Operational Data Scientist - AI/ML for National Security

Forward Role; Cheltenham; On-site; GBP 50,000 - 85,000; Full time

Job summary

Forward Role is recruiting a Data Scientist (AI/ML) to work on national security projects in the UK. You will contribute to deploying ML into operational systems and join a small, cross-functional team with data engineers and end users.

The role emphasizes shaping the AI/ML strategy, working closely with customers, and deploying models in secure environments. Location options include London, Surrey, Cheltenham, or Manchester, with active eDV clearance required.

Qualifications

• Experience with Python-based data science and ML, incl. NLP or graph analytics.
• Comfortable with sensitive data.
• Able to explain complex analysis to non-specialists.

Responsibilities

• ML and NLP models for intelligence data: pattern detection, data matching, anomaly spotting
• Automated triage and analysis of large, messy, multi-source datasets (sensor, geospatial, comms)
• Graph analytics and time-series work
• Data and ML pipelines built for production, not demos
• Dashboards and tools that non-technical users can act on
• Python (Pandas, scikit-learn, PyTorch/TensorFlow), Spark and AWS

Skills

Python

NLP exposure

Graph analytics exposure

ML

Tools

Spark

AWS

Pandas

scikit-learn

PyTorch/TensorFlow

Job description

Forward Role is recruiting a Data Scientist (AI/ML) to work on national security projects in the UK. You will contribute to deploying ML into operational systems and join a small, cross-functional team with data engineers and end users.

The role emphasizes shaping the AI/ML strategy, working closely with customers, and deploying models in secure environments. Location options include London, Surrey, Cheltenham, or Manchester, with active eDV clearance required.