Brief Description of position:

Role: Senior Research Scientist, NLP 

Reporting to: Data Science Lead 

Location: Bangalore, India 

Background 

Who we are 

We are News Technology Services 

News Technology Services (NTS) is News Corp’s premier development centre, providing global technology and information services that connect people to the news they need. NTS is a key part of News Corp’s global technology strategy, working directly with News Corp’s global brands to offer a range of technology services, including mobile development, web solutions, analytical services, infrastructure support, and cybersecurity operations. 

We are People First 

News Technology Services began more than 5 years ago with a core belief: Always put people first. We are committed to creating and maintaining a culture of caring, and, perhaps more importantly, of inclusiveness. This founding principle drives us at the core — from creating a culture that makes us unique and the Best Workplace. According to Silicon India Magazine, we're one of the finest places to work. We are the proud recipient of the Best IT Partnership' at the annual RITA awards and have been included in a plethora of "recommended companies" lists.

We are Driven by Innovation 

From operations and infrastructure support to data technology and software development, we are committed to finding creative solutions to deliver essential news around the globe. We believe that technology will always be a tool that’s driven by human intent. 

About the Team 

We are Data Tech, a programme that comprises a number of agile, cross-functional teams between London, Sofia and Bangalore. We grow data platforms, build front-end products and create predictive models for News UK.

We focus on the capture, management and utilisation of customer, clickstream and content data, in order to drive growth and increase revenue for our users. Our users include the newsroom editors, marketing, advertising and product teams associated with our world-leading digital and print publications. 

About the role 

Who we are looking for 

Data Tech, the home of Data Science & MLOps, is a growth area in News UK and we strongly believe in giving our people a clear direction of travel with lots of autonomy to innovate. We want to attract people who have a passion for data and the bravery to take risks with bold ideas. We are building self-organised, highly motivated teams who have the curiosity to ask questions of everything and the optimism to take on exciting challenges. 

We have a strong team of data scientists, our work is highly sought-after, and our impact on the business is tremendous. We are looking for an Senior Research Scientist, NLP who is an experienced applied data scientist, with strong analytical, NLP and ML modelling and research skills, having owned the delivery of Data Science products across all stages of their lifecycle, to take ownership of complex projects using innovative approaches, architect solutions, provide technical steer to other team members and oversee and coordinate the R&D efforts of the function. Keeping up with and making the most of the fast-pacing world of technology, research and available data science solutions takes someone who is a technologist at heart, a natural collaborator, and a strong believer of continuous improvement.

Our Current Tech Stack 

Google Cloud Platform : IaaS 

Cloud Composer / Airflow : for ML pipeline orchestration 

Python : for NLP & ML modelling 

What happens after you apply? 

Step 1 : Within 2 days of your application - which is wholesome original & expressive - our TA team will reach out to you for a quick chat. 

Step 2 : Within 2-3 days of your confirmation for the Job Application, you will receive an interview call from your future team to discuss the job role, and deep dive into your Data Science skills. 

Step 3: On successfully clearing Step 2, we’ll schedule a call with your future

manager to deep dive into the role with you and for you to show off your skills through a case study and presentation. 

Step 4: On mutual success and progress of the above three rounds, we will be all set to onboard you with a big smile of course! 

Duties & Responsibilities 

• Manage the end-to-end delivery of own advanced Data Science projects
• Research, design, prototype and build robust and scalable models based on machine learning, data mining, and statistical modelling to answer key business problems 
• Provide technical steering to the team in NLP problems and beyond
• Proactively share knowledge with technical and non-technical colleagues in a clear, illustrative and collaborative manner 
• Provide technical steer, including solution architectures and model deployment support, to other team members and their projects as required 
• Build and nurture strong relationships with Engineering and other business stakeholders 
• Evangelise your insights through compelling storytelling that inspires action 
• Be a critical, constructive voice and provide input on the direction of the team in all relevant aspects, as appropriate 
• Recommend DS projects, given best understanding of our datasets, and the algorithmic ‘art of the possible’; and support team strategists and business analysts in defining, pitching and prioritising those with the business 
• Identify training opportunities, including conferences, in line with team capability gaps and business aims 
• Introduce and manage team’s external blogging schedule, set up Kaggle competitions on behalf of team, and organise Hackathons, as appropriate
• Coordinate Research within the team by: 

○ Ensuring coherence and prior planning in team members’ research time / efforts 

○ Executing own research on latest trending ML tools / libraries and methods and make usable recommendations 

○ Assessing research outputs based on expected value, relevance and ease of adoption 

• Evaluate third-party partnership opportunities (e.g. where to Buy vs. Build, DS training / consultancy providers) as necessary 

Skills & Competencies 

The following skills are essential or desirable.

• Minimum 7+ years of working experience and a hands-on data scientist is must 
• Advanced Degree in the field of Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Data Science or equivalent discipline 
• Technologist / researcher mentality and carrying Continuous Improvement (CI) mindset 
• Hands-on experience with PyTorch or TensorFlow 
• Demonstrable experience in identifying and delivering team development initiatives in the area of successfully advocating for new tools or new modelling methods following external research 
• Strong experience of accountability and ownership for end-to-end project lifecycle 
• Experience in building reusable components in Data Science products and modular solution architectures 
• Experience with data storage / querying, compute, orchestration and ML-related services of the Google Cloud Platform (GCP), e.g. BQ, Composer, AI Platform 
• Strong programming experience with Python 
• Great analytical and problem solving skills, with a strong bias for quality and engineering excellence 
• Experience with Natural Language Processing (NLP) model build and deployment, including word / document vectors and topic modelling
• Strong appetite to dive deep into a given content terrain to develop expertise and distil key findings 
• Able to work independently and collaboratively in an interdisciplinary team environment 
• High organisational skills
• Self-motivated, and a go-getter attitude with a drive for execution
• Experience working with Agile methodologies (SCRUM)