Data Scientist

Job Summary:The Government Digital Service (GDS) is the digital centre of government — we are responsible for setting, leading and delivering the vision for a modern digital government.

Our priorities are to drive a modern digital government, by:

1. joining up public sector services
2. harnessing the power of AI for the public good
3. strengthening and extending our digital and data public infrastructure
4. elevating leadership and investing in talent
5. funding for outcomes and procuring for growth and innovation
6. committing to transparency and driving accountability

We are home to the Incubator for Artificial Intelligence (I.AI), the world-leading GOV.UK and at the forefront of coordinating the UK’s geospatial strategy and activity. We lead the Government Digital and Data function and champion the work of digital teams across government.

We’re part of the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (DSIT) and employ more than 1,000 people all over the UK, with hubs in Manchester, London and Bristol.

The Government Digital Service is where talent translates into impact. From your first day, you’ll be working with some of the world’s most highly-skilled digital professionals, all contributing their knowledge to make change on a national scale.

Join us for rewarding work that makes a difference across the UK. You'll solve some of the nation’s highest-priority digital challenges, helping millions of people access services they need.

Data scientists in the GDS Product Group are at the forefront of applying AI to transform how users interact with government information and services. As part of a multidisciplinary team, we've developed GOV.UK Chat, a retrieval augmented generation (RAG) system that helps users ask questions in everyday language and get accurate answers from GOV.UK content. We're also working closely with the GOV.UK App team to explore novel applications of AI within the GOV.UK App.

Job Description:

Imagine helping millions of people access government services through cutting-edge AI.

At GDS Product Group, you'll build AI systems that transform how citizens interact with government, working on groundbreaking projects like GOV.UK Chat and AI personalization in the GOV.UK App. You'll tackle complex challenges at massive scale, with your work directly impacting citizens nationwide. If you're passionate about using your data science expertise to create public good while pushing the boundaries of AI in government, this is your opportunity to make a difference.

As a Data Scientist you will:

• Collaborate with multidisciplinary teams including developers, user researchers, and designers to build AI products that meet user needs
• Identify efficient and effective ways to use advanced analytics, data science, AI and automation to tackle business and organisational challenges
• Lead technical tasks on projects involving data science, and together with delivery and product managers you'll define project scope
• Design comprehensive evaluation frameworks to measure and optimise LLM performance, implementing metrics for accuracy, user satisfaction, and efficiency while conducting "red team" exercises and building guardrails to prevent hallucinations and harmful outputs
• Help establish best practices for responsible AI development across government

We’re interested in people who have:

• Python programming skills: Ability to write production-ready python code for scalable AI products
• Strong foundation in data science: Experience with exploratory data analysis, statistical methods, and experimental design to evaluate AI systems
• Experience with large language models (LLMs): Practical experience working with LLMs like GPT-4, Claude or open-source alternatives, including prompt engineering and evaluation
• Cloud deployment experience: Familiarity with deploying and scaling AI systems in cloud environments (AWS, Azure or GCP etc.)
• Evaluation and metrics: An awareness of evaluation frameworks for AI systems, including accuracy, relevance, and user satisfaction metrics
• Collaborative approach: Ability to work effectively in multidisciplinary teams, explaining complex technical concepts to non-technical colleagues