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 Principal Data Scientist to join the Product Group and help accelerate the value unlocked by our existing machine learning products and help the discipline grow into new opportunities.

Role Responsibility

The role of Principal 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.

Principal 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. Not only will you become part of a highly cross-functional team, you will be responsible for managing day-to-day project work in the Product Growth data science team.

You’ll bring significant 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 a good understanding of data science best practices, and experience implementing effective ways of working in previous teams.

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?

Technical skills and analytical thinking:

• Strong understanding of data science and machine learning techniques, including recent advances and their applications for implementation in a production environment
• Strong working knowledge of data science best practice
• Good knowledge of working with cloud services, and the main challenges involved
• Good understanding of how to evaluate algorithms and ML model lifecycle management
• Ability to identify suitable algorithms for different purposes, taking into account and balancing different metrics and evaluation strategies
• Strong coding skills, particularly in R or Python
• Good knowledge of code management and deployment
• Experience with model lifecycle management and MLOps would be a plus

Teamwork and stakeholder management:

• Proven track record of delivering value in production
• Ability to steer day-to-day project work for other data scientists, and support the team in working effectively
• Ability to prioritise and work in a structured manner, to ensure delivery in a timely fashion, balancing quality, cost, and speed
• Ability to contribute effectively in a cross-functional team
• Ability to clearly communicate to both technical and non-technical audiences, both regarding short-term decisions and longer-term strategy
• Excited about personal development and learning

Package Description

Band: D
Contract type: Permanent
Location: Hybrid working (part home/part office). Office base can be Salford, Glasgow, Newcastle or London

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 competitive salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 26 days (1 of which is a corporation day) with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care, gym and much more.

About the BBC

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 in the document attached below.

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.

To find out more about Diversity and Inclusion at the BBC, please click here