Data Science & NLP Specialist

Role title

Data Science Specialist with NLP Expertise

About The Dock

The Dock is Accenture’s flagship global innovation centre and research and development hub, based in Grand Canal Dock in Dublin 2.

About the team

Our New Products and Services (NPS) team at the Dock is applying leading Analytics & Artificial Intelligence (A&AI) technologies and techniques to address significant real-world business and societal challenges. Collaborating with our clients, designers, software engineers and industry experts, we take concepts on the journey from idea to reality. Our experimentation culture, combined with a disruptive brief and the ability to deal with uncertainty, empowers us to break future ground and build high-quality assets and services.

About your role

We have opportunities for Data Science Specialists with NLP Expertise in the Analytics & Artificial Intelligence (A&AI) discipline of our New Products and Services (NPS) Team at the Dock.

As a Data Science Specialist with NLP Expertise, you will:

• Work in teams delivering innovative Analytics & AI projects; ranging from research, proofs-of-concept to the delivery of real-world applications for our clients.
• Be an experienced hands-on data science practitioner, developing and experimenting in the application of elements of Data Science, Advanced Analytics, and Machine Learning.
• Be a deep hands-on NLP practitioner, using core text analytics technologies including NLP, Information Extraction, Information Retrieval, Topic Modelling, Concept Extraction and Ontology Engineering.
• Work closely with software engineering colleagues to develop robust Analytics & AI applications encapsulated in software applications.
• Follow best practice in Analytics & AI technical delivery, methods and approaches, including those related to text and language-based analytics.
• Actively contribute to bring Analytics & AI perspective in experimentation, design, workshops & sprints to help identify breakthrough ideas, concepts and solutions to business problems.
• Embrace working in multi-discplinary teams and collaborate with designers, software developers, business experts and Accenture teams external to the Dock.
• Lead and mentor junior team members in their technical and professional development.
• Understand the key technology trends in the Analytics & AI domain and their business impact.
• Bring your passion for improving the world through technology innovation to our team and demonstrate the ability to thrive in a fast-paced, highly collaborative work environment.

Your responsibilities will include:

• Applying your deep technical expertise to solve problems and develop new solution offerings for our business and our clients.
• Bringing deep experience in developing data-driven solutions in one or more of the Data Science, Advanced Analytics, Machine Learning, and Computer Vision fields.
• Bringing deep experience in developing NLP-based systems, using standard frameworks, toolkits and libraries.
• Demonstrating good understanding of the potential utility, limitations and challenges of a wide range of NLP techniques and keeping abreast of new developments in academic research and industry.
• Being responsible for shaping, owning and delivering complex Advanced Analytics application components and experiments independently, and contributing to the business value they deliver.
• Being responsible for estimating, planning and managing your own work and that of more junior members of your team.
• Interacting, collaborating and sharing experiences with colleagues from different disciplines and backgrounds.
• Mentoring, guiding and supporting junior team members.
• Presenting to and interacting with client and business stakeholders, clearly articulating and communicating Analytics & AI concepts, solutions and value to non-technical audiences.
• Contributing to the growth and development of the Analytics & AI discipline and community in the Dock, outside immediate projects.

Your everyday abilities

• Expertly analysing both structured and unstructured datasets. You will use appropriate techniques to summarise and visualize data, derive relevant insights, identify anomalies, etc. You will use languages such as Python, environments such as Jupyter Notebooks, and libraries such as Pandas, NumPy, SciPy and matplotlib.
• Designing and implementing data processing pipelines that prepare data for modelling, visualization or other purposes. You will be comfortable working with a wide range of data formats and media types, and your code will adhere to best practices.
• Training, evaluating and optimising machine learning models, e.g., for predictive and prescriptive tasks. You will select appropriate modelling and feature engineering strategies, understanding and navigating applicable trade-offs. You will employ both unsupervised and supervised techniques, and will expertly leverage libraries such as scikit-learn and TensorFlow. You will select appropriate metrics to evaluate and optimise model performance.
• Designing and implementing NLP-based systems, using standard frameworks, toolkits and libraries.
• Building knowledge in the business domains relevant to your projects, empowering you to develop solutions that are fit for purpose.
• Effectively communicating your findings to both internal and external stakeholders.
• Effectively collaboratoring with colleagues on multidisciplinary teams to design and develop solutions that address business or societal challenges.

