Research Data Scientist/Research Software Engineer

Alan Turing Institute London United Kingdom Research Programmes
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Company Description

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.

Position

The Institute’s Research Engineering Group works towards maximising impact in data science research projects by realising cutting edge research as professionally usable software tools, so they can be used to address real-world challenges.

The Group’s staff are research software engineers, research data scientists and research computing engineers. We note the considerable overlap between these emerging roles and embrace the breadth of interdisciplinary skills and diversity of approaches entailed in these fields. Staff can choose any of these job titles and change their choice as their career progresses.

The Group is central to the Institute’s research landscape and will continue to be in high demand as the Institute expands and evolves. To support this, we will be recruiting on a rolling regular basis during throughout this year, appraising and interviewing candidates monthly to ensure we can keep up with the Institute’s expansion. .

With this expansion, the REG team is taking on more projects which offer a variety of opportunities to work with different colleagues, departments and partners.

ROLE PURPOSE

In contrast to traditional research careers, we are committed expert collaborators, who join research teams to further the Institute’s challenges. We collaborate with scholars across the Institute’s research community to enhance the applicability of research for particular problems. We work with clients in industry, government and the third sector to turn their data challenges into research questions. We value expertise across many domains, with current members of the Group having backgrounds in psychology, mathematics, digital humanities, research computing and other areas. We rely on this diversity to design tools, practices and systems to harness the power of data science around the world.

We create software that implements research and use it to analyse client data in a readable, reliable and reproducible fashion. We present conclusions of research and analysis to the research community and clients through presentations, research papers, blog posts, interactive data visualisations and open-source software packages. We work with state-of-the-art, high performance computing and cloud platforms to realise collaborators’ data science and artificial intelligence research at scale.

DUTIES AND AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

  • Apply 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 clients.
  • Collaborate with research colleagues to develop and maintain high-quality, well-tested software embodying research outputs.
  • Present, disseminate and explain our work via presentations, reports and well-documented software packages.
  • Contribute to the life of the Institute and support its community:
  • Deliver teaching and training to colleagues and students, including within the team in our regular skills sessions.
  • Support research colleagues to make the most of the Institute’s secure high performance computing environments for advanced research.

Requirements

  • A PhD or equivalent professional experience in a field with significant use of both computer programming and advanced statistical or numerical methods
  • Fluency in one or more modern programming languages used in research in data science and artificial intelligence
  • An understanding of the importance of good practices for producing reliable software and reproducible analyses, such as version control, issue tracking, automated testing, package management and literate analysis tools such as Jupyter and Rmarkdown.
  • Excellent written and verbal communication skills, including experience in the authoring of technical reports or research papers, and giving presentations or leading classes.
  • Experience managing, structuring, analysing and visualising research data and the results of computational experiments.
  • Ability to lead one’s own work independently, including planning and execution, and to collaborate productively as part of a team.

Please see the Job description for a full breakdown of the duties and responsibilities as well as the person specification.

Other information

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 (maximum 3 pages, no photos) and a cover letter (maximum 2 pages) telling us:

  • Your past experience working with code and/or data
  • Why you would like to become part of the Research Engineering Group
  • How your skillset would complement the activities of the team.

If you wish to share links to blog posts, public code repositories or research papers containing work that you have made significant contribution to, please add a link to those in your cover letter.

For questions about the role and the recruiting process check the Frequently Asked Questions or get in touch with us at [email protected]. If you would like to apply using a different format, please contact [email protected] where you can discuss this further.

We encourage applicants to upload their CV and supporting documents in PDF format. Please contact [email protected] if you have any issues uploading a PDF to our system.

CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: 22 June 2022 at 23:59

INTERVIEW PROCESS

All interviews are currently held remotely, and we operate a two-stage interview process. If you are successful at the screening stage, you will be asked to attend the first interview via video call. In this interview, you will be expected to give a ten-minute presentation on code you have written that either demonstrates an algorithm that you consider important in data science or illustrates your use of good research software engineering practices. Existing examples of work are encouraged as long as the code was substantially written by you. You should be prepared to answer questions about both the code and the research challenge it addresses or the algorithm it demonstrates. Any source code shared for the interview will be treated in the strictest of confidence.

The second interview is usually held about one week later for successful candidates. This interview focusses on your previous experience and competencies for the role. There will also be a problem-solving discussion with the interview panel, where you will use a whiteboard and pen to arrive to an understanding of a proposed data analysis or software development challenge.

In both interviews, there will be the opportunity to ask questions about the role and the team.

TERMS & CONDITIONS

This full-time post is offered on a permanent basis. The annual salary for this role is £40,000 - £46,000 (depending on skills and experience), with the possibility of progression once in post up to £48,491. There will also be opportunities for promotions to senior positions, to which new members are considered eligible after at least one year in the team.


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 can also be made for any candidates with a disability.

Please note all offers of employment are subject to continuous eligibility 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].

From 01 March 2022, we will trial a Hybrid Working Model for an initial six-month trial period. During this period, staff will be expected to work at our British Library office for a number of days per month, dependent on the requirements of the role. As a guide, we anticipate this will be between 2-4 days per month, but the hiring manager will be able to confirm this during the interview.