Principal Data Scientist

About us You've probably heard of Autotrader, but do you know what we're all about?

We're the most trusted, most visited automotive marketplace in the UK. A heritage brand and a tech innovator. We bring together vehicle buyers and sellers to give them real choices. Cars may be what we're best known for but we’re also the place for pretty much everything else on wheels, from e-bikes to caravans. In the automotive world, change is a constant, that’s why we take our job of untangling the complex car-buying journey very seriously.

At our core, we’re all about people. We go our own way while embracing diversity and celebrating our differences. We dedicate ourselves to the idea that we work better together. Autotrader is a beautiful, surprising and vibrant place to work. We might not be for everyone, but we could be perfect for you. About the jobWe are seeking a Principal Data Scientist who will play a crucial role in driving Autotrader's transformation into a data science-driven organisation.

As a Principal Data Scientist you will be responsible for the direction of Data Science  will join a cross-functional collaborative squad focussed around a set of products or a services. With your experience and research skills you will spot the opportunities for Data Science and work with the leadership in your squad to prioritise, resource and shape subsequent projects.

Your role will require you to orchestrate these projects, including supporting other Data Analysts and Scientists and collaborating with software engineers towards the best solution. You will have a focus on developing ML-centric data products and solutions, in which your expertise with ML frameworks and workflows will be key.

Right now, our Data Scientists are working on several exciting projects. For instance, they're creating personalised suggestions to get buyers more involved, improving our search system to make buying better for customers while also helping sellers stand out, building AI tools to aid customers in tasks like making listings and describing ads, studying how competition affects seller performance on our site, and upgrading our customer data platform for better targeted marketing beyond our site.

As part of our broader analytical community, Data Scientists collaborate closely with Data Analysts. Together, they foster a culture of shared insights, continuous learning, and mutual support through regular showcases, feedback sessions, mentorship programs and skill-based workshops. As a Senior member of the community, you will play a key role in establishing our analytical standards and tools.

We have invested heavily in a Data Platform that supports industry-leading Data Science. These are some technologies that our Data Scientists use (we don't expect applicants to have experience with all of these):

Python and Databricks for Data Science, Spark, MLFlow and Airflow for ML Workflows, Google Cloud Platform for our analytics infrastructure, dbt and Big Query for data modelling and warehousing.

Discover more about our Analytics Community in our blog and explore how we use analytics and Data Science in our Engineering Blog.

We understand that every candidate brings their own unique blend of experiences to a role, which allows them to succeed in their own style. Here is what a successful Principal Data Scientist looks like at Autotrader:
What we're looking for Enjoy being an accountable leader of cross-functional teams Think strategically about the commercial impact of products, making the right decisions and unlocking business value with Data Science Comfortable taking a holistic responsibility for delivery, bridging the interleaving dependencies of Data Science projects across organisational boundaries Care deeply about the…