Senior AI Researcher / ML Engineer - Cognitive Computing

About the role

Athena Cloud Limited, part of the Athena Group, is building a Cognitive Computing framework based on Agentic AI in Athens, Greece. It is looking for an experienced Data Scientist and AI Researcher to lead the design, development and deployment of advanced autonomous AI models, bridging theoretical research with scalable, real-world solutions in sovereign AI infrastructure. The position is full-time, with relocation and EU Blue Card sponsorship provided.

Key responsibilities

• Spearhead research and development of Cognitive Computing systems through Agentic AI and harness development.
• Design, build and deploy production-grade autonomous machine learning models and end-to-end AI pipelines for sovereign environments.
• Architect NLP solutions, including Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG), document ingestion and conversational AI orchestration.
• Perform data clustering, anomaly detection and predictive modelling on tabular and time-series data for self-healing, self-optimizing cloud infrastructure.
• Build scalable MLOps workflows in sovereign stacks and sovereign cloud infrastructure (VMware VCF/vCloud, OpenStack, Kubernetes, LXD).
• Integrate AI capabilities into back-end systems with global teams, using Python, Flask, FastAPI and other languages needed for MLOps and AI harness development.
• Research new deep learning algorithms to improve training, interpretation and optimisation of neural networks.

Required profile

• Master's degree or Ph.D. in Computer Science, Electrical Engineering, Machine Learning or a closely related field.
• Proven track record as a Senior Data Scientist, Machine Learning Engineer or AI Researcher, with publications or production deployments.
• Deep interest in autonomous systems and Agentic AI.
• Strong desire to relocate to Europe and a research-driven environment.

Required skills

• Python, SQL, and familiarity with C++, JavaScript or Bash.
• TensorFlow, PyTorch, Keras, scikit-learn, XGBoost and Hugging Face.
• MLOps tools: Git, Docker, Jenkins, Grafana.

What we offer

• Full relocation and visa sponsorship, including EU Blue Card processing.
• Career growth and equity potential as the company scales toward a Euronext listing.
• Health insurance and wellness benefits.
• Access to high-end local AI inference hardware and a collaborative, research-driven environment.