Talent Pool – Junior Data Scientist needed at Discovery Limited

About the Position

• We have a vacancy for a data scientist to work on cutting-edge Natural Language Processing (NLP) and Large Language Model (LLM) projects. The team has been researching, using, training, and engineering systems which leverage NLP and LLMs for years, and we are looking for team members to help expand and accelerate this research and development.

Responsibilities include

• Working with huge quantities of unstructured text data from a variety of sources.
• Completing reviews of relevant academic literature and industry releases
• Working with seniors in the team to own the delivery of projects from inception through to deployment and business adoption.
• Prototyping code for data science and ML systems, particularly those using NLP and LLMs, in line with architecture designed with senior data scientists and data engineers.
• Evaluating prototypes, models, and deployments robustly to ensure scientific rigour and business value.
• Presenting analyses and project updates to both technical and business audiences.
• Keeping an open mind and looking for new opportunities for the use of existing datasets and tools, as well as new ones, for novel business applications

Personal Attributes  

• A creative and eager attitude to learning, unearthing valuable insights, and generating value for Discovery clients.
• Enthusiasm for building systems which solve real problems through data and technology.
• Ability to balance multiple priorities and step back to see how your work fits into the wider business context.
• Aligned to Discovery values and core purpose.

Technical Skills

• SQL and working with databases.
• Python for data science and machine learning.
• Ability to formulate a clear problem statement, develop a plan for tackling it, and clearly communicate findings verbally, visually, and in writing.

Advantageous

• Version control (Git).
• Experience with R.
• Experience with using and/or developing NLP packages and models.
• Experience with TensorFlow and/or PyTorch.
• Experience with using and/or training LLMs.
• Experience with Spark and/or Dask.

Education and Experience

• Honours or Master’s degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Data Science, Actuarial Science, Statistics, Operations Research, Industrial engineering, Applied Mathematics, or similar quantitative field. A PhD degree would be advantageous. Other qualifications will also be considered if accompanied by relevant experience.
• We will consider candidates at all levels of experience.