Senior Principal Data Scientist, NLP

Job Band

Job number 21462

Principal Senior Data Scientist - NLP 
Salary range: Up to £118,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights
Contract type: permanent contract
Location: London or Salford based

Our comprehensive benefits package includes:

• An employer pension contribution of up to 10%
• 26 days’ annual leave (based on full time hours) + bank holidays and the option to buy/sell additional days
• Contributory lifestyle benefit options including discounts at hundreds of retailers, cycle to work scheme, discounted gym memberships and healthcare schemes 
• Employee assistance and well-being programmes
• Learning and development tailored to your role – this could include industry recognised qualifications, coaching and mentoring
• An inclusive and diverse environment with opportunities to join staff networks including: Women’s Network, National Disability Networks and many more.

Family friendly flexible working arrangements, such as hybrid working, job sharing, flexitime and compressed hours can be requested.

We welcome candidates from all backgrounds and especially welcome individuals from underrepresented groups. 

If you require any reasonable adjustments at any time, please let us know by contacting us on k with the job reference in the subject.

Introduction

BBC R&D’s AI Research Applied Area is focussed on the use of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence across the BBC. AI Research works closely with other BBC R&D Applied Research Areas, BBC Product and Technology Groups and senior business stakeholders across the BBC to accelerate Machine Learning based innovation.

Reporting to the Head of AI Research, the Senior Principal Data Scientist will lead a team of machine learning researchers focusing on natural language processing.

As a Senior Principal Data Scientist, you will play a key role in driving technical excellence and innovation. You will lead a team of machine learning scientists, providing mentorship and technical guidance while ensuring that the team’s work aligns with business objectives. This is a hands-on role that involves active hands-on contribution.

Interview process 

• Machine Learning system design interview 
• Coding interview 
• BBC culture fit and values alignment interview 

Responsibilities

• Provide technical leadership for projects involving fine tuning / alignment of large language models
• Lead the design and development of scalable generative language and multimodal models and algorithms.
• Mentor and guide a team of individual contributors, fostering a culture of excellence and continuous improvement.
• Set clear expectations and create a positive work environment, collaborating closely with engineering and management teams.
• Contribute to the AI Research Team’s portfolio by publishing novel research in top-tier journals and conferences.

Are you the right candidate

• Ph.D. in Machine Learning, Computer Science or a related field.
• 7+ years of experience in machine learning, with a focus on NLP.
• Proven track record of research excellence and innovation in computer vision or NLP.
• Deep understanding of machine learning systems, from concept through to deployment, with the ability to communicate effectively to both technical and non-technical stakeholders.
• Proficiency with machine learning frameworks, such as PyTorch or TensorFlow.
• Strong expertise in deep learning algorithms, model architectures, and the AI development lifecycle.
• Hands-on experience with the latest technologies and models in NLP.
• Strong programming skills in Python and familiarity with software development best practices.
• Excellent verbal and written communication skills.
• Passion for innovation.

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 here.

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.