Associate Director, Data Scientist

BMI is currently seeking a Data Scientist based out of our London or Manchester offices. BMI's systematic, independent, and data-driven market insights, analysis, and forecasts enable customers to recognize and assess risks and opportunities across markets and industries. For almost 40 years, we have provided impartial views to support our customers’ strategic plans and investment decisions.

As a member of our team, your role will go beyond conventional boundaries. You will collaborate with industry experts, thought leaders, and visionary executives, collectively working towards shaping the future of businesses that span a multitude of sectors. Our people are at the heart of everything we do, and we continuously strive to offer our colleagues a great place to work, with opportunities to learn, innovate, develop their careers, and serve the community.

BMI's team integrates cross-domain expertise (Economics, Politics, 20+ industries, ESG, Commodities) and computer science to create systematic country risk analytics that are transparent and can be validated. We build and maintain robust models that our customers use to identify and manage country risks. Joining as a Data Scientist to support risk research and analysis, you will help shape the strategic decisions of the world’s leading organizations.

How You’ll Make an Impact:

• Prototype and test new approaches for extracting insights from structured and unstructured data for our core customer base – Corporates, Banks, Professional Services, and Asset Managers.
• Develop and maintain robust ML and data pipelines for experimentation and deployment.
• Design, build, and optimize risk models for analytics and generative AI applications using our proprietary NLP data generation process.
• Collaborate cross-functionally with Economists, Industry Analysts, Political Scientists, and Developers.
• Explain ML/NLP model outputs and methodologies to non-technical stakeholders.

You May be a Good Fit if:

• Substantial experience querying, cleaning, compiling, and analyzing big data.
• Strong appreciation of software engineering fundamentals such as code quality, code reviews, unit testing, and developing code that is supportable and maintainable.
• Experience of developing quantitative models under source control that are fully documented and reproducible.
• Familiarity applying various computational social science methods including data mining, data visualization, natural language processing, text analysis, and basic time series forecasting and machine learning models.
• Familiarity with scenario analysis/stress-testing, simulation analysis, rare event modeling, and stochastic modeling preferred but not required.
• Substantial experience with Python, R, and relevant libraries (e.g., numpy, pandas, scikit, pytorch, tidyverse, caret, ggplot, etc.).
• Proven experience developing, refining, and monitoring NLP models.
• Familiarity with database management tools and techniques (e.g., SQL, Selenium, S3, Sagemaker, API protocols) is preferred but not required.
• Understanding model evaluation methods and metrics.
• Ability to operationalize non-technical ideas into relevant research designs, features, and model outputs.
• Familiarity with experiment tracking and model management tools (e.g., DVC, Weights & Biases).
• Demonstrated experience with interpretable AI techniques.

What Would Make You Stand Out:

• Degree in a quantitative subject (e.g. mathematics, physics, engineering or data science).
• Experience of working as a developer in a corporate environment and production support experience.
• Exposure to different cloud-based data and analytics platforms (e.g. AWS, DataBricks, Snowflake).
• Advanced degree or certification in NLP, ML, or related fields.
• Familiarity with DevOps practices and tools.
• Hands-on experience with experimentation and model tracking tools (e.g., MLFlow, Weights & Biases).
• Demonstrable impact of technical solutions or projects on decision-making.
• Experience working in fast-paced, agile environments.
• Customer-facing experience, notably in understanding end user needs and building collaborative relationships.

Why Choose Fitch:

• Hybrid Work Environment: 3 days a week in office required.
• A Culture of Learning & Mobility: Dedicated trainings, leadership development and mentorship programs designed to ensure that your time at Fitch will be a continuous learning opportunity.
• Investing in Your Future: Retirement planning and tuition reimbursement programs that empower you to achieve your short and long-term goals.
• Promoting Health & Wellbeing: Comprehensive healthcare offerings that enable physical, mental, financial, social, and occupational wellbeing.
• Supportive Parenting Policies: Family-friendly policies, including a generous global parental leave plan, designed to help you balance career and family life effectively.
• Inclusive Work Environment: A collaborative workplace where all voices are valued, with Employee Resource Groups that unite and empower our colleagues around the globe.
• Dedication to Giving Back: Paid volunteer days, matched funding for donations and ample opportunities to volunteer in your community.

Fitch is committed to providing global securities markets with objective, timely, independent, and forward-looking credit opinions. To protect Fitch’s credibility and reputation, our employees must take every precaution to avoid conflicts of interest or any appearance of a conflict of interest. Should you be successful in the recruitment process at Fitch Ratings you will be asked to declare any securities holdings and other potential conflicts prior to commencing employment. If you, or your immediate family, have any holdings that may conflict with your work responsibilities, you may be asked to divest yourself of them before beginning work. Fitch is proud to be an Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Employer. We evaluate qualified applicants without regard to race, color, national origin, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, disability, protected veteran status, and other statuses protected by law.