Essex County Council
Data Scientist
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About The Role
Data Scientist
Permanent
Full Time, 37 hours per week
£40,749 to £47,939 per annum
Location: Chelmsford
Working Style: Anywhere worker
Closing Date: 2nd August 2026
Job Purpose
ECC’s Data, Analytics and Performance team transforms complex data into clear, actionable insights — providing robust analysis and performance intelligence to inform evidence-led decisions, improve services, and deliver better outcomes for residents. The team is a centre of excellence for Data Engineers, Analysts and Data Scientists who work together to instil best practice data principles across the county, recognising that data and people are our two strongest assets.
The Data Scientist role supports Essex County Council’s ambition to harness data science and artificial intelligence to improve public services and enable evidence-led decision-making. Working under the guidance of Senior Data Scientists, you will contribute to the development of responsible analytical solutions that enhance operational efficiency, policy insight, and service delivery.
This hands-on role involves supporting data exploration, assisting in model development, and helping to build reproducible analytical workflows. You’ll contribute to preparing datasets, visualising insights, and supporting the creation of predictive models that inform strategic and operational priorities. Collaborating with colleagues across the organisation, you’ll help embed data science into everyday practice, ensuring ethical use of data while developing your technical and professional capabilities.
Accountabilities
This role focuses on supporting the delivery of responsible data science and AI solutions for council functional areas
- Support the development of data science solutions by proactively finding new opportunities, scoping projects and applying appropriate techniques to business problems under guidance.
- Conducts exploratory data analysis, including data auditing, identifying patterns, handling missing data, and visualising insights to inform evidence-led recommendations.
- Prepare datasets and assist in building reproducible analytical workflows and data products to co-designed specifications, accessing data from source.
- Contribute to the development and evaluation of predictive models and post hoc evaluation tests, ensuring outputs are robust, explainable and transparent.
- Collaborate with services to understand data needs and support improvements in data collection, processing, and analysis.
- Ensure ethical and responsible use of data in all aspects of delivery, following organisational standards and guidance.
- Maintain documentation of data processes and contribute to the development of internal resources, guides and knowledge-sharing tools.
- Supports the organisations AI ambitions, piloting internally trained models and pre-trained models (including LLMs) for different use cases
- Advocates for data science and modern ways of working with data, and helps customers and peers understand the value of data science by reviewing and logging impact of work and supporting data literacy
- Share data products and insights in accessible formats to promote transparency and collaboration. Document and publish work clearly to support reuse, learning, and responsible data use.
- Stay current with emerging tools, techniques, and best practices and represent the organisation professionally by contributing to communities of practice and sharing knowledge
- Specific individual and shared targets and objectives are defined annually within the performance management framework.
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Knowledge, Skills And Experience
- Educated to degree level in a quantitative field (e.g. Data Science, Computer Science, Mathematics, Statistics, or Engineering) or equivalent by experience.
- Membership with the Government Data Science Community, Royal Statistical Society (RSS), or British Computer Society (BCS) is advantageous.
- 1-2 years experience in data science, analytics, or a related technical field using applied techniques for organisational impact
- Knowledge of analytical approaches, data science methodology and creating robust replicable analytical outputs
- Knowledge of modern ways of working with data including data processing/coding languages such as SQL, R, Python
- Experience of working in a customer focused environment and working in multidisciplinary teams
- Experience of good communication skills and collaborating with different stakeholders
- Experience of supporting and delivering projects and programmes, including workshop and meeting facilitation skills
- Knowledge of local government landscape and current priorities
To read more about our business area, please visit Policy, Economy, Investment and Property
Why Essex?
As one of the largest and most dynamic UK local authorities, Essex offers a stimulating public service environment. Covering over 1,420 square miles and serving 1.8 million residents, we’re committed to transformational change and delivering better quality at lower cost. Recognised in the top three of the latest IMPOWER index for productivity, we ensure everyone matters in Everyone's Essex. With flexible working options and a focus on innovation, whether you are looking to develop your career or contribute to the local community, Essex is the ideal place for you.
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In March 2026, the Government announced that councils in Greater Essex will be reorganised into five new unitary authorities from April 2028. In addition to this, Greater Essex has been accepted on to the devolution priority programme, where we will work towards establishing a Mayoral Combined County Authority. You can read more about these changes, and what this may mean for this role, on our careers site.
Essex County Council is proud to be a Disability Confident Leader. We’re committed to interview all disabled applicants who choose to apply under our Job Interview Scheme if they meet the minimum requirements of the job. Please speak to our Recruiters if you require any reasonable adjustments during the process. We’re also committed to interview all veterans and care leavers, who meet the minimum requirements of the role for which they are applying.
Once you’ve secured your role within Essex County Council you will receive many great employee benefits, including support for unpaid carers and flexible working arrangements to accommodate their needs.
At Essex County Council, we value integrity and ethical behaviour. We kindly ask that you embrace our code of conduct and the Nolan principles, including throughout the recruitment process. Your commitment to these standards helps us maintain a positive and respectful workplace for everyone.
As part of employment with Essex County Council (ECC) should your role require a DBS check you will be required to register with the DBS update service. The DBS update service ensures all registered DBS certificates are kept up to date and allows authorised parties to view the status of your certificate. This is an annual subscription, and you will be responsible for ensuring this is maintained. For further information on the DBS update service please go to https://www.gov.uk/dbs-update-service
Essex County Council is committed to safeguarding and promoting the welfare of children and vulnerable adults, and expects all employees and volunteers to share this commitment.
If you would like to be kept up to date on other relevant opportunities, blogs, news, events and industry related news at Essex County Council, please join The Essex Talent Community
If you have queries or require anything further, please email resourcing.team@essex.gov.uk
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