Package Description

Job Reference:19475
Band:D
Salary: £49,500-£72,900 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.
Contract type:Permanent
Location:London, Glasgow, Salford or Newcastle. This is a hybrid role, and the successful candidate will balance office working with home working.

We’re happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application. There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

 
Excellent career progression –the BBC offers great opportunities for employees to seek new challenges and work in different areas of the organisation.

Unrivalled training and development opportunities– our in-house Academy hosts a wide range of internal and external courses and certification.

Benefits- We offer a negotiable salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 25 days annual leave with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care and gym.

You can find out more about working at the BBC by selecting this link to our .

If you need to discuss adjustments or access requirements for the interview process, please contact the . For any general queries, please contact: .

Job Introduction

The BBC has been serving audiences online for more than 20 years. Across key products including BBC iPlayer, News, Sport, Weather and Sounds, we entertain, educate and inform audiences in their millions every day. 

But behind the scenes we have work to do. We are making the shift from being a broadcaster that speaks to our audiences to becoming a service that is directly shaped by them and designed around their wants and needs. We are creating personalised content, products and services that bring the right content, to the right people, at the right time: a personalised BBC. This will be our greatest leap since iPlayer, and that’s why it’s right at the top of our agenda. 

At the BBC we see data science as fundamental on that journey. We use data and machine learning to enrich our content and power personalised experiences for millions of audience members. We’re looking for a Senior Data Scientist to join the Product Growth team in helping accelerate the value unlocked by our existing machine learning products and help the discipline grow into new opportunities. The successful candidate will be one of the team’s key contributors across several exciting projects that enrich the BBC’s understanding of its audiences and their product needs.

Interview Process

2 interviews: 
- A screening call (with the hiring manager) covering motivations for applying
- One 90-minute interview, comprising a technical presentation and some behavioural questions covering relevant competencies for the role (with the hiring manager plus a small panel)

Main Responsibilities

The role of Senior Data Scientist at the BBC is hands-on; you’ll use your technical skills to deliver value to BBC audiences. We are looking for individuals who value both breadth and depth of knowledge. 

Senior Data Scientists at the BBC are expected to have impact within their immediate team and beyond, across the wider BBC. You’ll be instrumental in developing machine learning products at BBC scale. You will become a key contributor within a cross-functional team, using data science and machine learning to solve commercial problems relating to BBC products.

You’ll bring experience of being an effective team contributor and making use of your knowledge of different machine learning algorithms to solve complex problems. You’ll have an understanding of data science best practices.

You’ll have the opportunity to get involved with the wider data science community, both at the BBC and externally. We’d love to see enthusiasm about sharing your knowledge and growing others.

Are you the right candidate

Essential criteria: 
• Strong understanding of data science and machine learning techniques, and their applications
• Excellent ability to communicate to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Good general coding skills, particularly in Python or R
• Good knowledge of data science modelling and evaluation best practices
• Knowledge of code management and deployment best practices
Desirable experience: 
• Knowledge of working with cloud services, and the main challenges involved
• Proven track record of delivering value in production
• Ability to prioritise. A structured approach and ability to bring others on the journey
• Ability to contribute effectively in a cross-functional team
• Excited about personal development and learning

You are encouraged to apply even if you don’t meet every one of the criteria above!

About the BBC

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC for different reasons and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.

We don’t focus simply on what we do – we also care how we do it. Our values and the way we behave are important to us. Please make sure you’ve read about our values and behaviours .

Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC – whether that’s to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.