Principal Data Scientist

About us

You've probably heard of Autotrader, but do you know what we're all about?

We're the most trusted, most visited automotive marketplace in the UK. A heritage brand and a tech innovator. We bring together vehicle buyers and sellers to give them real choices. Cars may be what we're best known for but we’re also the place for pretty much everything else on wheels, from e-bikes to caravans. 

In the automotive world, change is a constant, that’s why we take our job of untangling the complex car-buying journey very seriously. 

At our core, we’re all about people. We go our own way while embracing diversity and celebrating our differences. We dedicate ourselves to the idea that we work better together. 

Autotrader is a beautiful, surprising and vibrant place to work. We might not be for everyone, but we could be perfect for you. 

About the job

We are seeking a Principal Data Scientist who will play a crucial role in driving Autotrader's transformation into a data science-driven organisation.

As a Principal Data Scientist you will be responsible for the direction of Data Science at Autotrader. You will join a cross-functional collaborative squad focussed around a set of products or a services. With your experience and research skills you will spot the opportunities for Data Science and work with the leadership in your squad to prioritise, resource and shape subsequent projects.

Your role will require you to orchestrate these projects, including supporting other Data Analysts and Scientists and collaborating with software engineers towards the best solution. You will have a focus on developing ML-centric data products and solutions, in which your expertise with ML frameworks and workflows will be key.

Right now, our Data Scientists are working on several exciting projects. For instance, they're creating personalised suggestions to get buyers more involved, improving our search system to make buying better for customers while also helping sellers stand out, building AI tools to aid customers in tasks like making listings and describing ads, studying how competition affects seller performance on our site, and upgrading our customer data platform for better targeted marketing beyond our site.

As part of our broader analytical community, Data Scientists collaborate closely with Data Analysts. Together, they foster a culture of shared insights, continuous learning, and mutual support through regular showcases, feedback sessions, mentorship programs and skill-based workshops. As a Senior member of the community, you will play a key role in establishing our analytical standards and tools.

We have invested heavily in a Data Platform that supports industry-leading Data Science. These are some technologies that our Data Scientists use (we don't expect applicants to have experience with all of these):

Python and Databricks for Data Science, Spark, MLFlow and Airflow for ML Workflows, Google Cloud Platform for our analytics infrastructure, dbt and BigQuery for data modelling and warehousing.

Discover more about our Analytics Community in our blog and explore how we use analytics and Data Science in our Engineering Blog.

We understand that every candidate brings their own unique blend of experiences to a role, which allows them to succeed in their own style. Here is what a successful Principal Data Scientist looks like at Autotrader: 

What we're looking for

• Enjoy being an accountable leader of cross-functional teams 
• Think strategically about the commercial impact of products, making the right decisions and unlocking business value with Data Science 
• Comfortable taking a holistic responsibility for delivery, bridging the interleaving dependencies of Data Science projects across organisational boundaries 
• Care deeply about the rigour and quality of our scientific outputs, balancing complexity with practicality and are confident challenging processes 
• Highly dependable leader and source of advice, yet are humble, inviting the challenge of their ideas 
• Love spotting and solving unique problems that require them to pioneer novel approaches. As astute researcher, you are able to proactively identify opportunities, efficiently size them up and make compelling cases to Senior stakeholders 
• Analytical generalists, comfortable leading projects with ambiguous requirements and complex constraints, requiring them to draw upon expertise with a wide range of Data Science topics 
• Exemplars of our data lifecycle, tech estate and tooling, including Python, Spark, SQL and MLflow 
• Passionate about leading people and elevating the technical capability of the whole discipline 

If that sounds like you, we’d love to receive your application! 

During our application process, you will be asked two questions to help us learn more about you and how you align with our values. These will be used as part of our selection criteria, to determine if we progress your application further.

Benefits

We’re offering a salary of £60,000 - £80,000, plus an additional 10% of your salary awarded to you in shares each year. These awarded shares will become yours in yearly instalments over the next three years, and you can choose to either sell them or keep them as shares. 

You'll have 28 days holiday per year, and that's in addition to bank holidays and half day closures on Christmas and New Year's Eve.

That’s not all. You'll be enrolled in our pension scheme, where our standard contributions are 7% and employee contributions are 5%. We also have comprehensive private medical cover, enhanced family leave provisions, a car salary sacrifice scheme, share-save options, and much more. 

We always want to give you the support you need and help prioritise your wellbeing, that’s why we provide access to 24/7 online GP and dentist, as well as specialist support for assisted fertility, gender dysphoria, menopause, period care plans and lots more.  

On top of all that, our hybrid model, Connected Working, combines the best of both worlds - office and home working. You'll spend a minimum of 3 days a week in the office with your team, focused on collaboration and connection. 

Additionally, we have our remote-first periods at set times during summer and winter. During these periods, you can work remotely anywhere in the UK and from certain locations abroad.

Alongside a wide range of benefits, we'll help you settle in with confidence from day one. If you're successful, one of the first things you'll experience is our tailored new-starter induction programme,  Great Start, designed to help you feel welcome, connected, and set up for success.

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