Senior Data Scientist I - LeapSpace

Elsevier; Greater London; On-site; GBP 90,000 - 130,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Flexible working hours

Wellbeing initiatives

Job summary

Elsevier in the United Kingdom is seeking a Senior Data Scientist I to design and prototype AI-enabled research workflows. You will integrate LLMs with trusted scientific data to power LeapSpace and improve researcher productivity.

The role spans retrieval, RAG, evaluation, and cross-functional leadership, with emphasis on rapid prototyping and translating cutting-edge AI into scalable product capabilities. Strong NLP/IR background required.

Qualifications

• Master’s or PhD in Computer Science, Data Science, ML, NLP, IR, or related field.
• Significant experience in applied AI, ML, NLP, or information retrieval.
• Strong hands-on experience with Python and modern AI/ML frameworks.

Responsibilities

• Lead prototyping and development of LLM-powered research workflows.
• Design and iterate on agentic and multi-step AI workflows using LangGraph.
• Evaluate emerging AI models and translate research into scalable solutions.
• Contribute to prompt engineering, context management, and grounding strategies.
• Support integration of scientific metadata and knowledge assets into AI workflows.
• Design and optimize search and retrieval pipelines including lexical, vector, and hybrid approaches.

Skills

Python

PyTorch

LangGraph

LangChain

Hugging Face

Databricks

LLM-based apps

NLP

Retrieval systems

AI experimentation

Education

Master’s or PhD

Tools

LangGraph

LangChain

Haystack

Job description

About the team

Elsevier’s mission is to help researchers, clinicians, and life sciences professionals advance discovery and improve health outcomes through trusted content, data, and analytics.

About the role

We are looking for a Senior Data Scientist I to help design, build, and evaluate advanced AI capabilities powering LeapSpace. This role will focus heavily on applied AI research and development, including prototyping intelligent workflows, integrating large language models with trusted scientific data, and advancing AI-assisted research experiences.

You will work across retrieval systems, generative AI, reasoning workflows, evaluation frameworks, and AI experimentation, helping shape the future of AI-powered scientific discovery at Elsevier.

This role is ideal for someone with strong hands-on experience in applied AI, NLP, retrieval systems, and LLM-based applications, who enjoys rapidly prototyping and translating emerging AI techniques into scalable product capabilities.

Responsibilities

Applied AI & Research

• Lead prototyping and development of LLM-powered research workflows, including:
• Design and iterate on agentic and multi-step AI workflows using frameworks such as LangGraph and related orchestration tooling.
• Apply state-of-the-art techniques in:
• Rapidly evaluate emerging AI models, tooling, and frameworks to identify opportunities for product innovation.
• Translate applied AI research into scalable, production-oriented solutions that improve researcher productivity and trust.
• Contribute to experimentation around prompt engineering, context management, grounding strategies, and hallucination mitigation.
• Support integration of scientific metadata, ontologies, and knowledge assets into AI workflows.

Search, Retrieval & RAG Systems

• Design and optimize search and retrieval pipelines, including lexical, vector, and hybrid retrieval approaches.
• Develop and improve RAG systems that integrate LLMs with trusted scientific and biomedical content.
• Experiment with embeddings, re-ranking models, chunking strategies, and retrieval orchestration to improve relevance and answer quality.
• Build scalable workflows for semantic search and knowledge discovery.
• Collaborate closely with engineering teams to productionize AI and retrieval systems.

AI Evaluation & Experimentation

• Develop and evolve evaluation frameworks for search and AI systems, including:
• Design offline evaluation methodologies and contribute to online experimentation and A/B testing.
• Build and maintain evaluation datasets, benchmark suites, and annotation strategies.
• Drive rigorous experimentation to measure system improvements and user impact.
• Contribute to responsible AI practices, including quality, reliability, and trust evaluation.

Cross-functional Leadership

• Partner with product managers, engineers, UX researchers, and domain experts to deliver impactful AI capabilities.
• Translate complex technical findings into actionable recommendations for stakeholders.
• Contribute to technical strategy and roadmap discussions for LeapSpace AI capabilities.

Requirements

• Master’s or PhD in Computer Science, Data Science, Machine Learning, NLP, Information Retrieval, or a related field
• Significant experience in applied AI, machine learning, NLP, or information retrieval
• Strong hands-on experience with:
• Advanced programming skills in Python
• Experience with modern AI/ML frameworks and tooling (e.g., PyTorch, Hugging Face, LangChain, LangGraph, Haystack)
• Experience working with Databricks or similar distributed data/ML platforms
• Strong understanding of experimentation design, evaluation frameworks, and statistical analysis
• Proficiency with data visualization and analytical tooling (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, matplotlib, seaborn)

Preferred qualifications

• Experience building AI assistants, agentic workflows, or conversational AI systems
• Experience working on large-scale search, ranking, or recommendation systems
• Familiarity with scientific, biomedical, or scholarly datasets
• Experience with knowledge graphs, ontologies, or semantic enrichment systems
• Exposure to production ML systems and MLOps practices
• Publications or applied research contributions in NLP, IR, search, or generative AI
• Experience building AI systems in regulated, high-trust, or content-rich domains

Why join us?

Join our team and contribute to a culture of innovation, collaboration, and excellence. If you are ready to advance your career and make a significant impact, we encourage you to apply.

Work in a way that works for you

We promote a healthy work/life balance across the organization. We offer an appealing working prospect for our people. Withnumerouswellbeing initiatives, shared parental leave, studyassistanceand sabbaticals, we will help you meet your immediate responsibilities and your long-term goals.

• Flexible working hours - flexing the times when you work in the day to help you fit everything in and work when you are the most productive.

Aboutthe business

As a global leader in information and analytics, we help researchers and healthcareprofessionalsadvance science and improve health outcomes for the benefit of society. Building on our publishing heritage, we combine quality information and vast data sets with analytics to support visionary science and research, healtheducation,and interactive learning, as well as exceptional healthcare and clinical practice. At Elsevier,your work contributes to the world’s grand challenges and a more sustainable future. We harness innovative technologies to support science and healthcare to partner for a better world.

We are an equal opportunity employer: qualified applicants are considered for and treated during employment without regard to race, color, creed, religion, sex, national origin, citizenship status, disability status, protected veteran status, age, marital status, sexual orientation, gender identity, genetic information, or any other characteristic protected by law.

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