Embedded Data Scientist

Job Description

At a Glance

Us: Fast-growing startup of 100+ people. We are a remote-first team, mainly based in the UK. YC alumni (summer 2019) and Series A funding of 32$m in 2023. Our mission is to revolutionise how the world learns about people, so people can revolutionise the world.🚀

The Role

As the first embedded Data Scientist at Prolific, you’ll be a bridge between the Data and Product teams: working closely with product managers and engineers to make our product the smartest it can be. We are specifically recruiting for a data-scientist to sit within our “Identity, Behaviour and Fraud Team” (aka IB). This team is the bastion against fraudulence in our participant pool, and has developed a wide array of measures for detecting participants with malintent on the platform. However, we recognise that the battle for high data quality is never won, and we’re seeking a passionate data scientist to help us take our fraud-prevention measures to the next level.

As the IB team’s embedded data scientist, you’ll implement machine learning models, design A/B tests, and monitor the combined impact of multiple classification systems. You'll also be an integral part of a smart and high-performing team, working at the cutting edge of Prolific’s technology.

What you'll be doing

• Developing algorithms and machine learning models for detecting fraudulent behaviour on our platform. Including pioneering methods to detect usage of LLMs (i.e. chatgtp) in surveys. And using unsupervised machine learning to identify groups of fraudulent users when no ground truth is available.
• Using statistical methods to wrangle imbalanced datasets and identify behavioural signals which indicate fraud. In additional to running behavioural analyses to help establish a baseline for ‘normal’ participant behaviour.
• In addition to being a member of the IB team, you’ll also be a member of Prolific’s Central Data Science Team. This group will provide an opportunity for mentorship, and to mentor others, and will meet regularly to share learnings, methodologies and ensure consistent technical upskilling.
• You’ll be responsible for fostering a data-driven culture within your home team. Coaching your colleagues on how best to use data to guide decision making, and holding them to account when it comes to measuring success.
• You’ll also be the ‘conduit’ between your team and other data teams in the business. Knowing how and when to ask for ‘additional capacity’, then serving as the point person when other data-prolificos join the project to help.
• On occasion, you’ll need to react to the day-to-day data needs of your team by building dashboards, reports and ad-hoc queries. For these purposes you’ll be able to leverage the upper half of our data tech stack. This means working mostly with cleaned and modelled data, where a lot of the business logic and testing has already been taken care of.

What you’ll bring

• A strong grounding in statistical methods. I.e. you’re comfortable summarising and transforming non-normal distributions, know your way around a logistic regression, and can explain the pros and cons of various statistical tests.
• Competency with python, including applied experience using DS libraries like pandas and sk-learn.
• Intermediate machine learning experience: particularly wrt to classification systems, dealing with unbalanced classes, and combining data from several sources.
• Decent analytical skills, with a track record of digesting complex data, identifying trends, and drawing meaningful insights.
• Good communication skills, with the ability to effectively share data-driven insights and recommendations to non-technical stakeholders.

Even better if you have

• Prior experience of fraud-detection within a business context.
• A love of healthy debate! (The IB team has a great reputation for intellectually challenging each other and finding creative solutions to problems.)
• Experience with online recruitment and survey platforms, as well as a knowledge of the current online research landscape.
• Knowledge of a modern generative AI models and how they’re taught.

What you’ll get

⚖️ Work-Life Balance: We’re all looking to strike the right work-life balance, and as a remote-first company you’re able to work flexibly from your home in the UK or our dog-friendly co-working space in Shoreditch. We offer 25 days of annual leave plus bank holidays of course, which you can switch with any day of your choosing. We also have adjusted hours where the whole company finishes 2 hours earlier on Fridays.

🏡 Family Life: We offer generous maternity, paternity and shared parental leave. Need to pick your child up from school? No Problem. Our flexible working gives you the childcare flexibility you need.

💰 Pension: We offer a salary sacrifice pension with a 3% starting employer contribution.

📈 Share Options: An exciting option to buy shares of Prolific in the future.

🧘 Wellbeing: We care deeply about our employees well-being, that’s why we offer comprehensive Bupa & Medicash private health insurance, that disregards medical history. Taxable monthly stipend of £150 in order for you to improve your wellness and remote experience. We want you to have a happy and healthy environment so we offer a £1000 home office budget, along with a Apple MacBook when you start, plus a £200 yearly top-up.

⚰️ Death-in-service: We offer a death-in-service benefit that would pay out 4x of your annual salary.

📚 Learn & Grow: Development is important to us, and we want to give all our employees the opportunity to learn. There are many personal growth and career progression opportunities available, as well as mentoring. We also offer a £1000 yearly budget for education, growth and training for you to use at your discretion.

💙 Culture: We’re a friendly bunch here at Prolific; open, transparent and inclusive. Although we’re a remote first company we still love to hang out with each other! We run collaborative quarterly company-wide meets up and team socials (both virtually and in-person), all paid for. Alongside this we offer a £1000 yearly budget for discretionary meet-ups so you can cover travel, food and accommodation. As a business we’re also committed to carbon offsetting; each month we donate money in your name to plant trees 🌳 and being remote we’re doing our bit to offset travel too

Our Interview Process

Talent Call: You'll meet with one of our Talent team and have an exploratory call about the role requirements, life at Prolific, as well as your background and aspirations.

Hiring Manager Interview: You'll interview with two members of the team, one of which will be the hiring manager. You'll have the opportunity to ask about the company and the role, and we'll ask you questions about your experiences and goals. Panel Interview: We'll hold a panel interview that evaluates skills required for the role. You'll meet with more of our team and may be asked to complete a presentation or task. You'll be compensated with a £50 voucher 💰 for completing the task because we know your time is valuable! Final Interview: We will deep dive into your past experiences, goals, motivations, and skills all aligned to our Prolific Principles. You'll speak with two to three members of the team and - as always - have an opportunity to ask questions about the role and company.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Monitoring

Prolific is an equal opportunity employer. We celebrate diversity and are committed to fostering diversity, equity and inclusion in the workplace. We welcome all applications, and consider them without regard to race, religion, belief, age, gender, gender expression, gender identity, gender reassignment, disability, marriage or civil partnership status, pregnancy or maternity, sex or sexual orientation.

We are committed to ensuring a fair recruitment process, it's essential to our success. Under the Equality Act (2010) we collect information from individuals at the point of application. We anonymously monitor the profiles of individuals that apply to each vacancy to ensure that no individual is unfairly discriminated against or disadvantaged.

Privacy Statement

By submitting your application, you agree that Prolific may collect your personal data for recruiting and global organisation planning. Prolific's Candidate Privacy Notice explains what personal information Prolific may process, where Prolific may process your personal information, its purposes for processing your personal information, and the rights you can exercise over Prolific’s use of your personal information.