Graduate Consultant | Data Science | Strategic Communications

FTI Consulting is the leading global expert firm for organizations facing crisis and transformation. We work with many of the world's top multinational corporations, law firms, banks and private equity firms on their most important issues to deliver impact that makes a difference. From resolving disputes, navigating crises, managing risk and optimizing performance, our teams respond rapidly to dynamic and complex situations.

At FTI Consulting, you'll work side-by-side with leaders who have shaped history, helping solve the biggest challenges making headlines today. From day one, you'll be an integral part of a focused team where you can make a real impact. You'll be surrounded by an open, collaborative culture that embraces diversity, recognition, professional development and, most importantly, you.

The Strategic Communications practice of FTI Consulting offers specialist expertise across a variety of disciplines and sectors including financial services, retail and consumer, natural resources, energy, public affairs, real estate, professional services, technology media telecoms (TMT), healthcare and life sciences.

Our Digital & Insights practice is seeking an intellectually curious and creative graduate to support our growing analytics team across the EMEA region. The industry today is undergoing a major transformation due to the advent of AI and a continuous increase in volume and velocity of data, with the team seizing these novel opportunities to protect brands and elevate reputations. Our function is uniquely positioned at the intersection of communications and data science to provide decision intelligence that shifts public perception. We use data to establish what should be said, who needs to be targeted, and how to make messages resonate.

This role will be a part of FTI's industry-leading graduate scheme running between September 2025 and September 2026. The successful candidate will help to design, develop, deploy data science approaches to communications challenges. They will also work with consultants and other subject matter experts to create holistic solutions for clients.

Upon successful completion of the graduate programme, the trainee will have an opportunity to secure a permanent Consultant role in the team and work as a junior data scientist, with further support around progression.

What You'll Do

• Support projects in the areas of audience & influencer insights, conversation & media analysis, campaign & message performance, event assessment and more.
• Use existing platforms, tools and APIs to collect and analyse data, both structured and unstructured, including text, images and video.
• Use statistics, machine learning techniques and AI to solve complex challenges for our clients, especially regarding their communication and reputation management efforts.
• Build tools, dashboards, pipelines or applications to provide new capabilities internally and to clients.
• Detect hidden patterns, identify trends, reveal drivers, predict developments, visualise similarities and differences, and otherwise leverage data to deliver actionable insights.
• Collaborate with other experts on the research, planning and development of data-driven projects.
• Support new business efforts by delivering data-driven insights to inform our approach.
• Assist in the development of presentations, client decks and pitches to drive organizational results.
• Support with embedding innovation across the firm and increasing data maturity, especially around GenAI adoption and developments within Natural Language Processing.

Examples of client challenges the team has solved include:

• Establishing key influencers and narrative risks posing a threat to a global merger.
• Conducting media and social media due diligence before a major deal and CEO change.
• Auditing and optimizing brand presence across consumer-facing AI systems.

How You'll Grow

We are committed to investing and supporting you in your professional development and we have developed a range of programs focused on fostering leadership, growth and development opportunities. We aim to promote continuous learning and individual skills development through on-the-job learning, self-guided professional development courses and certifications. You'll be assigned a dedicated coach to mentor, guide and support you through regular coaching sessions and serve as an advocate for your professional growth.

This role will also benefit from being a part of the Strategic Communications graduate scheme. As a part of the cohort, you will get access to trainings, workshops and opportunities helping you learn the foundations of corporate communications and public relations, enabling you to develop data science approaches that directly target client needs.

As you progress through your career at FTI Consulting, we offer tailored programs for critical professional milestones to ensure you are prepared and empowered to take on your next role.

What You Will Need to Succeed

We are looking for candidates wanting to explore how data science is transforming the world of communications and be at the forefront of that industry change. The candidates must be able to code in Python and be comfortable using statistics to interrogate data, as this is a technical role where engineering solutions will be a core part of the job.

Basic Qualifications

• Intellectual curiosity and critical thinking.
• Strong sense of data and artificial intelligence ethics.
• Passion for tackling challenging problems and innovating.
• Ability to distil insights from data and communicate them to non-technical audiences.
• Programming skills in Python, R or a similar language and ability to apply data science techniques in practice.
• Familiarity with cloud computing platforms, big data frameworks and database technologies.
• Familiarity with data visualisation principles and data visualisation tools, e.g. Tableau, Power BI.
• Comfortable with writing and using prompts across AI tools such as ChatGPT to produce research outputs.
• Excellent English and strong presentation skills.
• Experience with Microsoft PowerPoint and Excel.

Desirable Qualifications

• Programming skills in Python including data science libraries such as pandas, numpy or plotly.
• Work experience in consulting or a client-facing business.
• Quantitative research methods (especially surveys and experiments).
• Media and conversation analysis.
• Expertise in natural language processing including LLMs/GenAI.
• Journalism, media, communications, or marketing.
• Digital listening tools (e.g. Brandwatch/Talkwalker).
• Additional language skills.
• Good understanding of software design principles.
• Exposure to version control systems such as GitHub.
• Experience in code and model deployment, including MLOps.
• Scripting experience (e.g., bash) and ability to write SQL queries.

Total Wellbeing

Our goal is to support the wellbeing of you and your families-physically, emotionally, and financially. We offer market competitive benefits (including pension), supplemented by 15 flexible benefits, to meet your needs. These include health, lifestyle and family friendly options. We also offer professional development programme, wellness, recognition, community volunteering initiatives, and flexible/hybrid working arrangements.

FTI Consulting is an equal opportunity employer and does not discriminate on the basis of race, color, national origin, ancestry, citizenship status, protected veteran status, religion, physical or mental disability, marital status, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, age, or any other basis protected by law, ordinance, or regulation.