Senior Data Analyst: Search & Retrieval Analytics Lead

Elsevier; England; Hybrid; GBP 60,000 - 100,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Holiday allowance

Health screening

Life assurance

Pension scheme

Share option scheme

Self funded benefits

Job summary

Elsevier seeks a Senior Data Analyst to lead analytics and evaluation for search and retrieval systems. You will own analytical workflows, define measurement strategies, and deliver insights that improve ranking quality, relevance, and user experience.

Ideal candidates have deep experience in search analytics, experimentation, and data visualization, with autonomy and the ability to influence cross-functional teams across our Platform Data Science organization.

Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD in Data Analytics, Statistics, Computer Science, or a related field (or equivalent practical experience)
• Significant experience in data analysis, business intelligence, or analytics roles
• Proficiency in SQL and Python for large-scale data analysis
• Advanced experience with data visualization and BI tools (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, Looker, matplotlib, seaborn)
• Experience working with Databricks or similar large-scale data platforms
• Excellent understanding of experimentation design, A/B testing, and statistical analysis
• Experience defining and analyzing search/retrieval metrics (e.g., NDCG, recall, precision, ranking metrics)
• Proven ability to translate complex data into actionable insights and influence decisions

Responsibilities

• Perform a leading role in analysis of search and retrieval system performance, including ranking quality and relevance.
• Help define and standardize search evaluation metrics (e.g., NDCG, MAP, recall, precision, CTR).
• Analyze query behavior, user interaction signals, and content performance to identify optimization opportunities.
• Conduct deep-dive analyses on ranking performance, query intent, and retrieval gaps.
• Support evaluation of downstream applications (including GenAI-powered features) where they depend on retrieval quality.
• Help design and lead A/B testing and experimentation frameworks for search and ranking improvements.
• Partner with product and data science to define success metrics and experiment strategies.
• Ensure statistical rigor in experiment design, analysis, and interpretation.
• Build reusable experimentation templates and scalable analysis workflows.
• Own and evolve dashboards and reporting systems tracking search performance and user engagement.
• Develop clear, actionable data storytelling to communicate insights to technical and business stakeholders.
• Enable self-service analytics for partners through well-designed reporting tools.

Skills

Analytical thinking

Communication of insights

Experimentation design

Education

Master’s or PhD in Data Analytics/Statistics/CS

Equivalent practical experience

Tools

SQL

Python

Databricks

Spark

Tableau/Power BI/Looker

Job description

Elsevier seeks a Senior Data Analyst to lead analytics and evaluation for search and retrieval systems. You will own analytical workflows, define measurement strategies, and deliver insights that improve ranking quality, relevance, and user experience.

Ideal candidates have deep experience in search analytics, experimentation, and data visualization, with autonomy and the ability to influence cross-functional teams across our Platform Data Science organization.