AI Data Science Associate

AI Data Science Consultant7 monthsPrimarily remote, with shared office space once per week (london).Occasional client meetings - max 1 day per week on-site.About the Company

• London-based consulting firm
• Small, highly specialised team of industry and subject matter experts
• Focus areas: Uncrewed Aircraft Systems (UAS / drones) , Sustainable aviation, Advanced Air Mobility (AAM)
• Vision: Empower the aviation industry to achieve a sustainable future - Through advanced technology, deep industry knowledge, and collaboration
• Mission: Help aviation organisations deliver optimised, sustainable, and resilient solutions
• Driven by a passion for innovation and impact in aviation
• Secured funding for a regulatory innovation office, primarily focused on exploring how AI can be applied to drone policy development and implementation.
• Around 95% of the work is in partnership with the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority).
• The project is scheduled to start on 1st September and run until the end of March (7-month contract)

Team

• There's already a core team with strong policy and consulting experience, along with front-end developers on the user side.
• They're working with external technical people on a consulting basis

Project

• Join a close-knit team working on Drone flight initiatives
• Collaborating with: Central government, Regulators, Industry stakeholders
• New project focus: Researching and prototyping AI-based tools, Supporting UAS policy development, Assisting operators in applying policy
• Project aims to Shape the UK's approach to safe and efficient drone regulation
• This is a discovery-phase role focused on exploring and prototyping AI applications in drone regulation.

Project goals include:

• Identifying where AI can support policy development
• Building POCs and prototypes
• Delivering a business case outlining various AI use cases and feasibility
• Exploring use of NLP tools to process and interact with policy documents
• Developing support tools like chatbots or interactive guidance systems

Role Overview

The candidate will work alongside a multidisciplinary team of aviation consultants, AI engineers, policy experts, and UX developers. The role involves:

• Prototyping AI/NLP tools for policy analysis and consultation feedback processing
• Building retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) systems to provide policy guidance
• Preparing datasets and pipelines using structured and unstructured regulatory data
• Contributing to model evaluation and iteration based on user feedback
• Developing prototype tools to support operators, such as chatbots and evidence-checking features
• Documenting technical processes and outcomes for R&D reporting

Key Responsibilities

• Identifying opportunities to apply AI techniques across the policy development lifecycle
• Cleaning, transforming, and preparing data for AI models
• Implementing and fine-tuning NLP models for tasks such as classification, clustering, and sentiment analysis
• Assisting in the development and testing of AI features for internal proof-of-concept tools
• Collaborating with the UX and front-end team to ensure output usability
• Supporting model integration and testing under the guidance of the AI Engineer

Ideal Candidate Profile

• Not purely technical - someone with a management consultancymindset, able to handle ambiguity and blend strategy with delivery
• MSc with some practical elements (recent grad or early career)
• Strong communication and collaboration skills
• Comfortable working independently and taking initiative
• Flexibility in working across evolving priorities
• Background in AI, NLP, or policy-related AI applications
• A person with strong technical skills might see this as a short-term contract, whereas a more well-rounded candidate could fit longer-term needs.

Desirable Skills

• Familiarity with retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) architectures
• Experience with front-end data visualisation
• Understanding of UAS (drones), aviation, or other regulated industries
• Involvement in agile software development environments
• Strong communication skills, particularly the ability to explain technical ideas to non-technical audiences