Principal Data Scientist

JOB BAND: D
CONTRACT TYPE: Permanent, Full-time
DEPARTMENT: BBC Product Group, Authoring & Curation, Content Creation AI
LOCATION: London / Cardiff / Newcastle / Salford / Glasgow – Hybrid (1-2 days in the office per week)
PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: £73,000 - £83,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

We're happy to discuss flexible working. If you'd like to, please indicate your preference in the application – though there's no obligation to do so now. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

At the BBC, data science is fundamental on our journey towards being a digital-first platform, creating personalised content and products that bring the right content, to the right people, at the right time.

As a Principal Data Scientist in the Content Creation AI team within Authoring & Curation, you will be working with journalists and editors to improve workflows, enabling them to better produce, describe and curate content that serves the needs of our audience.

WHY JOIN THE TEAM
By joining the Content Creation AI team you will be joining a growing, cross-functional team. You’ll work with engineers, user researchers and a product manager to identify and prioritise user needs in authoring and curation workflows, building and testing proof of concepts, and then deploying solutions for integration with user-facing tools.

YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND IMPACT

• The role of Principal Data Scientist at the BBC is hands-on: you’ll use your technical skills to deliver value to internal stakeholders within authoring and curation. We are looking for individuals who have significant breadth and depth of data science expertise.
• Principal Data Scientists at the BBC are expected to have impact within their immediate team and across the wider BBC. Working with engineers, user researchers and product, you will be instrumental in the technical decisions required to develop and support AI products at scale.
• You will bring significant experience of being an effective contributor in a cross-functional team and communicating with external stakeholders.
• You will collaborate closely with user researchers and product to identify opportunities for where AI can be used, using your extensive knowledge of AI.
• You’ll join the wider BBC data science community, with internal and external opportunities to get involved, share your knowledge and shape the ecosystem. On a team level, you will support the development of more junior members of the team.

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA:

• A deep understanding of data science and machine learning techniques, including best practices, recent advances and their applications for implementation in a production environment.
• Strong working knowledge of data science/engineering best practice, including working with cloud services and strong coding skills, particularly in Python, including knowledge of code management and deployment.
• A proven track record of delivering value in production, and technical decision-making.
• The ability to contribute effectively in a cross-functional team, including the ability to prioritise and work in a structured manner to ensure timely delivery while balancing quality, cost and speed.
• The ability to clearly communicate to both technical and non-technical audiences, both regarding short-term decisions and longer-term strategy.

DESIRED BUT NOT REQUIRED:

• A strong understanding of Generative AI techniques, notably large language models, including recent advances and their applications for responsible implementation in a production environment.
• Experience working with text and/or AV media.
• Experience of working in an Agile framework.
• Experience of supporting other data scientists with their technical work to deliver value in production.

If you can bring some of these skills and experience, along with transferable strengths, we’d love to hear from you and encourage you to apply.

Before your start date, you may need to disclose any unspent convictions or police charges, in line with our Contracts of Employment policy. This allows us to discuss any support you may need and assess any risks. Failure to disclose may result in the withdrawal of your offer.

Disclaimer

This is a written statement of the essential characteristics of the job, with its principal accountabilities, incorporating a note of the skills, knowledge and experience required for a satisfactory level of performance. This is not intended to be a complete, detailed account of all aspects of the duties involved.

Please note: If you were to be offered this role, the BBC will conduct Employment screening checks which include Reference checks; Eligibility to work checks; and if applicable to the role, Safeguarding and Adverse media/Social media checks. Any offer made is conditional on these checks being satisfactory.

For any general queries, please contact: [email protected]