Senior Data Scientist - Marine - ( Ref : 6601 )

Data Science Services (DSS) is part of the Analysis Directorate. We are a large, national team and have broad skills including data science, analysis and statistics. We are passionate about quality technical delivery and continuous improvement, using novel data science approaches to help everyone understand nature recovery. We are looking for a Senior Data Scientist (Statistician) who can lead delivery and drive improvement on a range of projects. This is an exciting opportunity for someone with a passion and expertise in spatial modelling and climate change impacts to marine ecosystems.

To lead the development and delivery of robust analytical and data programmes and projects to increase efficiency and provide improved evidence to support the organisation’s strategic objectives. To apply specialist skills and domain expertise to identify opportunities for data science to improve the evidence base to support the organisation’s strategic objectives. To ensure quality and promote appropriate use of data and analysis (including uncertainty) to minimise risk and increase robustness of evidence underpinning advice, decision-making and delivery. This role has the initial focus projects involving analysis and modelling of climate change impacts on habitats. This work will primarily be working on Natural England’s Blue Carbon projects as well as projects around the assessment of risk posed to designated features due to climate change. This role would suit a data scientist who has expertise in marine climate change impacts and spatial modelling.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead small teams and programmes of work to carry out complex statistical analyses, improving efficiency and quality, in order to meet the evidence needs of a variety of Natural England, Defra group and other stakeholders.
• Liaise with project managers and teams to establish project planning and resourcing so that projects are delivered efficiently, with appropriate resource and capability, to a high standard, and progress, risks and issues are monitored.
• Put in place project data standards, assurance processes and systems to ensure outputs are high-quality and robust (including through good documentation and automation) so that customer decisions and advice can be based on sound evidence and outputs can be reproduced.
• Understand organisational objectives and be able to communicate them with project teams.
• Engage with business planning processes to provide intel, develop ideas, and assist with prioritisation and scoping of projects and programmes.
• Engage with customers and partners to identify and exploit opportunities for new or revised projects (including use of new technologies or approaches) which will improve the evidence base, improve efficiency / quality, build capability or generate funding.
• Build capability in others in the team and across NE (as appropriate) to enable effective delivery and support resilience to absence and change.
• Liaise with relevant partners/authorities/professional networks to understand and interpret advice, standards and best practice for relevant application in NE.

Knowledge, Skills And Experience

• People leadership skills / experience in a functional management context.
• Experience of planning and leading the delivery of projects.
• Knowledge of climate change impacts and marine ecology.
• Data analysis skills such as: Data extraction/ingestion and preparation, exploratory data analysis, and data visualisation.
• Working with a range of large scale spatial and non-spatial data types in both structured and unstructured formats.
• Experience working with (preferably combining) a range of biological, geographical and social data.
• Experience of coding in Python and R.
• Knowledge of mathematics, statistics, and algorithms.
• Experience in GIS software (e.g. ArcPro, ArcGIS, ArcGIS Online, QGIS).
• Knowledge of relevant data/metadata standards.
• Understanding of good practice, ethics, and quality assurance for data analysis.

Technical Skills and Knowledge

• Extensive experience undertaking geospatial analysis using programming languages such as Python & R (Required).
• Extensive experience working with GIS software (e.g., ArcGIS, QGIS) (Required).
• Experienced in using statistical techniques for identifying relationships between data and what can be inferred from these (Required).
• Experience of transforming data, including integrating different data types (e.g. spatial and non-spatial) and from different data sources using automated workflows and processes (Required).
• Excellent analytical and problem-solving skills with attention to detail (Required).
• Experience of defining and testing against quality assurance activities (e.g. verification, validation and analytical review), and implementing analytical and data standards (Required).
• Experience working with internal and external stakeholders, as well as working in a large, multidisciplinary team (Required).
• Able to clearly communicate the meaning of analytical outputs to a range of audiences and stakeholders, including the ability to present results and offer robust expert opinion (Required).
• Previous leadership experience, for example via mentoring and technical training (Desirable).
• Expertise in climate change impacts in marine ecosystems (Desirable).

Leading and Managing People

• Set clear plans and expectations for your team, explain reasons behind decisions, be clear on the outcomes to be achieved, and make things happen by sharing and delegating work to the right people (Practitioner).

Work Delivery

• Identify and apply the most appropriate data and methodologies for your analysis, utilising reproducible analytical pipelines and data science approaches where appropriate (Practitioner).

Personal Effectiveness

• Make and explain objective decisions which combine your professional judgement and evidence (Expert).
• Use clear and appropriate language, communication styles and techniques that engage your audience (Practitioner).

We welcome and encourage applications from all communities. Natural England is accredited to the Disability Confident Scheme, which denotes organisations which have a positive attitude towards disabled people. Disabled applicants who meet the minimum requirements for the role at the shortlisting stage are guaranteed an invitation to interview.