Associate Data Scientist - GDS - SEO

Location

Bristol, London, Manchester

About the job

Job summary

The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government. We are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government. 

Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by: 

joining up public sector services 
harnessing the power of AI for the public good 
strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure 
elevating leadership and investing in talent 
funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation 
committing to transparency and driving accountability 

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government. 

We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol. 

The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale. 

Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You'll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need 

The GDS IDEA (Insight, Data Science, Economics, and Analysis) Unit is looking for talented data scientists to join our dynamic, high-impact, multidisciplinary team. We combine cutting-edge AI, advanced data science, and analytical expertise to deliver powerful insights, automation efficiency, and build the evidence base that drives smarter, more impactful decisions across DSIT.

Job description

As an Associate Data Scientist you will be instrumental in developing and deploying large language model (LLM) applications, design, build and maintain robust cloud hosted data pipelines, and creating interactive dashboards and visual reports to support decision making. Our team has a unique blend of data science, software engineering and cloud infrastructure components, giving you the opportunity to take projects from initial concept through model development and testing, to full-scale deployment. We are looking for proactive, self-starting candidates who are keen to broaden their skills, embrace software engineering best practices, and deepen their understanding of cloud technologies.

This is an exciting opportunity to support innovative work within government. You’ll be helping to harness the power of data and AI to shape the UK’s future in digital transformation, driving evidence-based decisions that deliver real societal impact. At DSIT, you’ll join a collaborative and inclusive environment where diverse perspectives are valued, and where you can thrive, grow, and make a difference.

As an Associate Data Scientist you’ll:

design, develop, and maintain LLM-powered applications, ensuring scalable and robust AI solutions
design, build, and optimise cloud-hosted ETL workflows for both structured and unstructured data
explore and deliver proof-of-concepts for emerging AI technologies, evaluating their business value and practical applications
collaborate with stakeholders to identify and deliver impactful AI use cases across the organisation
create clear, compelling, and interactive visualisations that communicate complex data insights to both technical and non-technical audiences
gather and refine reporting requirements, tailoring data visualisation solutions to meet stakeholder needs
engage with programme leads and stakeholders to ensure analytical approaches are appropriate and outputs meet end-user expectations
present, document, and communicate analytical findings to key decision-makers in a clear and actionable way
actively contribute to team learning and your own continuous professional development (CPD), aligning with organisational goals
work within Agile, multidisciplinary teams to deliver data science solutions, defining minimum viable products (MVPs) and iterating based on user needs

Person specification

We’re interested in people who have:

python expertise: strong experience with core libraries (pandas, numpy, scikit-learn) and writing clear, modular, reusable code with error handling and logging
data visualisation: ability to build interactive dashboards and reports using tools such as Plotly, Dash, Matplotlib or Streamlit
cloud and tooling: experience with AWS ( S3, Lambda, Bedrock, Athena, or SNS.),  or other cloud services Azure, or GCP;  and familiarity with version control (Git/GitHub), command line, and IDEs
software engineering practices: unit testing (e.g. pytest), code reviews, and general good practice in collaborative development
applied data science: strong grounding in statistics and a range of standard techniques (supervised/unsupervised ML, cross-validation, time-series, NLP basics, SQL)
experience building end-to-end LLM applications (prompt engineering, data models, API integration, input/output handling).
communication skills:  able to explain technical work clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences
delivery and collaboration: proactive, self-motivated, organised, and effective at working to deadlines as part of a team

To be considered for this role, you must have the following:

relevant professional experience in a data science or related field, or a combination of qualifications/certifications and experience that demonstrates technical capability

If you meet a few of those criteria but think that you might not meet every last one then don’t let that stop you from submitting an application