Data Scientist and Research Software Engineer

The role

The Jean Golding Institute is the central hub for data science and AI at the University of Bristol. We are looking for an enthusiastic Data Scientist with AI or other data science expertise to join the seven-member strong Research Engineering Team at the Institute. Comprising data scientists and research software engineers, the team is a pool of experts that can be deployed into research projects, to provide in-depth technical support in data science, artificial intelligence (AI) and research software engineering.

What will you be doing?

Team members are assigned to multiple long- and short-term research projects from across the University. Typically, team members will be assigned to one long-term research project for 50% of their time, plus an additional smaller or short-term project. The rest of their time is spent contributing to other Institute activities to develop data science, AI and research software engineering capacity at the University. These include assisting day-to-day with queries received through our internal helpdesk, developing and delivering training for researchers (such as best-practice methods in data science, AI and software engineering), facilitating internal and external events (such as seminars, workshops, interest groups, data competitions, hackathons and outreach) and networking with researchers to develop funding bids including support from the Institute.

You should apply if

You should have experience, preferably in a team environment, of engineering AI solutions to problems (especially neural networks or large language models) and/or applying data science techniques (such as Bayesian or similar statistical modelling).

You should be comfortable collaborating with researchers outside your own area of expertise, and able to recommend and implement technical solutions in those areas. You should be able to communicate the advantages and disadvantages of the various techniques/tools that you recommend and agree a suitable approach for each project.

You should have fluency in Python and/or R, but demonstrable use of other programming languages for research and/or an interest in learning new languages, is most welcome.

You should have experience applying best practices in software engineering, such as version control, testing and documentation, and be able to embed those practices within the projects you work on.

Whilst we encourage you to have your own areas of interest and speciality within data science and AI, you should be prepared to work on a wide range of projects, as dictated by the needs of researchers at the University.

Additional information

School/Unit: Institutes

This advert will close at 23:59 UK time on Sunday 7th September.

For informal queries about the role, please contact James Thomas, Senior Data Scientist on j.thomas@bristol.ac.uk or 0117 455 6206.

Our strategy and mission

We recently launched our strategy to 2030 tying together our mission, vision and values.

The University of Bristol aims to be a place where everyone feels able to be themselves and do their best in an inclusive working environment where all colleagues can thrive and reach their full potential. We want to attract, develop, and retain individuals with different experiences, backgrounds and perspectives – particularly people of colour, LGBT+ and disabled people - because diversity of people and ideas remains integral to our excellence as a global civic institution.

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