Data Scientist

Higher education is being rapidly disrupted by digitisation, globalisation and industry moving into the educational space. At the same time, people’s job security is at risk from rapidly evolving industries, robotics & AI, increasing demand for up-to-date technical, data, digital skills, and shorter job spans. Increasingly we are all transforming into lifelong learners, looking to upskill, reskill or entertain ourselves via effective educational content that provides quality, credentialed and recognised outcomes. In emerging markets the internet is accelerating this trend and opening up access to educational products from universities or institutions thousands of miles away, where previously cost, travel or admission requirements would have made study impossible. FutureLearn was founded in 2012 by the Open University, with the purpose of channeling these trends and transforming access to lifelong education. As part of FutureLearn you will be able to work within a stimulating, multidisciplinary, inclusive and diverse working environment that promotes collaboration, teamwork (AGILE framework), personal initiatives and career growth.

About the role

We are currently looking to recruit an experienced Data Scientist. This is a unique opportunity to join a budding Data Science team at an exciting time in FutureLearn as we further grow and move towards a new and personalized product and marketing strategy. As a Data Scientist you will work on a diverse range of projects to solve key business problems, enable data-driven decision making and optimise and automate processes. You will be involved in the entire Data Science workflow. In practice, this means exploiting data of heterogeneous nature (financial, web logs, marketing, behavioural, course content) to scope, develop and deploy data-science products as well as producing self-contained statistical models and ad-hoc analyses to create business insights. FutureLearn has made significant investments into its data pipeline to enable fast, easy and scalable access to our data. Our data stack consists of Stitch, Snowflake, dbt and Looker. Python is the main programming language used for our Data-Science products and we mainly use Pyspark and AWS cloud tools to enable their scalability and automation. The Data Science team sits in the Data & Analytics Department and works alongside the Business Insights Analysts and Data Engineers.

Requirements

• 2+ years experience designing and developing data science and machine learning solutions to solve business problems in particular in the domain of product & marketing personalisation and customer value & experience journey analysis
• Bachelor’s/MSc/PhD in a quantitative discipline (Data Science, Machine Learning, Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering or similar) or equivalent relevant work experience
• Excellent knowledge in Python, including experience with packages such as Pandas, NumPy, SciPy, Scikit-learn, Matplotlib, Seaborn and good working knowledge of SQL/PostgreSQL
• Strong creative problem-solving skills and ability to work independently and to effectively collaborate within a cross-functional team environment
• Experience with statistical and machine learning techniques
• Experience of development and deployment of data science solutions within cloud environments (AWS, GCP, Azure)
• Knowledgeable in version control systems and hosting/sharing platforms such as Git/GitHub
• Experienced in communicating complex solutions in a clear and understandable way to both experts and non-experts.
• Ongoing desire to learn, develop and upskill yourself

Benefits

• Competitive salary
• Flexible working for all
• 28 days of Annual Leave plus UK Public Holidays
• Roll over up to 5 days Holiday
• Buy and Sell up to 5 days Holiday
• Personal ‘recharge’ days, no questions asked
• Personal budget for development and training
• 18 weeks of FutureLearn Maternity Pay and Adoption Pay (at your full basic pay)
• 6 weeks of FutureLearn Paternity Pay (at your full basic pay)
• Sabbatical Leave (up to 3 months of unpaid leave after 3 years)
• Cycle to Work scheme
• Season Ticket Loan
• Charity work – 1 day dedicated to a charity of your choice
• Free upgraded access on any FutureLearn short course and course fee waiver for Open University

At the moment, all FutureLearners work from home. When it is safe to go back into office, the working environment will be stimulating and fun, with lots of opportunities to collaborate, enjoy healthy snacks, good coffee and work out in the gym.

Once the office is open again this role will be a full time, office based role with a lot of flexibility to work remotely. We are still keen to meet you even if you are not London based. All interviews will be held online, via Zoom. Please let us know if you need any special arrangements for your interviews.

ABOUT FUTURELEARN
FutureLearn is a leading social learning platform formed in December 2012 by The Open University and is now jointly owned by The Open University and The SEEK Group. FutureLearn has over 10 million people signed up worldwide. FutureLearn uses design, technology and partnerships to create enjoyable, credible and flexible short online courses, microcredentials, as well as undergraduate and postgraduate degrees that improve working lives. It partners with over a quarter of the world’s top universities, as well as organisations such as Accenture, the British Council, CIPD, Raspberry Pi and Health Education England (HEE). It’s also involved in government-backed initiatives to address skills gaps such as The Institute of Coding and the National Centre for Computing Education

DIVERSITY IS CORE TO FUTURELEARN

We believe diversity matters and want to create an environment where that diversity can flourish. We encourage everyone to bring their whole self to work, regardless of gender, age, sexual orientation, race or disability.

COVID-19

We encourage freelancers and people who have been made redundant as a result of COVID-19 to apply for opportunities at FutureLearn. We believe that in these difficult times, good employers have to rise to the occasion and play their part in the community. At FutureLearn, we take care of each other.