The Data Scientist will deliver analysis and machine learning projects that address real-world challenges faced by the ASA in the regulation of online advertising. 

Our Data Science team uses data and machine learning to proactively monitor online advertising. The team has built our Active Ad Monitoring system, which now captures and processes more than 3 million ads each month, allowing us to respond more rapidly and effectively to issues.

In this role you will work with the ads captured by the ASA’s Active Ad Monitoring system. You will work with images, videos and especially the text of ads from social media, search and web display. You will collaborate with experts across a range of advertising sectors to understand their needs. You will work primarily in Python to perform analysis to extract insight about prevalence of potential issues and help inform priorities. You will also train machine learning models and use LLM-based tools to filter large volumes of ads to find those that are relevant, or that break the rules. You will take end-to-end ownership of projects and will directly see how your work protects people in the UK from harmful and misleading content.

Current projects within the team focus on diverse topics such as ensuring influencer marketing on social media follows advertising rules; monitoring the green claims companies make to consumers; and making sure ads for cosmetic surgery abroad are responsible. You will report directly to the Head of Data Science, working alongside other Data Scientists and Data Engineers. As part of a developing team, you will have the chance to help shape our approach and ultimately the way data-led insight and machine learning is used to regulate advertising.

We are seeking candidates who believe in our mission, and who have strong technical and communication skills. You must be able to work with complex datasets in Python, and have an understanding of statistical concepts and machine learning. You must be comfortable communicating complex ideas to non-technical people. We welcome applications from those that have prior experience as a Data Scientist, and those who are seeking their first role after a relevant qualification.

We think the ASA is a great place to work. 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.

We operate a hybrid working model and office attendance is required 40% of your contracted hours.

Please note that we'll keep the ad open till we fill the post and will be reviewing applications as they come in.

Responsibilities 

With support from the Head of Data Science and time to learn new skills where needed the Data Scientist will:

• Take end-to-end ownership of data science projects 
• Communicate with stakeholders to understand the challenges they face daily when regulating advertising, translating these into technical solutions
• Work with a range of unstructured data such as text, images and videos from a variety of sources 
• Apply statistical and machine learning techniques to these datasets including LLM-based tools 
• Deliver insights that inform the focus and approach taken when teams deliver regulation in specific areas 
• Deploy models into production to support ongoing monitoring of compliance and proactive identification of potentially problematic content 

Requirements 

We are looking for candidates who have:

• Programming Skills– Experience writing code to manipulate data and apply statistical or machine learning techniques in Python
• Statistics/Machine Learning– Experience applying at least a couple of statistical and/or machine learning techniques and an understanding of how those techniques work behind the scenes
• Communication– The ability to communicate technical solutions to non-technical stakeholders, explaining the value of your work 

Personal Attributes 

The ideal candidate also has the following personal attributes: 

• Interest in our mission- A desire to make a positive contribution to the regulation of advertising in the UK 
• Creative problem solver- Able to think about a complex problem from multiple perspectives, identifying potential solutions 
• Takes ownership- Willing to take responsibility for delivering a project end-to-end 
• Critical thinking- Able to reflect on their work, spotting mistakes and weaknesses and correcting them where practical 
• Team worker- Wants to collaborate with a team of individuals with mixed expertise and backgrounds, making a positive contribution to team culture 

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