Lead Data Scientist

Education changes lives forever. It broadens horizons, breaks down barriers, and fires imaginations. Like the University of Oxford of which we are a part, we are committed to uncompromising standards, freedom of expression, and the enrichment of lives through education. This is our motivation, our purpose, and our mission. It is why 100% of the money we make is reinvested into education and research. It is why we all care deeply about reaching more people, in more places, with world-class learning and research materials and services.

Are you passionate about AI, Machine Learning, and their real-world applications? Join our English Language Teaching division, where you'll play a pivotal role in building a new data science capability. You'll collaborate with content, platform, sales, and technology teams to create innovative solutions that enhance the learner experience and optimize internal operations.

What You'll Do:

• Develop classical ML models (classification, prediction, recommendation) for customer-facing products and marketing.
• Utilize generative AI (prompt engineering, RAG, fine-tuning) to enhance content creation and learner personalization.
• Work closely with pedagogy experts to align AI initiatives with effective language learning principles.
• Collaborate with data engineers and analysts across the organization to drive best practices and cutting-edge solutions.

What We're Looking For:

• Data Analytics & Insights: Experience working with diverse data sets to develop insights and add value, using data analytics tools and techniques.
• Technical Expertise: Proficiency in SQL for handling large data volumes and Python for building classical ML models (classification, prediction, recommendation) in a data science environment.
• AI & ML Knowledge: Strong understanding of AI and ML techniques, including the ability to apply them across different projects from scoping to deployment.
• Communication & Collaboration: Ability to effectively communicate complex data science concepts to non-specialists and work well in cross-functional teams.
• Problem Solving & Initiative: Demonstrated ability to take the initiative, solve problems, and deliver results independently.

We operate a hybrid working policy that requires a minimum of 2 days per week in the Oxford office.

Benefits

We care about work/life balance here at OUP. With this in mind we offer 25 days' holiday that rises with service, plus bank holidays and Christmas closure (3-days) and a 35-hour working week. We are open to discussing flexibility in respect to working patterns, dependent on role. We also have a great variety of active employee networks and societies.

We help make your money go further by contributing to your pension up to 12%, offering loans and savings schemes through our partnership with Salary Finance, in addition to travel to work schemes and access to a wide range of local discounts.

Please see our Rewards and Recognition page for more information.

Queries

Please contact with any queries relating to this role.

We are committed to supporting diversity in our workforce, and ensuring an inclusive environment where all individuals can thrive. We seek to employ a workforce representative of the markets that we serve and encourage applications from all.