Associate Data Scientist

Salary: Competitive Plus Benefits

Location: London Store Support Centre and Home, London, EC1M 6HA

Contract type: Permanent

Business area: Marketing

Requisition ID:

We'd all like amazing work to do, and real work-life balance. That's waiting for you at Sainsbury's. We're one of the biggest supermarkets in the UK with one of the largest websites. So marketing here really happens at scale. We move a lot faster than you'd think too, across Brand Planning, Brand Comms and Creative, Digital Marketing, CRM and Loyalty, Nectar 360, Insights, and Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability. More people shopping with us each week means more interactions. And thanks to data insight, we understand customers in a way that almost nobody else does. We work alongside incredible brand partners and the best agencies around. So if you have a passion to learn, grow and experience new teams, come and explore it all with us.

What you'll do:

• As a Data Scientist and member of our Data Science team, you will play a pivotal role in developing in-house data science solutions that automate decision-making and provide valuable insights across our business.
• Working in cross-functional agile squads, you will contribute to the design and development of our data science products.
• You will deliver high-quality analyses that guide future development work and contribute to the team's continuous learning and upskilling efforts.

Why join us:

• Wide impact. Deploying models here means improving the experience of millions of customers each day.
• Range of projects. Our projects vary from supply chain optimisation for Argos, predicting which substitution products online shoppers prefer, to helping our Sainsbury's colleagues keep shelves full.
• Focus on data science work. Access to extensive, clean, and well-documented data in our industry-leading platform: spend your time building data science solutions, not cleaning datasets.
• Time for growth. 10% of time set aside for learning & personal development.
• Learning and mentoring. With a team of 50 data scientists, engineers and product managers, there are lots of opportunities to learn from colleagues through knowledge shares, pair programming, and communities of practice.
• Flexible working. Our team prioritises hybrid working, both at home and in our central London office.
• Save on groceries. 10% discount on products across Sainsbury's and Argos (Up to 15% for two days each week).

Join us and be part of a team that encourages innovation, values your expertise, and prioritises work-life balance while delivering exceptional results.

What you need to excel in this role:

Essential:

• Proven track record of using Python and SQL to deliver complex ML solutions in a corporate environment or substantial relevant academic experience.
• You are familiar with software engineering best practices and can utilise them to produce code that passes an engineering code review.
• Strong presentation skills and business acumen: you regularly receive positive feedback about your ability to explain complex topics to non-technical audiences.
• You feel comfortable working independently to achieve results using your own guidance and initiative.
• Strong statistical foundation in concepts such as regression, hypothesis testing and experimental design.
• Experience getting the best out of sklearn and tree-based models.
• Highly proficient in Git best practices.

Desirable:

• Experience delivering value on ML projects in retail (in areas such as price elasticity or differential pricing) or supply chain (demand forecasting, optimisation).
• Educated to degree level, preferably within a mathematical, statistical or STEM discipline.
• Experience using ML with mathematical optimisation.
• Experience working with and applying causal inference.
• Experience working with and deploying Graphical Neural Networks (GNNs) in industry.
• Experience working within a cross-functional team.

We are committed to being a truly inclusive retailer so you'll be welcomed whoever you are and wherever you work. Around here, there's always the chance to try something new — whether that's as part of an evolving team or somewhere else across the business - and we take development seriously and promise to support you. We also recognise and celebrate colleagues when they go the extra mile and, where possible, offer flexible working.

When you join our team, we'll also offer you an amazing range of benefits. Here are some of them:

• Starting off with colleague discount, you'll be able to save 10% on your shopping online and instore at Sainsbury's, Argos, TU and Habitat, and we regularly increase the discount to 15% at points during the year.
• We've also got you covered for your future with our pensions scheme and life cover.
• You'll also be able to share in our success as you may be eligible for a performance-related bonus of up to 5% of salary, depending on how we perform.
• Your wellbeing is important to us too. You'll receive an annual holiday allowance and you can buy up to an additional week's holiday.
• We also offer other benefits that will help your money go further such as season ticket loans, cycle to work scheme, health cash plans, salary advance (where you can access some of your pay before payday) as well access to a great range of discounts from hundreds of other retailers.
• And if you ever need it there is also an employee assistance programme.
• Moments that matter are as important to us as they are to you which is why we give up to 26 weeks' pay for maternity or adoption leave and up to 4 weeks' pay for paternity leave.

Please see for a range of our benefits (note, length of service and eligibility criteria may apply).