jupyter, Pandas)
  • Linux & Windows 10
  • TensorRT
  • GIT
Nice to haves
  • Modern C++ (C++17/20)
  • CUDA
  • ClearML
  • CMake & Visual Studio
  • OpenCV
  • Typescript & Semantic UI React
  • SSH
Bonus Skills
  • QT
  • TeamCity
  • JIRA & Kanban
  • Confluence

Our Tech Stack

At Hawk-Eye Innovations, we continue to push the boundaries of innovation within global sport.  As part of our team, you will work closely with exceptional people and the most cutting edge technologies.
You can expect to work with:
  • Pytorch
  • Python
  • modern C++ (17/20)
  • Production software targets Windows 10 (plus some Linux software, e.g. for ML training)
  • Tools: Git, cmake, Visual C++, TeamCity, JIRA, Confluence, Slack.
  • Libraries: OpenCV, Ceres, Qt (and quite a few more smaller ones)

Our Development Team

Our Development team at Hawk-Eye Innovations is multi-faceted.  It is responsible for building technology that unpins all of the services delivered by the wider operational business.  We have expertise in a variety of engineering disciplines, including:
  • Computer Vision
  • Machine Learning
  • Video content management and streaming
  • Cloud data platforms
  • Web technologies
  • Computer Graphics
  • Data Science
Each of the above teams collaborates closely to deliver technologies across a number of sports, products, and services.  One of our core services is ball and player tracking in sports such as tennis, cricket, football, and US sports like major league baseball.  We build end-to-end solutions - real-time tracking, data warehousing, low latency data streaming, and broadcast enhancements, including automated officiating (e.g. Hawk-Eye Live, Tennis).
Our VAR system is used to help officiate in the biggest football competitions in the world, including the top leagues in England, Germany, Spain, Italy, France, and the USA, the UEFA Champions League, and the FIFA World Cup. Outside of football, our products are used in almost every major sport in the world, including the Olympics, American football, baseball, basketball, ice hockey, cricket, tennis, and golf.
In addition to officiating, we are also used as a broadcast tool, providing the ability to add replays and graphics to TV productions. This ranges from working with massive productions like the Masters golf tournament (where we won a Sports Emmy for our product that allowed viewers at home to view every shot of the tournament at the click of a button) to smaller events on the tennis tour where we provide the entire production, including cameras which we remotely control to follow the play.
Ultimately, we are flexible in our approach to software development.  We do all of this with the support of the Product team, who facilitate projects and product development while delivering the technology into the hands of our operational teams.
We actively balance the focus of product development and innovation, appreciating that both are extremely important to the success of our business.  While we adopt a robust approach to software development we are aggressive with our innovation - this includes regular Hack-Days, creating opportunities to experiment, initiating creative ideas, and embracing failures (but failing fast).
As part of our Development Team, you will be part of creating software that is integral to some of the biggest sporting tournaments, leagues, and federations in the world.  You’ll be able to see the results of your work on live TV, along with billions of sports fans around the world whose experience will be augmented by our software.

Our Development Team Culture

Our Development team at Hawk-Eye is built on a culture shaped by openness and honesty, along with a desire to push the boundaries of technology and innovation. We are constantly learning so that we can keep up to date with modern ways of doing things, and we use our code review process to challenge each other to improve and work in the best way possible, regardless of seniority in the team. We have areas that specific individuals are responsible for, but we always work collaboratively so that everyone can gain knowledge across our codebase, and areas of responsibility change over time as team members progress. We are agile and strive for the highest quality in everything we produce, whilst always ensuring that the code we write is clear and maintainable.

Benefits

In addition to being a part of a great team, working in a fun and creative environment and learning from the best technical minds in the sports industry, we offer:
  • 25 days annual leave in addition to 8 public holidays;
  • Enhanced pension scheme (with 5% matching);
  • Flexible working
  • Complimentary Unmind app
  • Access to sporting events and tickets
  • Onsite Gym (Basingstoke)
  • Sony Group Company Discounts

About Hawk-Eye Innovations

About Hawk-Eye
Hawk-Eye Innovations have been at the forefront of sports officiating and broadcast enhancement technology since 2001.  The world’s biggest sporting events trust Hawk-Eye to make the right call when it matters most.
Hawk-Eye’s vision-processing, video replay and creative graphic technologies make sport fairer, safer, more engaging and better informed. Our innovations are constantly changing the face of sports officiating, production, content management, and fan engagement in every sport.
Hawk-Eye Innovations form a key part of the Sony Sports Innovations Group with a shared mission to deliver best-in-class officiating, broadcast and digital solutions to the sports world.

Our Values
At Hawk-Eye Innovations, our three core values underpin our success, ensuring that we continue to be a leading innovator in sports technology on a global scale. Our business is filled with exceptional talent that helps to ensure that the World’s biggest sporting events trust us to make the right call when it matters the most. We deliver on this by ensuring that:

  • WE ARE BRAVE
    • Confident in solving almost impossible problems, pioneering and ambitious for our clients and for ourselves. We are bold leaders in the industry, driven by possibilities and striving with pace and energy. We understand our risks and love the challenge.
  • WE ARE OWNERS
    • Our business is our own; we feel every win, and especially the losses. We take pride in excellence and trust ourselves to do what’s right, relentlessly. We make decisions like owners, with endeavour and entrepreneurialism. We are serious about what we do, and have fun whilst doing it.
  • WE ARE INCLUSIVE
    • We are one team; a community that’s connected and open. No secrets, no politics, just honesty and respect. We value diverse thinking, and diverse people - this helps us innovate. We treat people as people, who are all integral to our success and we celebrate as one.
Diversity and Inclusion
Our commitment to diversity and inclusion across race, gender, age, religion, identity, and experience drives us forward every day. We celebrate differences. We encourage different opinions and approaches to be heard, and then we come together and build.

Our response to COVID 19
During this time Team Hawk-Eye is working in a hybrid manner for all of our Head Office roles.  Our operational teams are working onsite, Pioneering & Inspiring Change in Sport every day!

  • Head Office Teams
    • We are currently working through a blend of in-person interactions (typically two days per week) and remote activity.
  • Operational Teams
    • Our operational teams are working on-site to ensure we can provide the highest level of service to our clients.  We are taking the current guidance extremely seriously and are ensuring that the health, safety and well-being of our employees are at the highest standard.