Role: Senior Data Scientist
Reference: KEEP05
This role is part-funded by the ERDF

Focaldata is an AI company that helps marketing professionals make better decisions. With a mission to understand people in as much depth as possible, they leverage the latest techniques in probabilistic programming to make raw survey data go much farther than traditional market research currently does.

The main product is the focaldata platform where customers get access to unique insights, this might be understanding opinion in a local geography or being able to drill down on what certain demographic think. Think the power a million person survey from the sample size of a few thousand.

We are seeking a senior data scientist with expertise in generative models and Bayesian inference. This person will be responsible for building up a library on exceptional hierarchical models on a range of industries. You will help improve our data infrastructure, including our representation of the UK population, and how we use uncertainty (the full probability distribution) in the backend and frontend You will also be responsible for thinking creatively how to leverage the data we ingest, such as into informative priors and intelligent distributions so improve the quality of our predictions in an ongoing fashion

This role will suit you if you:

• Have a strong competency in Bayesian statistics (strongly desired), as well as multilevel model structures (ideal but not essential)
• Have total comfort in Python (essential), and familiarity with Stan (ideal but not essential)
• Are a leader used to taking initiative on research and development of new ideas
• Have experience working in a production environment and the associated rigour that comes with such code development
• Have worked with Git, Agile development, Docker, AWS, Django
• Are strong on databases and the benefits and tradeoffs of different database structures
• Have lots of ideas and prefer to experiment than dismiss anything as impossible
• Consider nothing too hard for you to understand if given the time

Benefits:

• Competitive salary and strong equity incentives: negotiable dependent on preferences for salary vs equity
• Team experience in London/Silicon Valley start-up scenes and Oxbridge academia
• We will push you to develop professionally and really stamp your character on the company by joining at such an early stage
• Dynamic team in an early-stage company that is building exciting tech revolutionising marketing intelligence
• Regular social evenings in our friendly team
• Open to occasional remote working

Basic Qualifications

• MSc / PhD in computer science (or in a highly related area) or equivalent experience
• Solid background in algorithms, data structures, and object-oriented programming
• Solid statistical background, understanding topics of Bayesian frameworks, Conditional probability, statistical inference and generative models
• Implementation experience in machine learning algorithms and applications
• Strong programming skills in Python preferably (fluent with data science packages Scikit, Pandas, Numpy)
• Eager to learn new algorithms, new application areas and new tools.
• Excellent communication skills

Salary: £50-70k
How to apply: Send your CV and covering letter to capai@capitalenterprise.org with the reference “KEEP05” in the
subject line
Issue date: Monday 26th February 2018
Closing date: Monday 30th April 2018