Data Scientist

JOB DETAILS

JOB BAND: C – Data Scientist
CONTRACT TYPE: Permanent
DEPARTMENT: BBC CCOG Audiences Data
LOCATION: London Broadcasting House or Salford Dock House – Hybrid (2 days a week in the office on average).
PROPOSED SALARY RANGE: £40,000 - £50,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

We're happy to discuss flexible working. If you'd like to, please indicate your preference in the application – though there's no obligation to do so now. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.

PURPOSE OF THE ROLE

Fancy working on one of the largest media datasets in the world, helping the BBC model how audiences discover, consume and engage with content?
The BBC is a major stakeholder in industry-leading audience measurement systems. Alongside this, our digital products—including iPlayer, Sounds, News and Sport—reach millions of people every week and generate billions of audience interactions.

As a Data Scientist, you will develop statistical and machine learning models that help understand audience behaviour, improve audience measurement, and support strategic decision-making across the BBC. Working with a range of data sources, from digital behavioural data to audience panels and surveys, you'll deliver robust analysis that influences how the BBC measures success and plans for the future.

WHY JOIN THE TEAM
You'll join a team of around 12 Data Scientists working on a diverse range of modelling challenges. Our work spans audience measurement, forecasting, consumer behaviour, experimentation and applied machine learning.
We work closely with data engineers, researchers, analysts and stakeholders across the BBC, giving you the opportunity to contribute to high-impact projects with visible organisational value.
You'll also be part of a wider data science community and have dedicated time to develop your technical skills, explore new approaches and contribute to best practice across the organisation.

YOUR KEY RESPONSIBILITIES AND IMPACT:
•    Apply statistical and machine learning techniques to answer business questions and improve understanding of audience behaviour, combining data from multiple sources including digital activity data, audience panels and surveys.
•    Contribute to the design, development and evaluation of analytical models and solutions, working with senior data scientists and engineering partners to support project delivery and production deployment where appropriate.
•    Develop reproducible analytical workflows using SQL, Python or R on our data and machine learning platform, including exploratory analysis and proof-of-concepts.
•    Develop an understanding of the BBC and wider media landscape to contextualise models and analysis, and communicate findings, assumptions and recommendations appropriately to non-technical stakeholders.
•    Keep up to date with developments in machine learning and generative AI, applying relevant techniques appropriately and contributing ideas for improving team practices.

YOUR SKILLS AND EXPERIENCE

ESSENTIAL CRITERIA:
•    Further degree in mathematics, statistics, computer science, econometrics or related field, or equivalent work experience.
•    Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with experience applying data science and statistical techniques to solve business problems by translating ambiguous business questions into practical analytical solutions and selecting appropriate methods, models or algorithms.
•    Understanding of statistical inference, experimental design and causal reasoning, with the ability to analyse audience behaviours and preferences, distinguish meaningful patterns from statistical noise, and draw robust, evidence-based conclusions.
•    Proven ability to communicate analytical findings clearly and confidently to stakeholders, adapting detail and recommendations to different audiences.
•    Good programming skills in Python or R with version control (Git or others), alongside strong SQL skills for working with large datasets, including data preparation and validation.

DESIRED BUT NOT REQUIRED:
•    Experience in a commercial, research or consulting analytical role.
•    Experience applying data science techniques to audience, consumer, marketing or media measurement problems.
•    Experience working with audience behaviour data, digital activity data or related panel datasets, in a research, marketing, strategy or product environment.
•    Experience building machine learning models to scale and deploying them into production.
•    Experience writing clean, well-structured and maintainable code, with an understanding of software engineering best practices such as unit testing, test-driven development, version control and collaborative development using GitHub.
•    Familiarity with applying modern AI techniques, including large language models, to analytical or operational problems.

If you can bring some of these skills and experience, along with transferable strengths, we’d love to hear from you and encourage you to apply.

Freelancers are eligible to apply if they have been on a Worker Contract (more info here) continuously for 6 months. If less than 6 months (or they have had a break of 3 weeks or more between engagements), they must seek Divisional HR approval to apply.