Application Engineering Team Lead

Location: London, England, United Kingdom

Workplace: hybrid

Employment Type: full

Description

The Company

At Recycleye we are revolutionising Recycling. Our ground-breaking AI powers robots and optical sorters making waste sorting faster, cleaner and more profitable. With our advanced tech, the previously unsortable can now be sorted efficiently and effectively. Founded in 2019, we have grown rapidly ever since, with installations at leading waste management companies across Europe and the US. 

 We are on a mission to help our clients produce higher quality outputs – turning the world’s waste into valuable resource. And our work has never been needed more. Worldwide only 9% of plastic waste is being recycled – every day, we are proud to work on making a meaningful difference towards a sustainable future.     

The Role  

We are seeking an experienced Team Lead to lead a high‑performing team of Technicians and Data Analysts who make up our Application Engineering Team and are responsible for optimising the performance of our cutting edge machines, in the field and in our test centre. We see this role as being similar to a project manager with the addition people management.

Recycleye is able to sort a limitless number of waste stream. For each new type of waste we need to develop a strong AI model by scanning many items in our test centre or at customer sites (e.g. bricks, circuit boards, PET bottles, etc), these scans are managed in a waste taxonomy (contains hundreds of thousands of labelled images), we then deploy these on our machines and adjust aggressivity of detection, belt speeds, ejection parameters, etc.  

This pipeline is managed by the Application Engineering Team that is currently made up of 3 data analysts (managing the data) and 3 test centre engineers currently operating the test centre and supporting commissioning of newly installed units in the field. The whole team will be reporting to the Application Engineering Team Lead. 

This role combines technical leadership, operational excellence, and strong people management. The ideal candidate brings experience in industrial machinery, a deep understanding of optimizing processes, a hands-on mindset, and cross‑functional team collaboration. 

This right culture fit for this role will see that this is not a desk job—we need someone who thrives on being in the mix with their team, constantly problem-solving, and refining technical processes in a dynamic, real-world environment. You and your team will work closely with the Product and Performance teams, calibrating vision systems, optimising sorting recipes, and managing waste sample logistics, all while developing innovative methodologies to enhance material recognition and classification. 

Requirements

• Proven experience managing engineering or plant operations teams (6+ direct reports preferred). 

• Hands on mindset, happy to spend plenty on site, not bothered by working with waste 
• Must be detailed oriented, almost to the point of obession

• Highly curious, inquisitive mindset, desire to understand the why behind the data  

• Strong background in industrial machinery, or complex technical operations. 

• Demonstrated experience in systems design, process optimisation, and operational workflow development. 

• Excellent problem‑solving abilities, with a track record of managing technical challenges and project risks. 

• Exceptional communication and collaboration skills, with experience working cross‑functionally and with client‑facing teams. 

• Ability to thrive in a fast‑paced, evolving environment. 

Benefits

• An excellent salary that’s both equitable and reviewed regularly.
• Unlimited holiday.
• A welcoming and inclusive team environment with monthly company-wide socials.
• Plenty of opportunities for training and personal development.
• Healthcare coverage – Vitality is available from your very first day!

Even if you don’t tick every box listed above but are motivated by our work and believe you can make a difference on our team, we’d really love to hear from you – so please do apply and drop us a note about what you bring! 

We are particularly interested in hearing from you if your background enables you to bring a different perspective to our team.