Lead Data Scientist - NLP & Gen AI

Location: Guildford/hybrid

Salary: Dep on exp + car allowance + annual bonus + benefits

Who we are

Allianz is a global insurance company serving across 70 different countries, but from the very first day you join our team you’ll know that your contributions are valued. We offer world class learning and career development opportunities, while we celebrate an inclusive culture.

The role

As a Lead Data Scientist (NLP & GenAI) at Allianz Commercial, you will work closely with our team of data scientists, data engineers, ML engineers and analysts in designing and implementing solutions that extract insights from unstructured text data. You will have the opportunity to work on diverse projects, ranging from topic modelling and entity recognition to text generation, creating ontologies and conversational AI. This role requires strong technical skills, a solid foundation in NLP, and a passion for innovation and problem solving.

Responsibilities

• Implement ML/GenAI architectural strategy and roadmap developed at enterprise level and adapt to the vision of business stakeholders, ensuring it's in harmony with their strategic objectives.
• Research, design, and develop solutions using NLP models and algorithms to extract insights from unstructured text data.
• Collaborate closely with data engineers to pre-process and clean text data, ensuring data quality and compatibility with NLP models.
• Apply machine learning and deep learning techniques to tasks such as text classification, named entity recognition, knowledge search, topic modelling and text generation.
• Build and leverage knowledge graphs to enhance language understanding and enable more advanced NLP applications.
• Architect and advocate for comprehensive solutions that integrate AI/ML technologies fluidly with the current systems.
• Develop methods to integrate and utilize LLMs, such as GPT, BERT or open source foundational LLM’s (Llama2), for natural language understanding and generation tasks.
• Conduct thorough exploratory data analysis to gain insights into text data characteristics and develop effective pre-processing strategies.
• Collaborate with data engineers and MLops Engineers to integrate NLP models into our data pipelines and systems.
• Evaluate and benchmark different NLP algorithms, knowledge graph frameworks, and LLM architectures, and recommend the most suitable approaches for specific use cases.

• Stay up to date with the latest research and advancements in the field of NLP, knowledge graphs, and LLMs, and proactively apply them to enhance our NLP capabilities.
• Communicate findings and insights to both technical and non-technical stakeholders through reports, visualizations, and presentations.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define project goals, requirements, and success metrics.
• Engage in collaborative efforts with Enterprise Architects, MLOps Engineers to trial use cases and deliberate on architectural configurations.
• Mentor and provide guidance to junior team members, fostering their growth and development in NLP.

About you:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field. A combination of education and relevant experience will also be considered.
• Proven experience as a Data Scientist with a strong focus on NLP, knowledge graphs. Knowledge of leveraging Azure Open AI and various foundational LLM’s for Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) architecture including opensource would be desirable.
• Experience with graph machine learning (i.e., graph neural networks, graph data science) and practical applications thereof. This is complimented by your experience working with Knowledge Graph, creating ontologies leveraging Neo4j, GraphDB and query languages like Cypher.
• Experience with LLM architecture (e.g., Transformer, GANs, VAEs), Fine-tuning PEFT/LoRA, Context embedding, Vector database technologies and Semantic Search techniques & tools.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python and experience with NLP libraries such as NLTK, spaCy, Transformers, Hugging Face, BERT and Gen AI frameworks like Llangchain. Llamaindex etc.
• Data extraction from PDF documents leveraging python packages like Pypdf, Camelot and OCR based services like Azure Document intelligence, AWS Textract would be advantageous.
• Hands-on experience with deep learning frameworks, such as TensorFlow or PyTorch.
• Familiarity with Azure cloud platform services and distributed computing frameworks (e.g., SparkNLP) is a plus.
• Research developments in the InsurTech space that can be adopted. Propose creative and effective solutions. Innovate and adapt open-source models and technology solutions.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to handle complex NLP challenges.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively in cross-functional teams.

What we will offer you

Recognised and rewarded for a job well done, we have a range of flexible benefits for you to choose from- so you can pick a package that’s perfect for you. We also offer flexible working options, global career opportunities across the wider Allianz Group, and fantastic career development and training. That’s on top of enjoying all the benefits you’d expect from the world’s number one insurance brand, including:

• Annual bonus scheme
• Car allowance
• 30 days holiday plus bank holidays
• Private medical insurance
• Contributory pension scheme
• Life cover
• Group Income Protection
• Flexible buy/sell holiday options
• Flexible working arrangements
• A discount up to 50% on a range of insurance products including car, home and pet
• Retail discounts

Our ways of working

Do you need some flexibility with the hours you work? Let us know as part of your application and if it’s right for our customers, our business and for you, then we’ll do everything we can to make it happen.

Here at Allianz, we are signatories of the ABIs flexible working charter. We believe in supporting hybrid work patterns, which balance the needs of our customers, with your personal circumstances and our business requirements. Our aim with this is to help innovation, creativity, and you to thrive - Your work life balance is important to us.

Our Purpose and Values

We secure your future

Be Brave | With Heart | Everyone Counts | Inspiring Trust

Our purpose and values are more than just words on a website - they are the why and how of Allianz. They influence everything we do and guide us how to do it. Created by our people, for our people, they shape our culture, bring us together, and inspire us to be the best. Building an inclusive culture for us all to succeed.

Diversity & Inclusion

At Allianz, we value diversity and inclusion and back this up with our accreditations. Allianz is EDGE certified for gender inclusion, members of the Women in Finance Charter, members of the Stonewall Diversity Champion programme, signatories of Business in the Community’s Race at Work Charter, and an Armed Forces Covenant gold standard employer.

We have a range of employee networks focusing on gender inclusion, cultural diversity, LGBTQIA+, disability and long term health conditions (including neurodiversity), intergenerational and life stages, parents and carers, mental wellbeing, menopause support and armed forces and veterans, all supporting you to bring your best and authentic self to work.

Join us - Let’s Care for Tomorrow