Named in honour of Alan Turing, the Institute is a place for inspiring, exciting work and we need passionate, sharp, and innovative people who want to use their skills to contribute to our mission to make great leaps in data science and AI research to change the world for the better.

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The Tools, Practices and Systems (TPS) research programme at the Turing represents a cross-cutting set of initiatives that seek to build open source infrastructure that is accessible to all and to empower a global, decentralised network of people who connect data with domain experts.

The Turing Way is an open source community-driven guide to reproducible, ethical, inclusive and collaborative data science. Hosted by the TPS research programme, The Turing Way is internationally recognised for influencing data science culture across government, funders, policy, and healthcare sectors. The Turing Way team and community members have informed high-profile reports and policies, as well as serve as core advisors and leaders on global initiatives around open science and reproducibility, led by several international organisations.

To directly enhance impact and expertise by embedding best practices into organisations leading data science and AI research, The Turing Way is establishing a Practitioner's Hub. The Turing Way Practitioners Hub can only achieve - and communicate - its ambitious goals if it is delivered by involving and supporting domain experts from different sectors (such as academia, industry, government, research organisations and the public) applying data science.

ROLE PURPOSE

The Senior Research Associate will lead collaborative and interdisciplinary research for The Turing Way Practitioners Hub. They will design, conduct and communicate community-based research facilitating cross-sector exchange and adoption of research best practices in alignment with The Turing Way goals.

They will be leading the delivery of the Practitioners Hub alongside the project leads, and create equitable opportunities for everyone to share best practices openly. They will support representatives from participating organisations to share and promote the skills from their respective sectors, as well as identify what collaborators from a range of diverse backgrounds need to effectively work together. They will identify areas of implicit knowledge and expertise within The Turing Way Practitioners Hub and make this information explicit so that everyone interested can effectively collaborate with each other and identify opportunities to transfer knowledge from one sector to another.

DUTIES AND AREAS OF RESPONSIBILITY

• Conduct community-based research that engages the Practitioners Hub stakeholders in high-quality interdisciplinary and collaborative ways, enabling documentation, knowledge exchange and transfer of best practices from across different sectors, while working openly and reproducibly with qualitative data.
• As a part of the project’s leadership and management team, lead on strategic engagement, foster collaboration and facilitate knowledge exchange within the Practitioners Hub.
• Work with the Research Application Manager to establish new collaborations, contributing to building future strategy and accelerating the adoption of The Turing Way practices across sectors.
• Work with The Turing Way Community Manager to curate relevant resources from The Turing Way and the wider open science ecosystem, ensure regular communication between The Turing Way and the Practitioners Hub, document processes and identify needs for skills or capacity building.
• Be an active contributor to The Turing Way project and exemplify the practices we want to promote within the Practitioners Hub.
• Communicate technical topics to colleagues and external partners by preparing and presenting reports, and blog posts, organising and delivering presentations, and facilitating events as needed.
• Contribute to the research aims and challenges of the Tools, Practices and Systems programme, and those of the Turing Institute more broadly.

• PhD in a relevant area or equivalent qualification/level of industry experience.
• Knowledge of best practices for producing open, reliable and collaborative research, and reproducible analyses.
• Experience with open research practices and community-led co-creation or team science approaches.
• Experience with qualitative and/or ethnographic research methods which involves building an understanding of collecting, handling, analysing and communicating qualitative user experience data.
• Record of publishing articles, FAIR data sets, and/or open source software libraries for an academic audience.
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to present complex information and conceptual ideas to a range of audiences.
• The ability to synthesise meta-practices from sector-specific work and create accessible reports for both academic and lay audiences.

Please see the job description for a full breakdown of the duties, responsibilities and person specification

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 and covering letter. If you have questions about the role or would like to apply using a different format, please contact us on 020 3862 3533 or 0203 862 3516, or email [email protected].

CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: Sunday 12 March 2023 at 23:59

If you are applying for more than one role at the Turing, please note that only one Cover Letter can be visible on your profile at one time. If you wish to apply for multiple roles and do not want to overwrite your existing Cover Letter, please apply for the role using the button below and forward your additional cover letter directly to [email protected] quoting the job title.

If you are an internal applicant and wish to apply, please send your CV and Cover Letter directly to [email protected] and your application will be considered.

TERMS AND CONDITIONS

This full time post is offered on a fixed term basis for two years. The annual salary is £51,025-£52,500 plus excellent benefits, including flexible working and family friendly policies, https://www.turing.ac.uk/work-turing/why-work-turing/employee-benefits

Candidates who have not yet been officially awarded their PhD will be appointed as Research Assistant at a salary of £38,236 per annum

The Alan Turing Institute is based at the British Library, in the heart of London’s Knowledge Quarter.

We are currently assessing the results of our hybrid working trial, which ran for six months. We will soon publish a long-term workplace policy: as a guide, we anticipate this will be between 2-4 days per month. Some roles may require the jobholder to spend a greater number of days in the office, but the hiring manager will be able to confirm this during the interview.

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.

We are committed to making sure our recruitment process is accessible and inclusive. This includes making reasonable adjustments for candidates who have a disability or long-term condition. Please contact us at [email protected] to find out how we can assist you.

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].