Job Description

Who are we? 

BlueOptima Mission: To maximise the economic and social value that software engineering organisations are capable of delivering.

BlueOptima Vision: BlueOptima will be the global reference for the optimisation of the performance of Software Engineers.

BlueOptima provides industry leading objective metrics in software development using its proprietary Coding Effort Analytics that enable large organisations to deliver better software, faster, and at lower cost. Founded in 2007, BlueOptima is a profitable, independent, high growth software vendor commercialising technology initially devised in seminal research carried out at Cambridge University. We are headquartered in London with offices in New York, Phoenix, Guadalajara, Bengaluru, and Gurgaon.

BlueOptima’s technology is deployed with global enterprises driving value from their software development activities. Our technology is pushing the limits of complex analytics on large data-sets with more than 15 billion static source code metric observations of software engineers working in an Enterprise software development environment. BlueOptima is expanding our offering from productivity to track and identify data on the vulnerabilities in software. 

BlueOptima is an Equal Opportunities employer.

Whom are we looking for?

BlueOptima has a truly unique collection of vast datasets relating to the changes that software developers make in source code when working in an enterprise software development environment.

We are looking for an analytically minded individual with expertise in statistical analysis, Machine Learning and Data Engineering. Who will work on real world problems, some of which are completely unique to the data that we have, develop new algorithms and tools to solve problems. This role would involve coordinating a small team of Data Engineers to develop the complete end to end solutions across multiple projects.

We would expect a successful candidate to have an advanced understanding of python, going beyond scripts and be confident in designing and building applications in python. Within BlueOptima we strive to automate where possible as this allows us to focus on the technically challenging elements in the problem.

A successful candidate will be able to coordinate multiple projects within the team and plan which of these are the most valuable. Within the team understand the strengths and weaknesses of the individual members planning the balance of work accordingly, whilst ensuring that they are continually challenged. You should be comfortable doing this whilst completing your own work. 

You will use tools ranging from advanced Machine Learning algorithms to Statistical approaches and will be able to select the best tool for the job. This means both being able to suggest the cutting edge approaches to problems and just as importantly identifying when a simpler approach will provide a solution which is as effective. Finally, you will support and identify improvements to our existing algorithms and approaches.

What does the role involve? 

As a senior Machine Learning Data Engineer you will take problems and ideas from our clients and customer support teams analyse what would be involved, whether the solution will solve the underlying problem, plan and develop solutions. Within time you should be able to provide your own pipeline of ideas or problems that we can tackle. As with many problems within the Data Engineering space defining effective pipelines to gather, curate and manage the data is as important as selecting the best ML algorithm.

You will take responsibility for the end to end process, this means that you will own the initial exploration of the data, the development of a solution, design the requirements for ongoing monitoring of the solution once it is released and tackle any issues that arise from the solution. Solution ownership is a fundamental part of the role and it is expected that you would not only take this for the solutions you develop but encourage others to own and take responsibility for the solutions they are involved in. 

ESSENTIAL SKILLS / EXPERIENCE REQUIRED:

• Minimum Bachelor's degree in Computer Science/Statistics/Mathematics or equivalent.

• Minimum of 5+ years experience in developing solutions with at least 3+ years using Machine learning Algorithms in industry.

• Experience in leading and managing colocated and/or remote teams

• Strong Analytical skills demonstrated through data engineering or similar experience.

• Strong fundamentals in Statistical Analysis using python, or similar programming languages.

• Understanding of python programming when building both applications and scripting simple solutions.

• Identify improvements in the solutions or code of others and help them to improve their own solutions.

• Ensure solutions are able to be monitored when released.

• Experience applying Machine Learning algorithms and techniques to resolve problems on structured and unstructured data.

• Experience in evaluating performance of an ML solution, identifying relevant metrics to track and with the right strategy.

• An in-depth understanding of a wide range of Machine Learning techniques, and an understanding of which algorithms are suited to which problems.

• A drive to not only identify a solution to a technical problem but to see it all the way through to inclusion in a product.

• Strong written and verbal communication skills

• Strong interpersonal and time management skills

DESIRABLE SKILLS / EXPERIENCE:

• Significant experience with NLP techniques.

• Experience working with managing vulnerabilities in a coding environment.

• An understanding of defensive coding practices.

• Experience with automating tasks to maximise time for more important problems.

• Experience with PostgreSQL or similar Rational Database.

• Experience with Data Visualisation experience (via Grafana, Superset, Tableau, or similar) is preferable.

• Experience using task tracking systems e.g. Jira and distributed version control systems e.g. Git. including the pull-request or branching structures.

• Be comfortable explaining very technical concepts to non-expert people.

• Experience of project management and designing processes to deliver successful outcomes.

• Experience with a range of programming languages, understanding the differences in their approaches.

Why work for us?

• Work with a unique and truly vast collection of datasets

• Above market remuneration

• Stimulating challenges that fully utilise your skills

• Work on real-world technical problems to which solution cannot simply be found on the internet

• Provide solutions which have a direct and measurable business impact

• Working alongside other passionate, talented engineers

• Our fast-growing company offers the potential for rapid career progression

• Annual company meet-ups of which the last one was in Mexico