Senior Data Scientist - Search

Company Description

About SEEK

SEEK’s portfolio of diverse businesses make a positive impact on a truly global scale. Our purpose is to help people live more fulfilling and productive working lives and help organisations succeed. We create world-class technology solutions to connect more people to relevant employment, education, small business and volunteer opportunities. We have a culture of high-performance in our workplaces and celebrate the diversity of our employees who contribute to the success of our organisation.

Life at SEEK

SEEK’s purpose is at the centre of everything we do. Our SEEK, which defines the way we work, is all about what makes us unique and a little bit different. Passion, Team, Delivery and Future are our principles that drive innovation and creativity. SEEK strives to support employee wellbeing by providing an amazing experience at work which led us to being named AFR BOSS Top 10 Best Places to Work in Technology (2021-2024). We are proud to work in an environment that's inclusive where everyone's unique ideas, experiences and perspectives are valued.

Our award-winning head office in Cremorne (just a 4 min walk from Richmond station) provides an exceptional space to collaborate with colleagues. The building provides sweeping views of the city, a games area, sit and stand desks at every workstation, modern end-of-trip facilities and Thursday night drinks which gives our people an opportunity to connect in a social setting.

Job Description

The Role 

As a Senior Data Scientist at SEEK, you'll be at the forefront of developing AI systems that transform the job search experience. You'll work with a diverse team of experts to solve complex challenges and drive meaningful outcomes. If you thrive on solving ambiguous problems and enjoy working with smart, motivated peers, this is the role for you. 

You will report to the Head of Data Science and work alongside other highly motivated Data Scientists in the Search team. You will collaborate with product managers, designers, engineers, and others across multiple teams to design and implement search and recommendations for job search candidates. 

Key Responsibilities 

In this role, you will be expected to: 

• Solve Business Challenges: Collaborate with AI Product Managers, Software Engineers and fellow Data Scientists to solve business challenges, align projects with business goals, and design, develop, and test new solutions. 

• Model Development: Create models to improve candidate/job matching for search and recommendations, including feature engineering and hyperparameter tuning. 

• Performance Validation: Ensure models meet business objectives through both online and offline tests (including A/B tests), along with ongoing monitoring. 

• Data Analysis: Collect, validate, and analyse data to identify challenges and opportunities for improving future search/recommendation capabilities. 

• Communication: Communicate findings and insights with other team members to continue upskilling and enhancing the team's knowledge and capabilities. 

• Evaluate models: Perform offline evaluation of search systems and contribute to the design of online experiments 

• Mentoring: Mentor junior Data Scientists and share technical expertise with the DS team. 

The Team 

The "Search" team within the AIPS group is a team of data scientists, software engineers and product managers. We sit within the much larger Artificial Intelligence & Analytics team at SEEK. We work on a quarterly planning cycle to develop our roadmap, which consists of R&D  for matching the best job ads for users who are looking for jobs on SEEK platforms globally. 

As a Senior Data Scientist, you will work closely with product management and engineering to expand the search capabilities. 

The team runs various team rituals such as weekly stand-ups and knowledge sharing sessions, monthly team retrospectives, and others as needed. You will also attend project-related meetings as necessary. 

Qualifications

• A Masters or PhD qualification in Computer Science, Data Science, Mathematics, Statistics, or other quantitative field 
• Experience in search or recommendations is ideal but not essential  
• Professional experience developing and delivering AI/ML solutions 
• Deep understanding of the theory and practice of how to build, train, evaluate, and optimise AI/ML models 
• Excellent communication and interpersonal skills, including the ability to communicate complex ideas in simple language 
• Strong data extraction and processing skills using SQL and Python. 
• Ability to adapt quickly and thrive in an environment of rapid change 

The following are preferred but not essential 

• Demonstrated experience leading AI/ML projects and managing multiple stakeholders. 

• Knowledge of the foundations of large language models: deep learning; transformers; encoder/decoder models; fine tuning and RL. 

• Hands-on experience training or adapting large language models. 

• Hands-on experience building solutions with pre-trained LLMs, using techniques such as prompt engineering, RAG, agentic workflows, etc. 

Additional Information

Permanent Perks
At SEEK we offer:

• Support of flexible working, including a mix of office and work from home days depending on your role.
• Paid and unpaid leave benefits including Personal Flexi Days and Volunteer Days, as well as the opportunity to purchase additional leave
• Support for parents with 14 weeks paid primary carers leave and 2 weeks paid leave for partners
• SEEKer Support, a confidential service that offers employees up to six sessions with a mental health professional of your choice
• Tailored career development planning (including Education Assistance Program)

At SEEK, we are passionate about fostering a culture of inclusion and wellbeing that embraces and values the diversity of our people. We are a purpose driven business that works with heart.

We know teams with diverse ideas, experiences and perspectives are more creative and are critical to ensuring effective delivery and innovating to enable our future success. As such, we welcome applications from people with diverse backgrounds and life experiences, especially as they relate to gender, sexual identity, culture, faith, disability and life stages. If you have the skills, curiosity and an adaptable mindset but don't meet every responsibility or qualification listed in this advertisement, please still get in touch with us.

Should you require any specific support or adjustments throughout the recruitment process and beyond, please advise us and we will be happy to assist.

For this role, only those candidates with the eligible right to work will be considered.

SEEK kindly requests no unsolicited resumes or approaches from recruitment agencies and will not be responsible for any associated fees.