Data Scientist

Application Deadline: 11 May 2026

Department: Insights

Employment Type: Permanent - Full Time

Location: Birmingham

Reporting To: Head of Data and Data Science

Compensation: £46,000 / year

What you'll be doing

• Build models that shape real world decisions
  • Develop predictive and inferential models to understand what drives programme success and where we can improve
  • Apply statistical and machine learning techniques to large, complex datasets
  • Design and contribute to experimentation and evaluation approaches, including causal inference
  • Turn complex outputs into clear, actionable insights for senior leaders
• Design systems that make insight scalable
  • Build and maintain data pipelines that support reliable, repeatable analysis
  • Work with cloud infrastructure (Azure) to process and store data at scale
  • Improve how data flows across the organisation, making it more accessible, consistent, and usable
  • Embed best practices in reproducibility, versioning, and automation
• Work across teams to embed data informed thinking
  • Partner with programme, product, and leadership teams to shape decisions
  • Translate technical work into narratives that influence strategy
  • Support and mentor analysts, contributing to a strong and collaborative data culture
• Continuously improve how we work
  • Identify opportunities to automate, simplify, or strengthen existing processes
  • Contribute to shared standards in coding, documentation, and modelling
  • Help evolve our data systems as the organisation grows

Working in a hybrid way, you'll be attached to either our Birmingham, London or Manchester office and will report to Head of Data and Data Science. In line with our current ways of working, you'll be expected to be in the office at least 1 day a month, in addition to team days and this may be reviewed by Ambition.

What makes someone effective in this role

• Technical depth with practical application
  • Experience building statistical or machine learning models that answer real world questions
  • Experience building AI led pipelines
  • Strong programming skills in Python or R, alongside solid SQL for working with complex datasets
  • Understanding of statistical inference (including Bayesian and frequentist approaches)
  • Familiarity with cloud based data environments (e.g. Azure) and working in Linux/UNIX systems
• Systems thinking
  • Experience working with data pipelines, data models, or production workflows
  • Awareness of data quality, validation, and reproducibility challenges, and how to solve them
• Communication and influence
  • Ability to explain complex ideas clearly to non technical audiences
  • Confidence working with stakeholders to shape problems, not just solve them
• Mindset
  • Curiosity and a drive to improve how things work
  • Comfort working independently and navigating ambiguity
  • Care for detail, especially when working with sensitive or high impact data

Why this role is worth your time

• End to end ownership: You won't be siloed, you'll work across modelling, engineering, and decision making
• Visible impact: Your work will directly influence programmes that support teachers and pupils across the country
• Technical breadth: A rare opportunity to combine advanced analytics with modern data infrastructure
• Mission driven work: Contribute to improving outcomes for children, particularly those facing disadvantage

Benefits

• Competitive annual salary
• Professional development for all staff
• 25 days' annual leave, plus bank holidays and winter shut down at the end of December/beginning of January
• Employer pension contribution of 11%
• Agile, hybrid working culture, so you can manage when and where you work
• Staff affinity networks that help keep equality, diversity and inclusion at the heart of our work
• Blind recruitment process to ensure equality and fairness in our hiring
• Enhanced maternity pay after a year's service
• Shared parental leave package
• Access to free, confidential 24/7 wellbeing and support line
• Comfortable and collaborative workspaces in the city centres of Manchester, Birmingham and London
• Work from home technology package to support hybrid working
• Interest free season ticket / bike loans