Data Scientist, SCRIBE

About Us

We are a world-class visitor attraction and leading science research centre. We use the Museum's unique collections and our unrivalled expertise to tackle the biggest challenges facing the world today. We care for more than 80 million objects spanning billions of years and welcome more than five million visitors annually and 16 million visits to our website.  

Today the Museum is more relevant and influential than ever. By attracting people from a range of backgrounds to work for us, we can continue to look at the world with fresh eyes and find new ways of doing things.

We employ 1100 staff in a variety of roles, all united by our vision of a future where people and planet thrive. We need everyone to have the passion and drive to help us with our mission to create advocates for our planet and inspire millions to care about the natural world.

Diversity and inclusion matter to us.

Our vision is of a future where both people and the planet thrive. Diversity is one of our core values and we strive to build a workplace where everyone feels a sense of belonging. All new staff who join us learn about the importance of diversity and inclusion to the Museum and how to contribute to creating an inclusive environment.

We know we have more to do, but we are committed to ensuring that everyone who works at the Museum feels they can thrive and feel valued and respected.

About the role

We’re looking for a Data Scientist to play a leading role in SCRIBE (Structured Collection Records Interpretation and Bio-entity Extraction), an ambitious AI-driven project transforming how natural science collections are digitised and made accessible.

Based within the Natural History Museum’s AI & Innovation team, you will help develop cutting-edge AI tools that automate the extraction of structured data from historic collection records and manuscripts. Working with colleagues across the Museum and partner institutions throughout the UK, your work will contribute to a major national effort to unlock more than 137 million natural science specimens held across UK collections.

SCRIBE builds on a successful pilot programme and will turn an early proof of concept into a scalable, production-ready platform that can be shared across the cultural and research sector. Using technologies such as Large Language Models (LLMs), Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and Computer Vision (CV), you will lead the development of models for document layout detection, field extraction and semantic post-processing, integrating these into robust AI workflows and production pipelines.

You’ll work closely with machine learning researchers, software engineers, curators and digitisation specialists to develop open, reusable AI tools that support large-scale biodiversity and heritage digitisation. This role offers the opportunity to apply advanced AI techniques to real-world scientific and cultural challenges, helping to shape how collections data is created, accessed and used in the future.

About you

Are you a Data Scientist who enjoys applying AI and machine learning to complex, real-world problems? If you’re excited by the opportunity to develop production-ready AI systems with meaningful scientific and cultural impact, this could be the role for you.

You bring strong experience in machine learning and AI development, including practical experience with technologies such as LLMs, Computer Vision and deep learning workflows. You are comfortable designing, training and evaluating models, and understand how to deploy scalable AI solutions within production environments.

You enjoy working collaboratively across disciplines and can communicate effectively with both technical and non-technical stakeholders. Whether working with engineers, researchers or collections specialists, you are able to translate complex challenges into practical, well-designed solutions.

If you thrive in innovative, research-led environments and enjoy balancing experimentation with delivery, you will excel in this role. Experience working within the GLAM sector or with digitisation workflows would be advantageous, but most importantly, you are motivated by using AI to unlock access to knowledge and create tools with lasting public and scientific value.

Thriving at the Museum: the way we work

We are proud to work at the Museum and have identified the qualities we all need to embody to reach our shared ambition. This sits alongside the Museum’s values and forms the framework for the way we work.

Find out more here

What we offer

• 27.5 days holiday plus 8 bank holidays (full time equivalent)
• Generous defined contribution Natural History Museum Pension Scheme (employer contribution 4 - 10%)
• Season ticket, bicycle and rental loan
• Life insurance
• Free admission to our exhibitions and many other paid exhibitions at museums, galleries and institutions across London and the UK.
• Staff discount at our Museum shops and cafes
• We offer a wide variety of training initiatives and opportunities to build skills. Investing in staff development is important to us, and we are ambitious about helping staff to grow and fulfil their potential.
• Affordable membership to the Civil Service Sports Council which offers a range of benefits including an extensive list of special offers and reduced entry fees at a selection of cinema chains, theme parks, theatres, retailers and supermarkets. It also provides entry to up to 300 English Heritage sites and other national treasures. For more details, visit https://www.cssc.co.uk
• Membership to our Sports and Social Association (for a small fee), which includes access to our in-house gym and clubs such as football, softball, table tennis and tennis and classes in Middle Eastern dance, yoga and Tai Chi

Hybrid working

We are working towards a vision where both people and planet thrive, and nothing gives a greater connection with this, than seeing first-hand, the visitors, scientific research and collections that all of our work is inspired by and working side by side with the teams delivering the visitor experience and events.  We also recognise the benefits and flexibility that hybrid working brings. We operate a hybrid working model that requires regular, weekly attendance for this role, with the precise pattern of days on site and worked from home to be agreed with your manager.