Research Scientist

TidalSense is a respiratory technology company with a mission to transform the diagnosis, monitoring and management of chronic respiratory conditions, such as asthma and COPD. The company has ambitions to enable a population-scale change in respiratory care through global deployment of its technologies. TidalSense is about to launch the first-of-its-kind AI-driven (software medical device) diagnostic test for COPD which uses the company’s unique, patented, sensor technology embedded in the N-Tidal device.

We are seeking a high potential research scientist with strong problem-solving skills to support data science activities, conduct and publish original research, and support the development of AI solutions to be deployed onto the N-Tidal platform for improving respiratory diagnostic and treatment pathways. We are at an exciting phase in our journey as we transition from a start-up to a scale-up. You will be joining a passionate, socially-motivated and multi-disciplinary team covering engineers, scientists, clinicians, designers, product and usability specialists. This is a unique opportunity for a driven and autonomous individual to perform novel scientific research and help develop machine learning solutions that will deliver impact in the real world and change people’s lives. We are seeking someone who is comfortable working in a fast-paced, agile, and diverse team environment, and who is also committed to our mission to revolutionise respiratory medicine.

Job purpose

To carry out data analysis, write academic papers, and help develop machine learning models for TidalSense’s AI platform. To develop and test scientific hypotheses by conducting original research into respiratory physiology and its manifestations in capnometry data. To meet the analysis objectives of clinical studies conducted in collaboration with universities, hospitals or commercial organisations.

Key duties and responsibilities

• Conduct original research using data-driven and hypothesis-drive approaches; using both respiratory physiology research and TidalSense’s unique dataset to develop and test novel hypotheses.
• Perform analysis on datasets collected on clinical studies.
• Write and review TidalSense’s scientific papers.
• Optimise and analyse real-world performance of existing TidalSense products (e.g. the N-Tidal COPD diagnostic platform).
• Develop new classification and prediction models in an Agile / Kanban environment.
• Develop and optimise feature engineering methodologies on N-Tidal data.
• Work with the software teams to engineer new machine learning algorithms and codebases for clinical-facing applications.
• Work collaboratively with other technical specialists in the company to contribute to the company’s technical strategy.
• Present results at regular meetings and conferences.

Requirements

Skills and competencies:

Essential:

• Strong proficiency with Python.
• Experience with: Pandas, Numpy, Scikit-learn, Matplotlib, Seaborn.
• Familiarity with common supervised and unsupervised ML methods for prediction / classification.
• Good knowledge of multivariate (and Bayesian) statistics.
• Attention to detail and analytical mindset.
• Willingness to learn and develop solutions to problems.
• Ability to communicate effectively (written and verbal) to all members of the team, at all levels.
• Ability to multi-task, organise, and prioritise work.

Desirable:

• Experience of deep learning packages e.g. Keras, Tensorflow or pyTorch.

Qualifications & experience

Essential:

• Bachelor's degree in Engineering, Mathematics, Computer Science or similar discipline.

Desirable:

• Masters or PhD in machine learning or related field.
• At least one internship or extended research project in machine learning, outside of university projects and coursework.

Other Requirements

• Legally eligible to work in the UK without sponsorship. Please note that we are open to sponsoring colleagues to move from an unsponsored visa to a Skilled Worker Visa once they have passed their probation.
• Will need to be able to work in person in the Cambridge office at least 2 days / week.

Note to Applicants

• We read all applications carefully - including your free-text answers - in evaluating your application. Please make sure you spend some time answering these questions carefully.
• Please answer questions truthfully. Dishonesty is fundamentally against our values.
• We appreciate that some candidates may hesitate to apply because they may feel that they might not meet all of the required criteria or be competitive enough. If this is you, please don't shy away from applying - we would like to hear from you!

CLOSING DATE FOR APPLICATIONS: Sunday 16th March 2025

Benefits

• Flexible working hours to support your work preferences.
• Hybrid working as per requirements above.
• Beautiful award-winning Cambridge UK office stocked with quality drinks & snacks.
• Work from abroad for 1 week per year.
• Buy / sell up to 5 days annual leave.
• Generous individual personal development budget + dedicated development days.
• Mental Health support: wellbeing support and free 24/7 access to qualified counsellors and advisors.
• Wellness budget.
• Coaching and mentoring.
• Team events and celebrations.
• 25 days annual leave + 8 public holidays.
• Pension: TidalSense contributes 5% of qualified earnings (actively looking to increase this).
• Annual performance-based bonus.
• Discretionary share options scheme.

Salary

TidalSense operates a fair pay structure to ensure our colleagues are paid equitably and competitively for their skill, expertise and experience. Successful candidates will be offered this role at the appropriate grade, based on both their resume experience and our judgement of their performance level through the assessment process.