Senior NLP Data Scientist

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Location: Guildford/hybridSalary: Dep on exp + annual bonus + benefits

Who we areAllianz is a global insurance company serving across 70 different countries, but from the very first day you join our team you'll know that your contributions are valued. We offer world class learning and career development opportunities, while we celebrate an inclusive culture.

As a Senior Data Scientist (NLP) at Allianz Commercial, you will work closely with our team of data scientists, data engineers, ML engineers and analysts in designing and implementing solutions that extract insights from unstructured text data. You will have the opportunity to work on diverse projects, ranging from topic modelling and entity recognition to text generation and conversational AI. This role requires strong technical skills, a solid foundation in machine learning, and a passion for solving complex NLP problems.

Responsibilities:

• Research, design, and develop solutions using NLP models and algorithms to extract insights from unstructured text data.
• Collaborate closely with data engineers to pre-process and clean text data, ensuring data quality and compatibility with NLP models.
• Apply machine learning and deep learning techniques to tasks such as sentiment analysis, text classification, entity recognition, named entity recognition, and text generation.
• Build and leverage knowledge graphs to enhance language understanding and enable more advanced NLP applications.
• Develop methods to integrate and utilize LLMs, such as GPT (Azure Open AI), BERT or open source foundational LLM's (Llama2), for natural language understanding and generation tasks.
• Conduct thorough exploratory data analysis to gain insights into text data characteristics and develop effective pre-processing strategies.
• Collaborate with data engineers and analysts to integrate NLP models into our data pipelines and systems.
• Evaluate and benchmark different NLP algorithms, knowledge graph frameworks, and LLM architectures, and recommend the most suitable approaches for specific use cases.

• Stay up to date with the latest research and advancements in the field of NLP, knowledge graphs, and LLMs, and proactively apply them to enhance our NLP capabilities.
• Communicate findings and insights to both technical and non-technical stakeholders through reports, visualizations, and presentations.
• Collaborate with cross-functional teams to define project goals, requirements, and success metrics.
• Mentor and provide guidance to junior team members, fostering their growth and development in NLP.

About you:

• Bachelor's or Master's degree in Computer Science, Data Science, or a related field. A combination of education and relevant experience will also be considered.
• Proven experience as a Data Scientist with a strong focus on RAG. Knowledge of leveraging Azure Open AI and various foundational LLM's for Retrieval Augmented Generation (RAG) architecture including opensource. Experience in building and working with knowledge graphs, such as Neo4j, or GraphDB would be desirable.
• Experience with LLM architecture (e.g., Transformer, GANs, VAEs), Fine-tuning PEFT/LoRA, Context embedding, Vector database technologies and Semantic Search techniques & tools.
• Proficiency in programming languages such as Python and experience with NLP libraries such as NLTK, spaCy, Transformers, Hugging Face, BERT and Gen AI frameworks like Llangchain. Llamaindex etc.
• Data extraction from PDF documents leveraging python packages like Pypdf, Camelot and OCR based services like Azure Document intelligence would be advantageous.
• Familiarity with Azure cloud platform and distributed computing frameworks (e.g., Apache Spark) is a plus.
• Strong problem-solving skills and ability to handle complex NLP challenges.
• Excellent communication and collaboration skills, with the ability to work effectively in cross-functional teams.

What we will offer you

Recognised and rewarded for a job well done, we have a range of flexible benefits for you to choose from- so you can pick a package that's perfect for you. We also offer flexible working options, global career opportunities across the wider Allianz Group, and fantastic career development and training. That's on top of enjoying all the benefits you'd expect from the world's number one insurance brand, including:

• Annual bonus scheme
• 25 days holiday plus bank holidays
• Contributory pension scheme
• Life cover
• Group Income Protection
• Flexible buy/sell holiday options
• Flexible working arrangements
• A discount up to 50% on a range of insurance products including car, home and pet
• Retail discounts

Our ways of workingDo you need some flexibility with the hours you work? Let us know as part of your application and if it's right for our customers, our business and for you, then we'll do everything we can to make it happen.Here at Allianz, we are signatories of the ABIs flexible working charter. We believe in supporting hybrid work patterns, which balance the needs of our customers, with your personal circumstances and our business requirements. Our aim with this is to help innovation, creativity, and you to thrive - Your work life balance is important to us.

Our Purpose and ValuesWe secure your futureBe Brave | With Heart | Everyone Counts | Inspiring TrustOur purpose and values are more than just words on a website - they are the why and how of Allianz. They influence everything we do and guide us how to do it. Created by our people, for our people, they shape our culture, bring us together, and inspire us to be the best. Building an inclusive culture for us all to succeed.

Diversity & InclusionAt Allianz, we value diversity and inclusion and back this up with our accreditations. Allianz is EDGE certified for gender inclusion, members of the Women in Finance Charter, members of the Stonewall Diversity Champion programme, signatories of Business in the Community's Race at Work Charter, and an Armed Forces Covenant gold standard employer.We have a range of employee networks focusing on gender inclusion, cultural diversity, LGBTQIA+, disability and long term health conditions (including neurodiversity), intergenerational and life stages, parents and carers, mental wellbeing, menopause support and armed forces and veterans, all supporting you to bring your best and authentic self to work.

Join us - Let's Care for Tomorrow