Data Scientist [Model Development & MLOps]

Expires: Expires at any time - latest being Tuesday 29th April at 5pm

Start Date: Immediate start available

Term: Permanent, full-time (40 hours per week - Monday to Friday)

Salary: £30k-£40k

Location: Oxygen House in Exeter, Devon. In person - with flexibility

Why you’ll love this role:

1. Be close to the action: You’ll work closely with devs and product managers, designing and testing changes to our products. Iterate rapidly and make your mark.

2. Ownership and responsibility: This is not a role for the faint hearted! You’ll be joining a small but mighty team, shipping models that impact millions of users.

3. Leverage our vast data: You’ll have billions of students’ question answers at your disposal, across our products in maths, science, and reading. This is a dataset that deserves your attention!

4. Broad remit: In our tight-knit team, your initiative will be valued and you won’t be pigeon holed—if you’ve got ideas, determination, and the expertise to back them up, we’ll give you the space to run with them.

About us

At Sparx Learning, we’re on a mission to improve lives and the world through learning. We work with over 2,600 schools, 60,000 teachers, and 2.4 million students, building systems that enhance students’ confidence and academic attainment, whilst reducing teachers’ workload. Learn more about our history, impact, team, products and work environment [here].

The Modelling & Research team plays a pivotal role in driving innovation and enhancing the performance of our products. We’re responsible for the models and algorithms that power everything Sparx does. From monitoring the health of our existing systems to developing new proof-of-concept models -  if you’re looking to be part of a team that makes a real impact, this is the place for you!

What’s Needed:

• Interest in writing quality, production-ready code: You’ll be excited about both software development and the application of statistics and machine learning in real-world settings.
  

Interest in writing quality, production-ready code: You’ll be excited about both software development and the application of statistics and machine learning in real-world settings.

• A strong desire to make a meaningful impact: We’re passionate about making a real difference in education for children and teachers - Join us on our mission! .
  

A strong desire to make a meaningful impact: We’re passionate about making a real difference in education for children and teachers - Join us on our mission! .

• A degree in a quantitative discipline: Whether it’s statistics, mathematics, data science, or another related field, your educational background will set you up for success.
  

A degree in a quantitative discipline: Whether it’s statistics, mathematics, data science, or another related field, your educational background will set you up for success.

• Competence in at least one programming language (ideally Python): We need someone who can hit the ground running.
  

Competence in at least one programming language (ideally Python): We need someone who can hit the ground running.

• Understanding of machine learning and statistics: You should be confident in the core principles of these disciplines, and have experience putting them into practice.
  

Understanding of machine learning and statistics: You should be confident in the core principles of these disciplines, and have experience putting them into practice.

• An interest in building solid modelling infrastructure (MLOps): You’ll be working with models in production, so understanding and applying MLOps practices is crucial.
  

An interest in building solid modelling infrastructure (MLOps): You’ll be working with models in production, so understanding and applying MLOps practices is crucial.

Even Better If…

• Education sector experience: Bonus points if you’ve worked on projects related to education or with educational data.
  

• Published research: If you’ve got research under your belt in machine learning or education, we’d love to hear about it.

Education sector experience: Bonus points if you’ve worked on projects related to education or with educational data.

Published research: If you’ve got research under your belt in machine learning or education, we’d love to hear about it.

We know this role can be hard to fully capture in words, so if you have any questions or would like more details, we’re here to help!

Feel free to reach out, and we’d be happy to arrange a call or email with our Senior Data Modeller to give you a deeper insight into the position.

Our benefits

We believe in living life fully and offer a range of benefits, including generous annual leave, comprehensive medical and dental insurance, enhanced family leave and pay plus so much more! Click here to find out more!

In person with flexibility: We trust you to manage your schedule when life happens, whether it’s school runs or unexpected errands.  But, at Sparx, we love the energy, creativity and pace that comes from being together in person. Collaboration and connection drive our success, so we encourage everyone to be together in person as much as possible.

Selection process

Technical task: An opportunity to bring your technical skills to life. 

Video Interview: We’d like to get to know more about you and understand your skills and experience. 

In person interview: Where you’ll meet some of the team and have an opportunity to share your experiences with us.

Meeting with our CEO: A great chance to dive deeper into Sparx and our mission.

Join us and be part of a mission shaping the future.

Sparx does not hold a licence to sponsor visas. We cannot process applications requiring sponsorship.

Need support during the recruitment process? Email us at [email protected] or call 01392 575 729.