This is a perfect opportunity for ambitious individuals to join a team of curious minds and supportive peers with a passion for creating value for businesses using data. 

About Us    

We are Ascent! and we help our customers solve problems, elevate, and do existing things better. We are on a mission to help our customers connect data, software, and purpose to create extraordinary outcomes. You could say we are a digital transformation business.  

We specialize in software product development, analytics, data science, IoT solutions, machine learning, DevOps optimization, and modernization of applications, data, and platforms.  

We work with incredible clients in all types of industries such as smart home devices, space exploration, beer manufacturing, finance, ecology, and logistics. We work with some of the sharpest minds in the brightest businesses and we employ the sharpest minds too!  

At Ascent, we also believe in fostering a vibrant office community where collaboration thrives and connections flourish. With our hybrid approach, we prioritize hiring individuals who reside in close proximity to our central offices in Bristol and London. Our aim is to cultivate a positive atmosphere and sense of belonging by facilitating easy access to the office. Join us in shaping a workplace where proximity enhances collaboration while inclusivity strengthens our community.   

About the role 

Senior Data Scientists are the driving force in delivering innovative and high-quality data science projects for our customers. With the Mango Solutions DNA in data science community engagement and a culture of learning and development, our end-to-end data capabilities are further strengthened as part of Ascent. Aligning Software with Data provides a powerful platform through which we engage some of the world’s leading brands in long-term strategic digital transformation. 

The Digital Services team is a multi-disciplined group working alongside the Engineering Group (software, platform, and data engineering). Data Science, as a mature practice, is dedicated to the business application of a wide range of data science techniques and industry best practices, requiring the know-how of applying the most relevant and up-to-date methodology to domain-specific challenges. 

As a Senior Data Scientist, you will work as part of a team that designs and implements data science solutions for businesses, using suitable methodology and programming languages, confidently assuming responsibility for technical specifications. You will have the opportunity to: 

• Work as part of a multi-skilled delivery team on client engagements 
• Quickly learn and apply skills to real business challenges 
• Shape and design solutions for customers that impact business KPIs 
• Contribute to a collective knowledge pool and gain appreciation 
• Work on a variety of businesses and problems, with data of all shapes and sizes 
• Be supported by the Data practice and a collective knowledge pool 
• Guide and mentor junior members of the team on and off projects 
• Keep up to date on the latest technologies, techniques, and best practices 
• Work with the latest Azure offerings and get certified 
• Attend and present at high-profile conferences 
• Contribute to open-source projects 

Responsibilities 

Primary Duties 

• Using strong business acumen and a solid understanding of data science use cases, author and refine project technical specifications 
• Relentlessly focus on creating business impact and delivering value 
• Apply statistical rigor and computational efficiency in project delivery 
• Design and implement end-to-end data pipelines fit for purpose 
• Communicate frequently and appropriately during the delivery process 
• Present work to technical and non-technical audiences 
• Support Sales by participating in the pre-sales process and contributing to proposals 

Other 

• Manage junior members in a line manager capacity 
• Promote Ascent publicly via blogging and conferencing 
• Deliver internal training and knowledge-sharing 
• Keep up to date with relevant technologies and current trends 
• Travel for work as required 

Requirements 

A successful candidate will demonstrate these traits: 

• Curious and inquisitive 
• Thoughtful 
• Consultative and business-minded 
• Detail-oriented 
• Analytical approach to problem-solving 
• Sense of responsibility 
• Critical and constructive thinking 
• Logical and methodical reasoning 
• Communicate with clarity and purpose 

And these skills: 

Required 

• Fluent in R for data science 
• Fluent in SQL (any flavor) for analysis 
• Experienced in applying a broad range of data science techniques to solutions in business process and systems, including data visualization, package development, machine learning algorithms, NLP, Shiny/Dash, optimization, deep learning, reinforcement learning 
• Daily use of git 

Highly Desirable 

• Competence in Python for data science 
• Deploying data science solutions on a cloud platform, including MLOps (CI/CD, Feature Store, drift monitoring, MLflow, DVC, Docker, Kubernetes) and webapp (Azure App Services, Azure Web Apps); Azure ML and MSFT Certificate 
• Experience in pharmaceutical data science 
• Experience with Generative AI (GenAI) and Large Language Models (LLM) 

Desirable 

• Software development experience 
• Algorithm design experience 
• Data architecture knowledge 
• API design and deployment experience 
• Big data (e.g., Spark) experience 
• NoSQL DB experience 

Beneficial and Others 

• DBA experience 

Qualifications 

• 5+ years of data science experience 
• Right to work in the UK and/or EU 
• Azure Data Science Associate Certificate is desirable 

Working at Ascent

At Ascent we promote a healthy work-life balance by offering flexibility in where you work.  We also promote well-being and provide access to Well Being Coaches. 

Your development and learning will be taken seriously, and we'll support your professional development with training and certification, with regular feedback and review. It is a fun, supportive and modern workplace where we really live by our company values of Empathy, Energy and Audacity! Ascent also offers a variety of benefits in each of our countries.

Ascent is an equal opportunities employer. We take intentional steps to ensure inclusion and belonging are something real here, not just something we talk about. No person will be treated less favourably because of their gender, pregnancy, and maternity status, marital or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, race, nationality, ethnic origin, age, religion or belief, or disability status. If you require any reasonable accommodation, please let us know when you apply.