Change your career, change lives

The Open University is the UK’s largest university, a world leader in flexible part-time education combining a mission to widen access to higher education with research excellence, transforming lives through education. Find out more about us and our mission by watching this short video (you will be taken to YouTube by clicking this link).

About the Role

We are seeking to recruit a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Associate 

This is an exciting opportunity for an experienced post-graduate in Computer Science, Software Engineering, Mathematics or Physics or someone with an MSc in one of these disciplines, to ‘fast track’ their career with Clearview Intelligence Limited (Clearview) in the thriving intelligent transport systems (ITS) sector.

Clearview has 50 years of experience in the monitoring of transport infrastructure from motorways to train lines, building hardware and software intelligent solutions to support infrastructure management and planning. 

The Open University is the UK’s largest university, a world leader in flexible part-time education combining a mission to widen access to higher education with research excellence, transforming lives through education.
This Knowledge Transfer Partnership between The Open University and Clearview will develop an innovative safety sensor solution for low-power, edge computer vision to identify vehicle near-miss events and new AI Infrastructure for Location Intelligence for automatic generation of data-driven reports.  
Your role will be to lead and manage this strategic project, helping Clearview acquire the knowledge and capabilities on AI technologies, and to guide their technical team in the implementation and deployment of the AI Infrastructure and Near-miss Models. You will work with the Clearview business team to identify requirements and new business opportunities from their clients while gaining experience in commercialisation and opening new markets. 

This is a full-time, 30-month fixed-term Associate position, and you will be employed by The Open University but based at Clearview offices in Milton Keynes. This is an office based role with a project team, with some hybrid work and the opportunity to spend at least half a day each week with Academic supervisors from the Knowledge Media Institute at The Open University in Milton Keynes. You will also enjoy UK and European travel to customer sites and conferences.  The post will be subject to Clearview’s annual leave and working hour policies. 

Key Responsibilities

As a Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) Associate, you will be expected to manage the 30-month project and work as part of the KTP team consisting of Clearview R&D, Business leads and academics at The Open University to:

• Familiarise yourself with Clearview’s internal processes
• Design and implement Clearview’s data lake and knowledge management system to support augmented retrieval for AI
• Guide the design of Clearview AI infrastructure, identifying requirements from their customers and defining the AI agent roles for business
• Guide the development of new intelligence services providing direct access to analytics and business reports from the Clearview network of sensor data
• Collaborate in the development of computer vision models for power-efficient vehicle classification and near-miss detection for CCTV
• Train and supervise Clearview staff on chosen AI technologies
• Support the commercialisation of Clearview’s new intelligence service.
• Co-author academic papers and submit the KTP final report.

About You

We search for a candidate with an inquisitive mindset, a diplomatic approach to communication with existing teams, able to present data to different audiences in complex and non-complex formats. The candidate must be a team player, with good communication skills and the ability to work well within an existing and new team as they change during the project. The candidate should be able to perform under flexible conditions with some hybrid working once inducted. Working in an open plan office with a large group of people you will need to possess good social skills.

Essential:

• Master or Ph.D. degree in computer science, software engineering, math, physics or related fields
• Significant first-hand experience with AI architectures and applications, like single and multi-agents, edge/model-based ML, deep learning, or large models (a minimum of four years of relevant work experience)
• Senior-level development experience with a strong understanding of data interoperability and microservices
• Strong communication and interpersonal skills with the ability to tailor information for different audiences
• Diplomatic skills with the ability to build and maintain strong relationships within existing and new teams
• An enquiring and analytical mind with the ability to think laterally to solve problems and introduce and implement new ideas 
• Fluent written and spoken English (IELTS)

Desirable:

• Experience with smart sensors and edge computing
• Experience with big data or data science technologies, like data lakes and other data interoperability solutions
• Experience with the training of deep learning models for image / video analysis
• Use of containerisation technologies Docker Stack / Kubernetes and other DevOP solutions
• Development with AWS or any other cloud-based architecture
• Experience with edge-computing hardware like NVIDIA DeepStream and Jetson 

Support with your application

If you have any questions, or need support or adjustments relating to your application, the recruitment process, or the role, please contact us on 01908 541111 or email careers@open.ac.uk quoting the advert reference number.

What's in it for you?

At The Open University, we offer a range of benefits to recognise and reward great work, alongside policies and flexible working that contribute towards a great work life balance. Get all the details of what benefits we offer by visiting our Staff Benefits page (clicking this link will open a new window). Additionally, we have a strong commitment to providing training and professional development in and beyond your current role.  In addition, as a KTP Associate, you will be entitled to:

• Spend 10% of your time on Personal Development, making full use of a £5,000 PD budget.
• Access to two residential training sessions aimed at developing project management skills, leading to the opportunity to study free of charge for a CMI (level 5)  qualification in Leadership and Management
• Opportunity to gain both commercial and academic experience.
• Potential to fast-track your career in industry.
• Expand your academic and professional networks through the OU’s PhD and postdoc network and the KTP Associate community.
• Access to a wealth of academic resources including working with academics from the Knowledge Media Institute and Faculty of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) at The Open university, and access to a wide range of personal development and training resources.

Flexible working

We are open to discussions about flexible working. Whether it’s a job share, part time, compressed hours or another working arrangement. Please reach out to us to discuss what works best for you.

Next steps in the Recruitment process

If shortlisted, we anticipate first stage interview taking place W/C 10th November with second stage interviews taking place either W/C 17th November or W/C 24th November. 

Early closing date notification

We may close this job advert earlier than the published closing date where a satisfactory number of applications are received. We would therefore encourage early applications.

How to apply

To apply for this role please submit the following document(s):

• CV
• Supporting statement (Your Supporting Statement should outline how you meet the essential and desirable criteria listed above)

You can view your progress and application communications when you are logged into our recruitment system.  Please check your spam/junk folders if you do not receive associated email updates.