Data Scientist (Agentic/Generative AI) in Taunton

30 days annual leave, plus Bank Holidays. Secondments considered for internal applicants, please discuss with your Line Manager before applying.

This role is a unique learning opportunity for anyone passionate about advancing their skills in artificial intelligence and agentic systems. Whether you are new to AI or looking to deepen your expertise, you will benefit from hands-on experience, tailored training, and dedicated mentoring. We are committed to supporting your professional growth, helping you develop the technical and strategic capabilities needed to thrive in this fast-evolving field.

What will I be doing?

• Design and deploy advanced AI agents and large language models (LLMs).
• Architect, build, and maintain agentic AI systems that use LLMs to perform tasks autonomously – including reasoning, planning, tool use, and multi-step execution.
• Adapt state-of-the-art LLM architectures for specific business domains and implement prompt engineering strategies.
• Integrate AI into operational systems.
• Embed AI agents into existing council platforms (e.g. case management, CRM, reporting tools) so they can take meaningful actions – not just surface insights.
• Ensure seamless handoff between human decision-makers and AI executors.
• Build scalable and secure AI infrastructure.
• Develop and manage infrastructure for model hosting, inference, and orchestration – including vector databases, model registries, and secure APIs.
• Operationalise agent workflows.
• Implement frameworks for agent memory, context management, and long-horizon task execution.
• Ensure agents can interact with structured data, APIs, and internal knowledge bases.
• Ensure ethical and responsible AI use.
• Lead on AI-specific DPIAs, fairness assessments, and transparency-by-design.
• Embed ethical guardrails into agent behaviour, including explainability, auditability, and human-in-the-loop controls.
• Monitor and evaluate agent performance.
• Track agent actions, success rates, failure modes, and user feedback.
• Implement continuous improvement loops and safeguards against hallucination, drift, or unintended behaviour.
• Contribute to the continuous improvement of AI practices and tools.
• Collaborate with data teams to enhance pipelines, tooling, and infrastructure that support AI workloads and agentic integration.
• Stay current with industry trends and emerging technologies.
• Maintain awareness of best practices and innovations in AI engineering, agent frameworks, and data infrastructure to inform system design and delivery.

What kind of experience or qualifications do I need?

We offer ongoing support, training and guidance to help you be the best you can be. This post is ideal for candidates who are keen to grow their skills in AI engineering and large language models. You do not need prior experience in AI or LLMs; what matters most is a solid foundation in Python or similar programming languages, and a strong appetite to learn and develop in this fast-moving field.

It will really help if you:

• Have hands-on experience with Python (or similar languages) for building and integrating data solutions.
• Are enthusiastic about learning new technologies, especially in AI and agentic systems.
• Are comfortable working in cloud environments and collaborating across teams.
• Can translate business needs into technical solutions.
• Hold a degree in Computer Science, Mathematics, Engineering or a related field (or equivalent professional experience).
• Ideally, have professional certification in cloud/data engineering, such as Azure AI Engineer Associate certification, evidencing advanced competence in modern data platform technologies.

What's in it for me?

We are proud to offer an environment that is supportive and rewarding, working as part of a team who are passionate about the work they do to improve the lives of people in Somerset. We offer great training and development opportunities, with supportive management. As well as this, we have some fantastic employee benefits available:

• We promote a healthy work-life balance and offer flexible working arrangements wherever possible, including working from home.
• Generous annual leave allowance, with the opportunity to purchase additional leave.
• Staff discounts in gyms.
• Employee Assistance for the times you may need some support and a variety of employee wellbeing services.
• Auto enrolment onto our generous Pension Scheme and optional pension enhancement through our Additional Voluntary Contribution scheme.
• A Flexible Benefits Scheme via salary sacrifice to obtain a cycle for work and health screenings.
• My Staff Shop offering discounts in shops, online shopping, restaurants, cinema tickets, insurance benefits and more.

Anything else I should know?

For an informal chat about the role, you can contact Josh Pimm, Chief Data & Analytics Officer, josh.pimm@somerset.gov.uk. When completing your application/CV please provide your full employment history and ensure that any gaps in employment are explained. Please start with your current or most recent employment. If you are internal and applying as a secondment opportunity, please discuss with your line manager before applying. Due to the importance of the role, we recommend applying as soon as possible. Depending on the level of response, we anticipate conducting interviews ahead of the closing date.

This role requires a criminal background (DBS) check via the Disclosure procedure.