The Alan Turing Institute is the UK’s national institute for data science and artificial intelligence. The Institute is named in honour of the scientist Alan Turing and its mission is to make great leaps in data science and artificial intelligence research in order to change the world for the better.

The Defence & Security programme at the Turing is looking to expand a newly formed team of research engineers working on real-world problems aligned with securing the UK. Following in the footsteps of the institute’s namesake, Alan Turing, the team operates at the intersection of mathematics, engineering and computing and works in close collaboration with the Turing’s National Security partners.

We are a cross-disciplinary team and encourage applications from both generalists and specialists including those who self-identify as engineers, computer scientists, machine learning practitioners, mathematicians, statisticians or more widely as data scientists or data engineers.

The team practices an agile, experiment-driven approach and values a positive, supportive and collaborative environment in which ‘lifelong learning’ is encouraged. We embrace failure as a learning opportunity and necessary precursor to success.

Your role will be to bring together cutting-edge research and motivating mission challenges, using expert data science, software engineering and stakeholder management skills to create next generation capabilities for our partners. You will be empowered to take ownership of your work and operate with a high level of autonomy in your role, to deliver measurable impact.

Day to day, you will collaborate with technical and subject matter experts from our partner organisations as well as scholars, engineers, and data scientists from across the Turing’s research community, to enhance the applicability of research for mission problems. You will create software that implements research and applies it to our partners’ data in a readable, reliable, and reproducible fashion. You will present your work to a range of audiences including research colleagues, senior decision makers and non- technical stakeholders. You will work with state-of-the-art advanced cluster and cloud platforms to realise our collaborators' data science and artificial intelligence research at scale.

This role will be based at the hub8 working space in Cheltenham.

DUTIES AND RESPONSIBILITIES

Successful candidates will:

• Understand the problems of the Turing’s partners, and develop appropriate approaches to solving these problems.
• Perform experiments and develop capabilities, which might include: building and deploying machine learning models; applying data science, statistical and algorithmic techniques to data; building microservices, data processing/engineering systems and platforms or developing user interfaces and/or visualisations.
• Develop, implement and adapt state-of-the-art and novel data science and artificial intelligence techniques emerging from the Institute and elsewhere to problems faced by the Turing’s partners.
• Present, disseminate and explain our work including: Documenting capabilities, processes and systems for effective and efficient reuse across multiple domains; Presentation at Defence and Security programme events including monthly meetups and wider Turing events; Presentation at Partner reading groups, conferences and to Partner stakeholders; Publication, support and maintenance of research software.

In addition, for senior staff only, successful candidates may:

• Provide technical project management and leadership for research projects, ensuring successful outcomes; Liaise with clients and colleagues to understand and prioritise project goals, and balancing client value with research outputs;
• Line manage other staff within the group, supporting their career development aspirations.
• Take ownership of a particular domain challenge area or methodology for the group.
• Develop new projects in conjunction with colleagues, authoring research proposals and agreeing involvement for the group in activities across the institute

ESSENTIAL

• Undergraduate-level degree or higher in computer science, engineering, data science, mathematics, statistics or a related-discipline.
• Professional experience in a field or sector with significant use of both computer programming and advanced algorithmic, statistical or numerical techniques.
• Fluency in one or more modern programming languages used in data science. In particularly, we predominantly work in Python, but demonstrable use of other programming languages (e.g. modern C++, Java, Scala, Julia, R, Javascript, Rust, Go) together with a facility for learning new languages, is most welcome.
• An understanding of the importance of good practices for producing reliable software and reproducible analyses (e.g. version control, issue tracking, automated testing, package management, literate analysis tools such as Jupyter)
• Experience managing, structuring, and analysing research data as well as experience managing and organising the parameters and results of computational experiments.
• Excellent written and verbal communication skills, demonstrated by, for example, experience in the visual representation of quantitative data, documentation of software packages or data resources, the authoring of research papers or technical reports, and giving presentations or classes on technical subjects.
• Ability to lead one’s own work independently, including planning and execution, and to collaborate productively as part of a team.
• Ability to rapidly assimilate new computational and mathematical ideas and techniques on the job, at a more than superficial level, and apply them successfully.
• Commitment to EDI principles and to the Organisation values
• Commitment to meeting deadlines
• Flexible attitude towards work

In addition, for senior staff only:

• Experience leading a project to a successful conclusion.
• Demonstrable experience managing conflict and resolving stakeholder tensions.
• EITHER Experience in making or evaluating the case for new projects (e.g. authoring or evaluating research proposals or business cases) OR Experience of managing, prioritising and resourcing a project portfolio.
• Experience mentoring and evaluating the work of others (formal line management experience is not essential, but such applicants should be able to show significant evidence of informal mentorship.)

See Job Description attached for additional desirable requirements and specifc Senior level criteria.

APPLICATION PROCEDURE

If you are interested in this opportunity, please click the apply button below. You will need to register on the applicant portal and complete the application form including your CV, covering letter and contact details for your referees. If you have questions about the role or would like to apply using a different format, please contact them on 0203 862 3340, or email [email protected].

CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: Thursday 20 May 2021 at 23:59.

Developed Vetting security clearance is an essential requirement for this role. Eligibility criteria and further information on the process can be found on the UK Government security vetting website: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/united-kingdom-security-vetting-clearance-levels/national-security-vetting-clearance-levels#developed-vetting-dv

Candidates who are not granted DV clearance, withdraw from the process before completion or who are found to be ineligible will not be able to undertake this role.

INTERVIEW PROCESS

As part of their interview candidates will be expected to prepare a short tech talk on your favourite algorithm/model/library or tool in data science, artificial intelligence or machine learning. This could be delivered using a literate programming tool, such as Jupyter but we welcome talks delivered in other traditional or non-traditional formats.

Should you be shortlisted and successful for the first interview, a second-stage interview will be held shortly after.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

This full-time post is offered on a 2 year fixed-term basis. Competitive salary (dependent on skills and experience) plus excellent benefits, including flexible working and family friendly policies, https://www.turing.ac.uk/work-turing/why-work-turing/employee-benefits

EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION

The Alan Turing Institute is committed to creating an environment where diversity is valued and everyone is treated fairly. In accordance with the Equality Act, we welcome applications from anyone who meets the specific criteria of the post regardless of age, disability, ethnicity, gender reassignment, marital or civil partnership status, pregnancy and maternity, religion or belief, sex and sexual orientation.

Reasonable adjustments to the interview process will be made for any candidates with a disability.

Please note all offers of employment are subject to obtaining and retaining the right to work in the UK and satisfactory pre-employment security screening which includes a DBS Check.

Full details on the pre-employment screening process can be requested from [email protected].