Senior Technologist

time left to apply End Date: April 4, 2025 (4 days left to apply)

job requisition id JR1976

Closing Date: 04/04/2025

Group: Corporate Group

Management Level: Senior Associate

Job Type: Fixed Term (Fixed Term)

Job Description:

Please note that this is a Fixed Term Contract until September 2025 and the advert will close at 00:01 on Friday 4 April and therefore we advise getting your application in by no later than midnight on Thursday 3 April.

About Ofcom
As the UK’s communications regulator, we’re delivering vital work that helps keep the UK connected and shapes the future of how we’ll stay connected with each other. Our work covers everything from phones and broadband to TV, radio, the postal service, and wireless devices. We’re also taking on the challenge of making the online world a safer place. We need people of all backgrounds, skill sets, and experiences to help us achieve our goal of making communications work for everyone.

About the Team
The Data and Information team was established to lead Ofcom's transformation into a data- and insight-driven organization. The team provides expertise to policy and corporate colleagues in data science, machine learning, and data engineering. They also lead work to ensure Ofcom manages its data, information, and records appropriately and support the wider community of colleagues in the Data Profession.

Purpose of the Role
We are looking for data talent to join the Data Science and Machine Learning team to act as the product owner of some of our data products and prototyping work. DIT is a central team that supports all areas of Ofcom’s regulatory work, assisting and working alongside colleagues across the organization to ensure that data and evidence underpin the wide variety of work that we do. You will get the opportunity to apply a broad range of methods to many different, real-world problems, such as undertaking proof of concepts to explore the application of deep learning for using natural language processing to understand issues affecting consumers in support of policy development, or developing new ways to visualize and enable users to interact with data. One of the major applications is using large language models to process text in various documentations across the organization or from sources available online.

The team also leads on developing and sharing insights on methods, tools, and processes in support of the data and research community across Ofcom. Collaborating with our stakeholders and external organizations continually develops our understanding of the areas in which we work and the methods and technologies we can apply.

Your key responsibilities

• Work with stakeholders and product managers in policy areas and act as the technical expert and product owner to map out implementation plans.
• Engage with stakeholders to capture needs and map them out into features and roadmaps.
• Develop the implementation roadmap along with epics and task tickets for data products.
• Implement Power BI, Microsoft Azure, LLM, and Machine Learning solutions in a hands-on way and guide other junior developers through the same process.
• Promote data science, machine learning, and NLP skills and inspire best practices in other teams, building an understanding of the variety of methods and seeking opportunities to innovate in what we do.
• Lead the development of credible data solutions from a range of data sources and use best practices to generate accurate, reproducible work in an agile way.
• Explore and visualize data to present a story in a meaningful way and communicate insights to a range of technical and non-technical audiences with impact.
• Maintain your skills and knowledge on the latest tools and techniques used in natural language processing and foundation models and related concepts.
• Provide methodological and technical advice and guidance to early career data scientists.
• Contribute to the continuous development of our data science workflow and processes so that we work effectively and innovatively.
• Ensuring compliance with relevant data and information security principles.
• Apply project management skills to translate business requirements into actionable projects, then independently manage time, resources, and stakeholders throughout the project life cycle.
• Support colleagues in engagement with external stakeholders on data and analytical related topics.

The skills, knowledge and experience you will need for success

• A range of appropriate data and analytic tools (such as Python, R, Power BI, Azure ML, Azure Databricks, or equivalent), and cloud computing environments.
• Knowledge of working with LLMs including building LLM prompting systems, RAG and multi-agent systems, and libraries like PyTorch, transformers, and LangChain.
• Broad experience of a number of different data science and machine learning methods, their appropriate application, strengths, and limitations (for example, but not limited to: data exploration, statistical modeling, automation, NLP, clustering/segmentation, anomaly detection, visualization, etc.).
• Applying scientific methods through experimental design, exploratory data analysis, and hypothesis testing to reach robust conclusions, including reviewing the work of others.
• Agile and scrum practices like epics, tickets, experience of working with product managers and product owners.
• Building Solutions: Translating complex business problems into analytical projects, then delivering impactful data or analysis with tangible outcomes.
• Empowering Development: Developing the data community, including through support and development of junior staff and others’ projects.
• Articulating Ideas: Strong interpersonal skills and evidence of ability to interact effectively with a range of stakeholders, both internally and externally, to communicate technical concepts and analytical results across organizational and technical boundaries.
• Harmonising Work: Working as part of a team, and independently, demonstrating flexibility and adaptability, and supporting a culture of collaboration and trust.

Qualifications

• Degree in a numerate discipline, computer science, or equivalent which demonstrates core statistical skills, such as Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, Physics (this is not a definitive list).
• Experience in data science or equivalent role.

Ofcom has a clear mission: to make communications work for everyone. To deliver on this, we want our organization to reflect the diversity of background, experience, upbringing, and thought that exists across the UK. We aim to recruit from the widest pool of candidates possible – no matter your social background, ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, or disability.

Where positions are listed as full-time, we remain open to reduced hours, part-time arrangements, job shares, and other flexible working options. From day one, we champion flexible work arrangements to accommodate individual needs.

We also warmly welcome applicants who are returning to the workforce after a break – for whatever reason. If you have taken time away and are ready to rejoin, we look forward to reviewing your application.

Our recruitment processes prioritize accessibility and inclusivity. If you need information in an alternative format or have specific preferences, please contact our recruitment team at resourcing@ofcom.org.uk or call 0330 912 1378.

As a Disability Confident employer, we offer interviews to disabled applicants who meet essential criteria for advertised roles. Learn more about this scheme here.