Nesta is an innovation foundation. For us, innovation means turning bold ideas into reality and changing lives for the better. We use our expertise, skills and funding in areas where there are big challenges facing society. Nesta is based in the UK and supported by a financial endowment. We work with partners around the globe to bring bold ideas to life to change the world for good.
A myriad of factors are changing the nature of work in the UK, with the majority of workers in occupations with uncertain futures. As a result, policymakers, educators, businesses and individuals need more timely and granular information on how occupations are changing and what skills employers value most. Nesta has built up a global reputation for original and influential research by using new data sources and analytic methods to understand the changing labour market, such as online job adverts, network analysis, machine learning and data visualisation.
The role
Working closely with other data scientists and economists in the unit and in the wider team, this key role will see you deliver data-led research projects on the labour market. You will analyse relevant data using supervised and unsupervised machine learning and natural language processing techniques, plus collect and link data sets, including web-based, open and /or official data.
Key roles and responsibilities
You will also be expected to communicate research findings through conference and peer-reviewed papers, research notes, blogs, data visualisations and open source software, as well as participating in the development of new research proposals for funders.
Experience and skills
You will hold a PhD qualification, or an excellent Master’s degree, in a relevant quantitative discipline (e.g. computer or data science, econometrics, engineering, operations research, physics, etc) and possess expertise in web-based data collection and machine-learning techniques and in data science-relevant programming languages.
An outstanding communicator, you are someone who combines academic rigour with a willingness to ‘get their hands dirty’ with real world data to answer difficult but important questions. You will have a proven ability to present research findings in ways that are clear, compelling and credible, and to draft high-quality written outputs from research.
Other useful information
Nesta is committed to equality, diversity and inclusion – we welcome and encourage applications from everyone.
Closing date: 2nd September 2019 at 8am. First interviews: 10th September 2019.