Data Scientist

 Open to flexible working   Salary: c£50,000 - c£61,000   Start date: asap   

We are currently trialling a hybrid working model with a 60/40% split of working from home and at our offices in London EC1.   Our normal working hours are 35 hours per week however we support flexible working, particularly as we move out of the pandemic, and are very happy to talk to you before you apply about how we could meet your needs or to answer any other questions you may have.  

The ASA is the UK regulator of advertising across all media, including online.  Our work includes taking proactive action against misleading, harmful, offensive or otherwise irresponsible ads and acting on complaints.  In short, we make sure ads are legal, decent, honest and truthful.

This is an exciting time to be joining us as we implement our 2019-2023 strategy, More Impact Online.  The ASA is changing to deal with the new challenges posed by regulating online advertising at scale.  Our newly formed Data Science team will be crucial to our ability to succeed.  We’re three years in to the job of rebalancing our regulation away from reactive complaints casework towards proactive tech-assisted intelligence-gathering, complaint handling, monitoring and enforcement. 

We’re looking for a Data Scientist, who’ll report to our Head of Data Science. 

You’ll be among the first hires in our new Data Science team, ensuring we have the data science skills we need.  You’ll work to understand the problems faced by ASA colleagues, particularly our project teams, developing production machine learning solutions (and not just doing research).  You’ll work on projects like the refinement of our Scam Ad Predictor model and the development of our Web Monitoring technology.  You’ll help us build our Instagram Stories Monitoring model, to tackle ‘hidden’ influencer ads.  You’ll work closely with ASA colleagues and use your creativity in data science projects that help us become more efficient and meet other challenges, particularly online. 

You’ll use your excellent technical skills to develop and improve our internal capabilities, helping us to create a data science community and culture within the ASA.  You’ll be a good communicator, with the ability to distil complex information in an environment where sharing knowledge and ideas is greatly valued.  And you’ll be able to collaborate effectively and develop strong relationships with colleagues.  

You’ll make a difference working for a well-known regulator, helping to protect people and responsible businesses.  You’ll learn about an exciting sector at the cutting edge of technology.  And you’ll grow professionally and personally.

We think the ASA is a great place to work.  We recently moved to a fantastic new office in Shoreditch, adopting agile working.  We have a culture that’s open, friendly and collaborative, with a real focus on making the right decisions in the right way, and learning while we’re doing it.  We welcome applications from all sections of the community and we’re committed to being a diverse and inclusive organisation, both so we can represent everyone in the UK and so our own colleagues feel at home at work.  We put our people’s safety and security first during the pandemic and we’re proud of how we responded to it.  

If you have the passion and drive to help us achieve our goal to make every UK ad a responsible ad, you could have an interesting and varied career at the intersection of data science and media regulation, working on high profile projects.  

How to apply: If you’re interested in applying for this role, please visit our website to review the job description and complete the online questions telling us how you meet the requirements of the role and how you can contribute to our success.  

The closing date for applications is 10am on 27 September 2021.