eDV Data Scientist – Contract

Babcock; Cheltenham; On-site; GBP 125,000 - 150,000; Full time

Job summary

A leading company is seeking a Data Scientist to support initiatives in Defence and National Security. The role involves applying advanced analytical techniques and machine learning to solve operational challenges while ensuring compliance with high-security standards. Candidates should be proficient in Python and/or R, have experience in statistical modelling, and hold an active security clearance.

Qualifications

• Proven experience as a Data Scientist in defence or government.
• Active EDV / UK*C security clearance.
• Strong statistical, mathematical, and data modelling skills.

Responsibilities

• Develop and deploy data models and machine learning algorithms.
• Support real-time analytics and operational dashboards.
• Communicate findings via visualisations and reports.

Skills

Proficient in Python

Proficient in R

Statistical skills

Data modelling skills

Data visualisation

Familiarity with big data tools

Ability to work with classified data

Education

Relevant certifications

Tools

Pandas

NumPy

Scikit-learn

TensorFlow

PyTorch

Power BI

Tableau

Hadoop

Spark

Azure

AWS

Job description

eDV Data Scientist – Contract

Location: Cheltenham
Security Clearance Required: EDV / UK*C
Employment Type: Contract
Pay Rate: £600 - £700 per day

Job Summary

We are looking for a mission-driven Data Scientist to join our team supporting high-impact initiatives in the Defence and National Security sector. You will apply advanced analytical techniques, machine learning, and statistical modelling to solve complex operational challenges. Working within a secure, multidisciplinary environment, you'll help deliver data-driven insights to support decision-making, threat detection, intelligence analysis, and national defence strategies.

Key Responsibilities

• Develop and deploy data models, machine learning algorithms, and statistical analyses to support defence and national security operations.
• Work with structured and unstructured data from diverse sources such as sensors, ISR feeds, satellite imagery, communications, cyber threat logs, and intelligence reports.
• Collaborate with domain experts, analysts, and engineers to understand mission needs and translate them into actionable data science problems.
• Design and build data pipelines and processes for data collection, cleansing, transformation, and validation.
• Support real-time analytics and operational dashboards for situational awareness and command support.
• Communicate findings to both technical and non-technical stakeholders via clear visualisations and reports.
• Ensure compliance with data handling, classification, and ethical use policies in a high-security environment.
• Stay up to date with emerging technologies in AI, deep learning, and data analytics relevant to the defence sector.

Skills and Qualifications

Essential:

• Proven experience as a Data Scientist, ideally in defence, intelligence, law enforcement, or government.
• Active EDV / UK*C security clearance.
• Proficient in Python and/or R, with experience using data science libraries (e.g., Pandas, NumPy, Scikit-learn, TensorFlow, PyTorch).
• Strong statistical, mathematical, and data modelling skills.
• Experience with data visualisation tools (e.g., Power BI, Tableau, matplotlib, Plotly).
• Familiarity with big data tools and cloud platforms (e.g., Hadoop, Spark, Azure, AWS).
• Ability to work with sensitive or classified data in secure environments.

Desirable:

• Experience in applying data science to one or more of the following: cyber defence, ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance & Reconnaissance), geospatial intelligence (GEOINT), threat modelling, logistics optimisation, or predictive maintenance.
• Knowledge of NLP, computer vision, or reinforcement learning in defence applications.
• Experience with edge analytics, secure computing environments, or Federated Learning.
• Relevant certifications (e.g., Microsoft Certified: Azure Data Scientist, AWS Certified Machine Learning, CISSP).