Estaidea: Data Scientist, MoneySuperMarket in London

Moneysupermarket is the UK’s leading price-comparison site with over 18.8 million visitors in the six months to June 2013. It operates three market leading brands, Moneysupermarket, Travelsupermarket and Moneysavingexpert.

We help people to make the most of their money; In 2012 we helped UK households save £1 billion on a wide range of products and services from Motor Insurance to Package holidays,

With a market capitalisation of £750 million moneysupermarket is the leading Internet-only business on the London Stock Exchange and a member of the FTSE 250. On its flotation in 2007 it was the World’s biggest Internet business IPO post-Google and remains the largest ever in the UK.

We are strongly profitable and have paid out over £30 million in shareholder dividends in the last 12 months.

THE TEAM
The Customer Science team sits within Moneysupermarket’s Marketing function. Understanding customer data better than competitors is a key pillar of Moneysupermarket’s growth strategy and investment in capability and people has enabled the team to grow to over 20 strong.
Increasingly the team’s role is moving away from traditional customer insight to greater use of predictive analytics.
The team is primarily based in our brand new London West-End office – offering a great working environment and vibrant social scene.

PURPOSE OF ROLE:
Moneysupermarket analysts are not mere number crunchers and are expected to influence the direction of the company through actionable data -driveninsight.
You’ll be expected to contribute to a culture of continuous innovation in how we use data from analytical techniques through to application. Recently, the team has developed the Home Bill Checker tool; currently live on the Home Page of the website. Using data mining and modelling it enables customers to see highly accurate estimated Home Insurance, Energy and Broadband prices just by providing a postcode.
You will be responsible for leveraging the value of Moneysupermarket’s Customer data asset.
Over the next 18 months we will be transitioning from a SAS data environment to a new technology stack across the entire organization, incorporating NoSQL databases and the use of R. This will step change our ability to deliver real-time analytics and personalization; data-driven products and customer insight by bringing together disparate datasources and the ability to action advanced techniques.
The ideal candidate will have a keen interest in the study of data science, and a passion for identifying and answering questions that help us build the best price comparison site and customer experience.

RESPONSIBILITIES
This is a hands on technical role. You will:

Work closely with key stakeholders and building relationships throughout the business:
Enhance customer experience of Moneysupermarket touchpoints using data to improve journeys and develop new propositions.
Support CRM to deliver personalized analytically-driven communications.
Work with Digital Marketing to improve online marketing targeting
Work closely with commercial teams to help them make better decisions and exploit opportunities.
Apply appropriate statistical/machine learning techniques to deliver the most effective outcome.
Communicate findings and recommendations to our clients tailored to the audience.
Drive the collection of new data and the refinement of existing data sources
Work closely with other analysts and IT to share knowledge, evaluate opportunities and pro-actively recommend improvements in data, experimentation and propositions.
Coach and develop junior members of the team in best practice and technical skills.

PERSONAL GROWTH
Analysts have the opportunity to work with one of the largest customer databases in Europe; holding records for over 21 million unique customers.
To gain understanding of customer behavior and deliver insight you’ll be expected to apply a variety of analytical techniques and extract maximum value from the data.
To achieve this you’ll be expected to learn and grow your capabilities and contribute to creating a World-class centre of marketing analytical excellence. Every analyst has opportunity to apply their skills across a variety of projects and problems.
Training, sharing knowledge and best practice are integral to the team ethos. Recent internal development has included best practice data visualization, introduction to clustering, Effective report writing and a Digital Marketing academy. External courses have included residential training at the SAS institute.
You’ll be supported be an experienced management team with many years’ experience working for blue-chip companies and global leaders in customer data analytics including dunnhumby, Aimia (Nectar) and Lloyds Banking Group.

REQUIREMENTS:
Essential

Educated to degree level, preferably post-graduate, with analytical/mathematical specialism.
Extensive experience solving analytical problems using quantitative approaches.
Comfortable manipulating and analyzing complex, high-volume, high-dimensionality data from varying sources
Expert knowledge of analysis tools and languages such as SAS, SPSS, or R.
Previous experience in building statistical/machine learning models (logistic regression, clustering, decision trees, regression models, etc.)
Familiarity with relational databases and SQL
Have a good understanding of design and architecture principles.
Able to create experiments, prototypes, demonstrations to help management better understand the work.
Ability to communicate complex quantitative analysis in a clear, precise, and actionable manner to senior management.
A strong passion for empirical research and for answering hard questions with data and ability to work autonomously.