Full time, part time, flexible working
Permanent
Belfast, Cardiff, Edinburgh, London or Manchester
£42,924 - £46,697 per annum
This is an exciting opportunity to use your data science skills for the public good and join the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) as a member of the Data, Technology and Analytics (DaTA) unit, an established multidisciplinary team that brings together data scientists, data engineers, technologists, behavioural scientists and digital forensics and eDiscovery experts.
The CMA is a world-leading competition authority at the forefront of tackling pressing public policy questions, including the regulation of the biggest digital markets. Our mission is to make markets work well in the interests of consumers, businesses, and the economy.
The data science and engineering team
You will join an established team of approximately 15 data scientists and data engineers within the wider DaTA Unit. We provide analytical support for CMA legal cases and develop tools to improve how the CMA operates. We build most of our tools ourselves, on top of open-source software, using our custom analysis platform built in AWS. Data scientists in our team have space to explore the use of new, cutting-edge techniques in data processing and machine learning, including large language models and generative AI. We work in a collaborative way, with a focus on sharing our knowledge and experience across the team.
Examples of projects we’ve worked on recently include:
- developing a tool that uses natural language processing to improve how the CMA processes documents
- exploring the use of large language models for extracting key information from CMA case data
- supporting a CMA market study with the acquisition and analysis of a large and complex dataset
- using web-scraped data to run a causal study to determine the features in a tech platform’s ranking algorithm
- building a live machine learning tool that collects and classifies news articles to support the CMA’s merger investigation team
The role
As a Data Scientist, your key responsibilities will include:
- the technical delivery of data science and analysis to support CMA legal cases, with guidance from senior team members
- the development of data science tools to support the functions of the CMA
- producing high quality “production” code in Python (other languages such as R or SQL might be used as needed)
- carrying out regular reviews of code written by other team members
- writing and presenting the output of analyses to technical and non-technical audiences
- contributing to scoping projects and designing their data science solutions, as well as team planning sessions, retrospectives and training
- identifying competition and consumer protection issues that CMA could address using data science methods
- working with multi-disciplinary case teams and developing strong working relationships with internal stakeholders across the CMA and its specialisms
What we’re looking for
We are looking for data scientists that are passionate about using their technical skills to help ensure that markets work well, and that consumers are treated fairly. Successful candidates will have a strong interest in using data science in a multi-disciplinary context, working together with other technical specialists at the CMA, such as economists, behavioural scientists, and lawyers.
The successful candidates will have:
- an undergraduate degree in a quantitative subject or equivalent experience working in data science
- experience delivering data science projects as part of a team, either through previous job roles or in academia
- strong knowledge of modern machine learning methods and tools
- a strong drive for self-directed learning and an interest in learning about the latest data science methods
- strong knowledge of methods for data extraction and data manipulation (knowledge of data engineering tools and techniques, such as AWS cloud services and git version control is a plus)
- experience of coding in Python specifically for data science or a related field (knowledge of additional languages such as R would be a plus)
- the ability to translate a problem statement into a data science proposal and then develop a solution
- good communication skills, with the ability to present analysis in a straightforward and engaging way, including to non-technical audiences
What we can offer you
The CMA is a hugely diverse, rewarding and stimulating place to work – an opportunity to work for the public good and to stretch and develop yourself in doing so. We offer generous benefits, including an excellent pension scheme with an average employer contribution of 27%, at least 25 days leave (increasing to 30 over five years), and generous maternity/paternity leave provision. You can also take advantage of interest-free season ticket loans, a cycle to work scheme, our employee assistance programme, and our extensive flexible working options.
To find out more about this opportunity and about working for the CMA, click on the Apply button.
The closing date for completed applications is 11:55 pm on 02 October 2023.
Like many other organisations, we operate a hybrid working model with a mix of office and home working. We believe this supports us to deliver our best work while allowing the flexibility to maintain balanced and healthy lives. We work at least 40% of our time from our office locations across the UK.
The CMA are an accredited Disability Confident Employer, and we are an equal opportunities employer, welcoming suitably qualified applicants from all backgrounds.
We recruit by merit on the basis of fair and open competition, as outlined in the Civil Service Commission's recruitment principles.
