Applied Scientist (Integrity)

Prolific; Greater London; Hybrid; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Job summary

Prolific is expanding its Integrity team with a new Applied Scientist role focused on verification of high-quality expert participants. You will shape the problems, model signals, and work with other teams to turn ideas into measurable experiments.

You’ll combine data science, ML and statistics to build production-ready solutions that balance speed, cost and impact, joining a mission-driven company that values rigorous thinking and practical outcomes.

Qualifications

• 3+ years applying ML, AI research or data science to real problems.
• Python skills to build, test and iterate on working prototypes.
• Ability to turn loosely defined problems into hypotheses, experiments and metrics.

Skills

Applied ML

Statistics

Data science

Python

Education

MSc or PhD in Computer Science, Maths, Statistics, ML or related

Job description

Prolific is building the human data infrastructure that powers the next generation of AI systems. As frontier AI labs scale their use of human-generated data for training, evaluation, and alignment, the way we measure quality, performance, and operational efficiency becomes increasingly important.

The Role

You’ll join Prolific’s Integrity team, which protects the platform from fraud and misuse. This is a new role focused on verification – in particular identifying and validating high‑quality expert participants. This is an emerging area, so part of the role will be to shape the problem space by working with other teams to find, validate and model useful signals for participant quality. The ideal candidate will help define the right problems to solve, not just execute against a fixed brief.

The Applied Scientist role combines data science, ML and statistics to build practical systems that drive real business outcomes. It is not a pure research role, although you may explore papers and new ideas. The focus is on turning promising approaches into production‑ready solutions, balancing speed, cost and effectiveness.

How You’ll Work

• You’ll be the first data person in this area, so you help shape the role and create structure where there isn’t much yet, with support from leadership. You don’t need to have all the answers on day one.
• You spot problems worth solving and start on them, instead of waiting to be assigned.
• You will be comfortable – and ideally enjoy – collaborating with others.

What We Are Looking For

• Deep expertise in one applied ML, statistics or data science speciality. Examples could be risk modelling, LLM detection, or reinforcement learning – any area of genuine depth counts.
• Judgement about when to reach for simple statistics, classical ML, LLMs, or agentic approaches.
• 3+ years applying ML, AI research or data science to real problems.
• Python skills sufficient to build, test and iterate on working prototypes independently.
• Able to take a loosely defined product or customer problem and turn it into clear hypotheses, experiments and metrics.
• Comfortable working on ambiguous problems and suggesting solutions rather than waiting to be told exactly what to do.

Nice to Have

• An MSc or PhD in Computer Science, Maths, Statistics, ML or a related field – or equivalent knowledge gained another way.
• Experience working alongside product and engineering teams.

Why Prolific is a Great Place to Work

We’ve built a unique platform that connects researchers and companies with a global pool of participants, enabling the collection of high‑quality, ethically sourced human behavioural data and feedback. This data is the cornerstone of developing more accurate, nuanced and aligned AI systems. We believe that the next leap in AI capabilities won’t come solely from scaling existing models but from integrating diverse human perspectives and behaviours into AI development. By providing this crucial human data infrastructure, Prolific is positioning itself at the forefront of the next wave of AI innovation – one that reflects the breadth and best of humanity.

Working for us will place you at the forefront of AI innovation, providing access to our unique human data platform and opportunities for groundbreaking research. You’ll enjoy a competitive salary, benefits and remote working within our impactful, mission‑driven culture.

Legal Notice

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