Data Scientist

Our experts working in Insight and Decision Science (IDS) are at the forefront of understanding consumers and creating actionable insight about their behaviours, attitudes, needs, how they like to interact and what makes them tick. This consumer intelligence helps deliver a better experience and service to consumers and improves marketing performance. We have developed, and are responsible for, one of the most powerful, large-scale consumer data sets in the World, combining detailed consumer cross-platform viewing behaviours with transactions, interactions, profiles, needs, attitudes and preferences across a wide breadth of UK and ROI households. We deliver a premium service to many parts key parts of Sky and are truly dedicated to helping achieve their objectives. We are forward-thinking and customer-centric, everything we do is thorough and rigorous and is driven by passion.

IDS employs a considerable team across five locations in a variety of specialist skills including data development, analytics, research, report development, decision execution, CRM, insight consultancy, software development and econometrics and has a very extensive and deep stakeholder base across 30+ areas of Sky, covering every subject - from acquisition to retention, from on-screen to online, from marketing effectiveness to targeted advertising. Sky IDS is a people-oriented organisation which takes personal development very seriously, so we'll help you to grow, with excellent training and development opportunities from the very start.

This position will sit within our new Big Data team tasked with unlocking value contained in large/semi-structured data across the business. The team actively identifies new opportunities and rapidly innovates, by developing new tools and systems to exploit the data using state-of-the-art technology & algorithms.

This is a role designed to enable the Big Data team to produce rigorously tested analytic systems and results of the highest quality. The ideal candidate will help take the lead in establishing a strong Data Science capability and instilling best practice in their discipline as the team grows. 

With a superb analytical and business-focused mind, the Data Scientist will come from a strong quantitative background and be self-motivated to identify new opportunities in the growing ocean of data, deliver compelling proposals, and turn those into effective tools to drive the business forward.

He or she will work closely with product teams/business stakeholders, other technology teams, and Big Data software engineers within the team in a 'hands-on' fashion to help design new projects and guide them through successful delivery and validation.

Main Responsibilities:
Design algorithms, build models, and prototype solutions for multiple projects and stakeholders
Work closely with an engineering team to translate prototypes into high quality production solutions
Use machine learning and large-scale data mining techniques to discover and identify actionable patterns in data and develop hypotheses and models
Design hypothesis tests, oversee execution, and perform rigorous statistical evaluation of the results to produce actionable insights
Manage stakeholders and guide them in unlocking the value in their data
Champion the scientific method and strive for excellence in results at all times, balanced with working in an 'Agile' way to achieve rapid turnaround

Essential Skills:
Solid experience as a Research Scientist with an advanced degree
Strong background in statistics and statistical theory
Strong working knowledge of data mining algorithms including decision trees, probability networks, association rules, clustering, regression, and artificial neural networks
Hands-on experience with Hadoop, Hive and HBase
Experienced in Spark and/or Storm
Demonstrated ability to build prototype software using any modern programming language such as Scala, Java, C++, Python, etc
Demonstrated working knowledge of statistical tools such as R, MATLAB, etc
Ability to map business needs to engineering systems
Ability to work as part of a team delivering real-world results
Creative, innovative thinker with outstanding problem-solving skills
Meticulous and thorough, with a healthy respect for quality & standards
Outstanding verbal and written communication skills

Desired Skills:
Machine Learning exposure, especially Apache Mahout
Experience in Scalding or Cascading
Strong background in RDBMS, data modelling and SQL
Experience in creating/consuming RESTful APIs
Social network analytics experience a plus

Qualifications:
BSc/MSc in Maths, Statistics, Computer Science, Physics or related
PhD in a numerate subject would be a big plus 
Proven senior level experience of managing large and complex business relationships possibly from a systems integrator or large scale services outsourcer
Proven experience of successfully managing multiple (disparate) teams within a matrix organisation structure
Proven successful track record of driving material service improvements and efficiency within a blue chip client organisation
Experience of dealing with business stakeholders at senior level
Proven experience of defining and delivering operational change in a complex environment