Extras we’d love to see

• Knowledge of state-of-the-art developments in advanced analytics & AI.
• Experience using cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP, Azure), and particularly their analytics and machine learning services (e.g., AWS SageMaker).
• Experience using deep learning techniques and technologies (e.g., transfer learning, GANs, TensorFlow)
• Experience in Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, Semantic Web or Ontology Engineering welcomed.
• Experience using Computer Vision techniques and technologies.
• Experience using code management and collaboration tools (e.g., Git).
• Experience using data storage and retrieval technologies (e.g., relational databases, data lakes, SQL, NoSQL).
• Experience with big data processing technologies (e.g., Spark).
• Proficiency with shell tools (e.g., awk, grep).
• Broad knowledge of software engineering principles, technologies and best practices.
• Experience across the full software development life cycle.
• Proven experience in designing and developing commercial AI based systems and applications architected and engineered for scale.

Experience and qualifications

• Master’s Degree or higher in Computational Lingustics, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Science or a closely related discipline.
• Deep hands-on experience in a number of Data Science, Advanced Analytics, Machine Learning / Deep Learning or other Artificial Intelligence domains and proven experience in the application of these technologies to real-world problems.
• Deep experience in a number of text and language processing domains including Natural Language Processing (NLP), Information Extraction, Information Retrieval and Concept Extraction.
• Circa 3 years professional experience in Advanced Analytics, Software Development or Data-Driven analysis.
• 2+ years experience in designing and implementing text analytics systems for R&D or commercial applications.
• Proficiency in several NLP and machine learning related tools & frameworks – OpenNLP, CoreNLP, Weka, NLTK, UIMA.
• Hands-on experience with distributional semantics methods and toolkits – word2vec, Hyperwords, Genism, dissect, Mallet or SemanticVectors.
• Proven experience in designing and implementing Advanced Analytics systems for R&D or commercial applications. Industry, product or commercial application experience is preferred.
• Proven experience in project or product development methodology experience, for example agile development and CRISP-DM.
• Experience in standards, methods and best practice for Advanced Analytics development, solution quality, accuracy and resilience.
• Hands-on experience and expertise in a number of statistical and application programming languages (for example Python, R, Java, Spark).
• Ability to work in a global collaborative team environment.
• Experience in mentoring, leading or coaching more junior team members.
• Proficient verbal and written communication skills in English.

Benefits

Working at Accenture means joining a company that prides itself on being Truly Human. In addition to a competitive base salary, you’ll also have an extensive benefits package that includes

• Pension
• Private health insurance
• Discounted gym membership
• Emergency caring facilities
• 2 days’ leave per year for charitable work of your choice.

Flexible working arrangements can be discussed depending on the position.

About us

The Dock is where Accenture, our clients and partners connect to pioneer new ways to fulfil human needs using emerging technology.

As part of NPS, you’ll be joining a group that takes pride in being the best place for Accenture and our clients to ideate and incubate new products and services. You'll be part of a unique team of brilliant designers, engineers, analysts, researchers and technologists, working collaboratively under one roof to solve real-world challenges. Every day, we work with clients, partners and colleagues from across the globe to bring business innovation to life in the market. And together, we’re working towards a vision of expanding the possibilities of now, to create the products and services of tomorrow.

Please note that Accenture is an equal opportunities employer and welcomes applications from all sections of society and does not discriminate on grounds of race, religion or belief, ethnic or national origin, disability, age, citizenship, marital, domestic or civil partnership status, sexual orientation, or gender identity.

Accenture is a leading global professional services company, providing a broad range of services and solutions in strategy, consulting, digital, technology and operations. Combining unmatched experience and specialized skills across more than 40 industries and all business functions — underpinned by the world’s largest delivery network — Accenture works at the intersection of business and technology to help clients improve their performance and create sustainable value for their stakeholders. With 505,000 people serving clients in more than 120 countries, Accenture drives innovation to improve the way the world works and lives. Visit us at www.accenture.com