Senior Data Scientist or Senior Researcher / Economist

– ( 009951 )

The role

We are seeking a Senior Data Scientist or Senior Researcher / Economist (with a passion for Data Science) to sit at the heart of bank stress testing in the Bank of England. Your job will be to lead the development of new and innovative models for stress testing the banking system. Working side by side with a range of policy makers, technical specialists, researchers and data scientists to identify potential risks to UK financial stability.

Department overview

The Bank of England’s Financial Stability Strategy and Risk (FSSR) Directorate works towards a financial system that serves households and businesses in bad times as well as good. We help the Financial Policy Committee (FPC) identify risks to UK financial stability and develop policy solutions.

The Bank Stress Testing and Resilience (BSTAR) group within FSSR assesses systemic risks to and from the banking system. That includes the outlook for banks, an assessment of the risks they face and the appropriate policy design choices. We are a group of friendly staff from a wide range of backgrounds and subject areas.

The team

The Scenario, Modelling, Policy and Research (SMPR) team sits in the stress testing part of BSTAR. We lead on the design of macroeconomic stress scenarios and develop models to assess the impact of these scenarios on banks. These are used to stress test the major UK banks as part of the Annual Cyclical Scenario (ACS) as well as our Desk Based Stress Test (DBST) exercises. The results of the 2022/23 ACS can be found here, the 2020 Covid DBST exercises here and here, and the recent announcement to run a DBST in 2024 here.

We work closely with a wide range of internal partners to analyse bank data submissions, write the publications, communicate actively with firms, and develop the infrastructure and framework behind stress testing. We also produce high quality research to explore new stress testing techniques and further our understanding of the financial system.

Job description

As a Senior Data Scientist or Senior Researcher / Economist you will lead the development of new stress test models, manage our existing models and data architecture, and apply these to live stress test exercises of the banking sector, such as the upcoming DBST in 2024.

The aim is to assess the impact of different macroeconomic and financial scenarios on different parts of a banks’ business model, to form an overall assessment on the impact on Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) and Leverage Ratios of the major UK banks.

You will have opportunities to:

• Identify, scope and lead new model investment projects for use in bank stress test exercises.
• Analyse and interrogate large financial and regulatory datasets to provide insights for stress testing and financial stability.
• Lead teams of analysts to deliver new model builds.
• Play a lead role in deploying our model infrastructure to live stress test exercises to shape the results, and discuss with the FPC and PRC.
• Collaborate and engage with a wide range of analysts, economists, researchers, data scientists across the Bank in applying innovative quantitative techniques and tools to model development projects.
• Engage with other Central Banks, international organisations and academic institutions to inform the tools and techniques we use.
• Line manage 1-2 model developers on the team.
• Pursue your own research projects, if of interest.

Minimum criteria:

• A passion for supporting financial stability in the UK.
• A degree qualification or equivalent in a quantitative field, such as Economics, Finance, Mathematics, Data Science or other Sciences.
• Ability to use R or Python, or a willingness to learn, to analyse large datasets and build quantitative models.
• Strong analytical and problem solving skills, with evidence of leading high quality analytical projects with minimal oversight.
• Ability to communicate technical concepts clearly to senior staff and peers.
• Commitment to working and leading projects inclusively, supporting and bringing out the best in other team members.

• Ability to work and collaborate across boundaries and bring together views from a diverse set of perspectives.

Our Approach to Inclusion

The Bank values diversity, equity and inclusion. We play a key role in maintaining monetary and financial stability, and to do that effectively, we believe we need a workforce that reflects the society we serve.

At the Bank of England we want all colleagues to feel valued and respected, so we’re working hard to build an inclusive culture which supports people from all backgrounds and communities to be at their best at work. We celebrate all forms of diversity, including (but not limited to) age, disability, ethnicity, gender, gender identity, race, religion, sexual orientation and socioeconomic status. We believe that it’s by drawing on different perspectives and experiences that we’ll continue to make the best decisions for the public.

We welcome applications from individuals who work flexibly, including job shares and part time working patterns. We’ve also partnered with external organisations to support us in making adjustments for candidates and employees in the recruitment process where they’re needed.

For most roles where work can be carried out at home, we aim for colleagues to spend half of their time in the office, with a minimum of 40% per month. Subject to that minimum requirement, individuals and managers should work together to find what works best for them, their team and stakeholders.

Finally, we’re proud to be a member of the Disability Confident Scheme. If you wish to apply under this scheme, you should check the box in the ‘Candidate Personal Information’ under the ‘Disability Confident Scheme’ section of the application.

Salary and Benefits Information

This specific role offers a base salary of circa £62,700 – £79,470 per annum (depending on skills and experience) on a full-time basis. We encourage flexible working, part time working and job share arrangements. Part time salary and benefits will be on a pro-rated basis as appropriate.

In addition, we also offer a comprehensive benefits package as detailed below:

• A non-contributory, career average pension giving you a guaranteed retirement benefit of 1/95th of your annual salary for every year worked. There is the option to increase your pension (to 1/50th) or decrease (to 1/120th) in exchange for salary through our flexible benefits programme each year.
• A discretionary performance award based on a current award pool.
• A 7% benefits allowance with the option to take as salary or purchase a wide range of flexible benefits. (Note that for the Benefits year 2023/24, this will increase to 8%)
• 26 days’ annual leave with option to buy up to 12 additional days through flexible benefits.
• Private medical insurance and income protection.

National Security Vetting Process

Employment in this role will be subject to the National Security Vetting clearance process (and typically can take between 6 to 12 weeks post offer) and the passing of additional Bank security checks in accordance with the Bank policy. Further information regarding the vetting and security clearance requirements for the role will be provided to the successful applicant, and information about how the Bank processes personal data for these purposes, is set out in the Bank’s Privacy Notice