The Institute's Defence & National Security programme builds capability that gets used, not just published. We are creating a new Applied Engineering team to add to the delivery engine behind that: a cross-functional group of software engineers, data scientists, and data engineers, who take research from across the Institute and academia to turn it into deployable tools that analysts and decision-makers rely on. The team's work will make sense of disparate data streams and produce the pipelines and tooling that let people make real-world decisions with confidence.
ROLE PURPOSE
Applied engineers work closely with analysts to understand the questions they need to answer, often using large, varied and poorly structured data. The applied engineer's job is to understand what the analyst is really asking, answer it quickly, and then turn the repeated, similar ad-hoc queries into efficient, event-driven analytics.
As a Senior Applied Engineer, you will take responsibility for this process from initial problem definition through to delivery. Working alongside partner analysts, you will identify which requirements are suitable for automation, design and build analytical tools on the team's data platform, and support their adoption in practice. You will lead the delivery of analytical products, establish effective approaches for turning exploratory analysis into reliable services, mentor less experienced colleagues and support the Lead Applied Engineer with technical leadership where required. You will join the team's founding cohort of engineers, reporting to the Lead Applied Engineer.
This is a senior individual-contributor role for someone with strong statistical and engineering judgement, experience of turning analysis into operational tools, and a clear interest in producing work that analysts use in practice.
HOW YOU WILL MAKE AN IMPACT
- Work directly with Defence analysts, largely on-site, to understand their requirements and develop analytical tools that fit their working practices.
- Identify recurring analytical requests and develop efficient, event-driven processes that update and present results when new data becomes available.
- Develop prototypes quickly and, where they demonstrate value, turn them into tested, monitored and deployable services on the team's data platform.
- Apply sound statistical and data science judgement, including selecting appropriate methods, understanding their assumptions, and communicating uncertainty clearly to non-specialist users.
- Build proportionate analyst-facing interfaces where needed, such as dashboards, notebooks, command-line tools and small web applications, using the data products provided by the team's data engineers.
- Help establish and maintain the team's standards for testing, reproducibility and documentation, and support colleagues through technical review and mentoring.
ABOUT YOU
- Experience building analytics, data science or data products that were used by non-technical users.
- Experience taking exploratory analysis beyond the notebook into something tested, repeatable and deployed, or a clear understanding of what that requires.
- Solid Python software engineering: testing, version control, code review, and working within a shared codebase.
- Applied statistical and data-science competence: choosing appropriate methods, understanding their assumptions, and communicating results and uncertainty to non-specialists.
- Experience working directly with end users to understand and iterate on requirements.
Please see the Job Description for a full breakdown of the role and person specification
APPLICATION PROCEDURE
If you are interested in this opportunity, please click the apply button below. You will need to register on the applicant portal and complete the application form, information required is outlined clearly in the full Job Description. If you have questions about the role or would like to apply using a different format, please contact us at [email protected].
As this role requires eligibility for Developed Vetting (DV) clearance, it is an essential part of the application process that you include the following information as part of your cover letter:
- Your current nationality
- Your nationality at birth
- Other nationality (include dual nationality if applicable)
- Confirmation that you have been residing in the UK for the past 5 years (if you haven’t, please provide details of when and where you resided and the reason)
- Country where you were born.
- County in which you were born.
- Town where you were born.
Please note, if these details are not provided, we will be unable to progress with your application for this role.
TERMS AND CONDITIONS
This full-time post is offered on a permanent basis. The annual salary range is £57,000 - £69,000 plus excellent benefits, including flexible working and family friendly policies, Employee-only benefits guide | The Alan Turing Institute
Given the close working relationship with government partners, this role requires regular on-site presence with Defence partners in London 3 days per week, with possible occasional travel to other sites in the UK, in addition to the Institute's standard office attendance expectations.
Eligibility for DV clearance is an essential requirement for this role. Eligibility criteria and further information on the process can be found on the UK Government security vetting website. Please note that we require you to provide essential information in your cover letter in order to progress your application. Details of this are in the Application Procedure section. Please note, if these details are not provided, we will be unable to progress with your application for this role.
EQUALITY, DIVERSITY AND INCLUSION
We value diversity of background, experience, and perspective, and are proud to be an inclusive employer. We warmly encourage applications from all backgrounds, particularly from groups currently under-represented in our sector. If you feel passionate about this role but don’t meet every single requirement, please apply – we recognise that great candidates may bring strengths beyond the criteria listed.
We are committed to making sure our recruitment process is accessible and inclusive. This includes making reasonable adjustments for candidates who have a disability or long-term condition. Please contact us at [email protected] to advise us how we can assist you.
Please note all offers of employment are subject to obtaining and retaining the right to work in the UK and satisfactory pre-employment security screening which includes a DBS Check. Full details on the pre-employment screening process can be requested from [email protected].