Associate Data Scientist

We’re looking for an Associate Data Scientist to join Rightmove’s growing Data, Analytics & AI team. This is an excellent opportunity for someone at an early stage in their career to apply machine learning and AI to real problems in the UK property market, while building strong foundations in data science. 

You’ll work closely with experienced data scientists, machine learning engineers and data engineers, contributing to well-defined pieces of larger projects while receiving close support and guidance as you build your skills. This role would suit someone who is keen to learn, enjoys solving practical problems, and wants to develop their skills within a collaborative, product-focused environment. 

What you’ll be doing 

A typical week may involve: 

• Building, training and evaluating machine learning models using standard libraries and techniques, under the guidance of more experienced colleagues 

• Tuning model hyperparameters, interpreting results and clearly explaining what a model does and how well it performs 

• Writing SQL and Python to query, clean and transform datasets, and carrying out data quality checks 

• Applying descriptive statistics and creating clear visualisations to summarise data and highlight meaningful patterns 

• Supporting the design and evaluation of experiments and the monitoring of key product metrics 

• Working with machine learning engineers and data engineers to prepare data and support the move of models from experimentation into production 

• Helping monitor deployed models, flagging issues such as performance degradation or data drift 

• Exploring new techniques, including LLMs and generative AI, through small prototypes and proofs of concept 

• Writing clear, maintainable code and following team practices such as version control, code review and reproducibility 

• Using AI tools responsibly and reliably to work more efficiently, while reviewing, testing and taking ownership of anything, they help you produce 

• Following our AI model standards, so that the models we build are robust, well documented and responsibly deployed 

• Keeping your team informed about progress and challenges, and sharing what you learn across the data and AI community 
• Collaborating with product, engineering, and data teams to support delivery of AI features  

We’re looking for someone who 

• Has a solid understanding of core machine learning concepts, including standard algorithms, loss functions and evaluation metrics 

• Has some experience with Python and SQL (through academic work, projects, or early commercial experience) 

• Is familiar with at least one ML library or framework (e.g. scikit-learn, XGBoost, PyTorch or TensorFlow) 

• Has a working knowledge of descriptive statistics and data visualisation, and can interpret results sensibly 

• Is comfortable using Git and basic development workflows 

• Has strong problem-solving skills, attention to detail and a curious, creative mind 

• Is proactive, open to feedback and keen to keep up with developments in data science, ML and generative AI 
• Communicates clearly to technical and non-technical colleagues and enjoys working as part of a team 

Nice to have 

• A degree in Statistics, Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematics, or a related quantitative or STEM subject 

• Internship, placement year, or project experience involving machine learning or data analysis 

• Exposure to cloud platforms and tools (e.g. GCP, BigQuery, Vertex AI, dbt, AWS or Azure) 

• Familiarity with hypothesis testing and A/B testing, or with data visualisation tools 

• An interest in deep learning, LLMs and generative AI frameworks (e.g. Hugging Face, LangChain) 

• An awareness of responsible AI practices, such as rigorous model evaluation, fairness and bias, and documenting and monitoring models