Data Scientist

Salary: National ranging from £41,800 to £50,000 and London from £46,000 to £55,000

Are you interested in work which is stimulating, high impact and makes a real difference to people’s lives? Then this could be the role for you!

The Team/Department
The FCA is the prudential regulator of over 40,000 financial services firms. We want resilient firms who have financial resources that are commensurate to their activities and that minimise the potential for harm – both in life and in failure.

The Financial Resilience Department (FRD) is one of the specialist departments in the FCA. FRD’s mission is to provide high quality prudential expertise to support the FCA in minimising potential harms to consumers, markets and competition arising from weaknesses in firms’ financial resilience.  Through this we deliver public value.

What you will be doing
We deliver on our mission by:

• Using data techniques to spot risks across our regulated firm population
• Assessing the adequacy of firms’ financial resources – both through individual firm assessments and multi firm work
• Developing and maintaining complex data pipelines, business reports and self-service dashboards
• Partnering with technical and non-technical stakeholders across the organisation to translate business needs into technical requirements to build actionable solutions
• Communicating and presenting solutions in a clear manner to non-technical
• Coaching and developing other associates across the Financial Resilience Department to provide oversight and support on data initiatives

What you will get from the role
This role provides exposure to both a breadth and a depth of public issues, and you will be responsible for high profile work which protects both the consumers and the market.

• You will be part of a growing community of data professionals and drive the implementation of the financial resilience data strategy
• Working in a team of data and prudential specialists, you will have a rare opportunity to understand and shape the workings of the financial sector at a time of considerable change. You will enjoy a unique perspective on the financial services industry, with the opportunity to do meaningful work that makes a real difference

Our competitive flexible benefits scheme gives you the opportunity to create a personalised benefits package, tailored to suit your lifecycle. You can use this allowance to purchase additional benefits such as dental or cycle to work or you have the option top up your base salary by taking this as cash.

Core benefits that you will receive as standard are: 

• 25 days holiday per year plus bank holidays.
• Private healthcare with Bupa.
• A non-contributory Pension of at least 8% of basic salary each month (there are several contribution levels that increase depending on your age – up to 12% a month once you reach age 35).
• Life assurance of eight times your basic salary.
• Income protection.

We support hybrid working which means you will be able to work from home up to 60% of the time over a month with the remainder of your time in one of our three office locations. 

The skills and experience you will have

Minimum

We are a signatory to the Government’s Disability Confident scheme. This means that we will offer an interview to disabled candidates entering under the scheme, who best meet the minimum criteria for a role.

• Experience in visualising complex data sets using Tableau, Power BI, or similar
• Experience in building and maintaining data pipelines using Python and SQL for data ingestion and manipulation
• Experience in applying analytical tools and techniques for exploratory data analysis and statistical modelling

Essential

• Exceptional ability to collaborate with a wide range of stakeholders, translating complex business needs into technical specifications and actionable solutions
• Excellent communication skills with the ability to articulate complex analytical concepts to non-technical stakeholders
• Proven ability to keep abreast of new developments and effectively implement and integrate key ideas and methodologies into work processes and outcomes

About the FCA  

The FCA regulates the conduct of 50,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. We do this to make sure markets work well for individuals, businesses and the economy as a whole. For more information on what we do, our three-year strategy can be found here. 

The FCA's Values & Diversity

Our ambition is to cultivate a culture of inclusion for all employees that respects their individual strengths, views, and experiences. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation. 

The FCA is committed to achieving greater diversity across all levels of the organisations. Given this, we particularly welcome applications from women, disabled and minority ethnic candidates for our Associate role.  

Flexible working

We welcome applications from candidates who are looking for flexible arrangements.  Many of our staff work flexibly including working part-time, staggered hours, and job shares.  We can’t promise to give you exactly what you want but we won’t judge you for asking.   
 

Multi-location 

As part of the FCA’s on-going commitment to develop our national presence, most of our vacancies are now open to working in our Edinburgh, Leeds, or London offices.  This means that as part of the application process you will be able to select your preference of which office location you would like to work from.  

Useful information 

• Applications for this role close at 23.59 on 9th July 2024
• This role is graded as Associate - Regulatory 
• Interviews will take place from 18th July 2024

Got a question?   

If you are interested in learning more about the role please contact: 

For internal applicants, please contact Linda Bradley at linda.bradley@fca.org.uk 

For external applicants please contact Chhavi Bartaria at chhavi.bartaria@fca.org.uk 

What to expect from our interview process 

If your application is successful you will be invited to complete a case study and one hour competency based interview.