Product Group is responsible for the design, development, and delivery of the BBC’s portfolio of digital products. Our mission comes straight from the BBC’s four priorities: to deliver content that is loved by all audiences, and to extract more from online by joining up the whole of the BBC to connect more deeply with our audiences.

Including iPlayer, Sounds, Bitesize, and the BBC News and BBC Sport apps and website, our portfolio is diverse and contains some of the largest and highest-profile properties on the UK internet. We’re a huge streaming media destination, a news source trusted across the world, a provider of educational and entertaining content to children of all ages, and a sports results, analysis, and commentary service, and much more besides. It's an unparalleled portfolio of products, and our strength is our range and breadth. Working with the BBC’s content divisions, our focus now is on driving engagement across our portfolio so that the BBC online becomes a valued daily habit for all audiences just as television and radio have been over the last century.

Data is fundamental to our future: both in helping us prioritise and shape our work and in creating richer, more personalised experiences for our audiences. And our portfolio means that we’ve got one of the widest, most diverse, and most exciting datasets to work within the UK.

In 2022 we'll be looking to grow our Data Science team and will have a number of exciting opportunities at Data Scientist and Senior Data Scientist level. If you'd like to know more, please click apply and register your interest.

Role Responsibility

Data Scientist

The role of Data Scientist at the BBC is hands-on, where you are expected to use your technical skills to deliver value to the BBC’s audience. A Data Scientist is T-Shaped, mixing a breadth and depth of knowledge. Data Scientists at the BBC are instrumental in developing machine learning solutions that provide value to the BBC audience at BBC scale. 

You will be working as part of a highly cross functional team to solve complex problems. We expect you to have some understanding of the challenges of deploying machine learning into production and experience of being an effective contributor within a team. You should have had some exposure to different machine learning algorithms and should understand data science best practice. Experience with model management / algorithmic lifecycle management / MLOps, as well as involvement in the data science community, would be positives.

Senior Data Scientist

The role of Senior Data Scientist at the BBC is hands-on, where you are expected to use your technical skills to deliver value to the BBC’s audience. A Senior Data Scientist is T-Shaped, mixing a breadth and depth of knowledge. Senior Data Scientists are instrumental in developing machine learning solutions that provide value to the BBC audience at BBC scale. 

You are expected to have impact within your immediate team and beyond, across the wider BBC. You will be working in a highly cross functional team to solve complex problems. We expect you to have a strong appreciation of the challenges of deploying machine learning into production (ideally on a cloud platform) and experience of being an effective contributor within a team. You should have had a wide exposure to different machine learning algorithms and should be experts in data science best practice (making sure we deploy the simplest possible algorithms first and that there is proper evaluation in place). Experience with model management / algorithmic lifecycle management / MLOps, as well as involvement in the data science community, would be positives.

The Ideal Candidate

When it comes to Data Science at the BBC we look for these technical skills and analytical thinking:

• Strong understanding of analysis, machine learning and data science techniques, including recent advances and their applications for implementation in a production environment
• Working knowledge of data science best practice
• Ability to work with a big data framework and understanding of the main challenges involved
• Understanding of how to evaluate algorithms and of model lifecycle management
• Good general programming skills
• Knowledge of code management and deployment

When it comes to teamwork and stakeholder management we look for:

• Proven track record of delivering value in production
• A structured approach, clarity of thought and an ability to bring others on the journey
• Ability to contribute effectively in a cross functional team
• Ability to clearly communicate to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Ability to listen to others’ ideas and build on them
• Ability to put themselves in the shoes of the audience
• Ability to prioritise
• Excitement about personal development and learning