Data Science Careers Event

Join our free data science careers event featuring speakers from across industry including Channel 4, Bank of England and ASDA. They’ll be talking about their data science roles, their projects and career development.

We hope you can join us for this unique opportunity to hear talks from a diverse range of data specialists followed by a Q&A panel and networking.

Monday 20th March 2023
4 – 6pm
In person in the Worsley building (room TBC)
Cheese, wine, soft drinks and other refreshments available

Channel 4

An introduction to data science at Channel 4 with some project examples and how they structure their work to deliver projects and find development opportunities for the team.

Jonny Hawkins, Lead Data Scientist

I work at Channel 4 based in Leeds. I’ve previously worked on credit and risk models in Fintech and Insurtech, before moving to work in media at the start of 2021.

Bank of England

As the UK’s central bank, the Bank of England plays a vital role in the economic stability of the entire country, ensuring everyone’s money is kept safe. Data forms the cornerstone to decisions made by the Bank. It allows us to oversee and regulate financial institutions and understand the impact of national and international events on different sectors of the economy. In our presentation, we will be talking about the kind of data science challenges we are currently working on at the Bank, the day-to-day of a data scientist and the opportunities available to those interested in a career at the Bank.

Ayaz Ahmad, Data Scientist

I graduated in Multimedia internet technology from university of Salford I always had a big interest in technology as it would allow me creative and showcase that in different formats such as web design or animation etc. I believe that technology represents unlimited possibilities and since I have joined bank two years ago  I have been actively learning to be a skilled data scientist and bank provides a lot of opportunity to do that from my experience I have learnt that whenever there is a process, there is a way to improve or optimize it with data or machine learning. What I really enjoy about this job is that if you are proactive, you can work on a wide range of projects with in your department or in some cases across different divisions.

Susie Philp, Data Scientist

Hi I’m Susie and I’m a data scientist at the Bank of England. During my undergraduate studies in Geography at Lancaster University, I developed an keen interest for story-telling with data and knew that I wanted to pursue a career in data science. I did a MSc and PhD in Data Analytics and Society at University of Liverpool and started working for the Bank of England last year. Working at the Bank allows me to tackle interesting real-world data challenges, develop my technical skillset and contribute to work that is beneficial for the national economy.

ASDA

Hear about data science at Asda, the role of the different teams and example business projects.

Jess Arkesden, Market Data Insight and Analytics Manager

I am the Market Data Insight and Analytics Manager within the Geospatial & Market team at Asda. Whilst not a data scientist myself, I work with data scientists to provide actionable insight to key stakeholders across the business. Our team specialises in providing information at the local level, with my role focused on “telling the story” with our data. Our data covers a broad range of topics, from size of store and geographic location through to market share and the competitor landscape. I originally studied Economics at Leeds Uni, before holding analysis roles at West Yorkshire Police, Skills for Care (an adult social care charity partnered with the Department of Health and Social Care) and now Asda.

Laura Brown, Data Science Manager

I’m a Data Science Manager within the Analytics & Decision Services team at Asda, where we work with teams such as Finance, Property, Merchandising and Supply Chain. Recent projects that our team have worked on range from understanding the impact of weather on sales to improve forecasts of how much stock should be sent to stores, recommending clearance discounts for George clothing items, and optimising how much space is allocated to different types of products within our stores. I studied mathematics at Leeds Uni where a placement year in Operational Research at the Department of Health led to a career in analytics, and since then I’ve worked in data science at TUI and Axa before joining Asda.