Job title: Markets Data Scientist
Division: Enforcement & Market Oversight
Department: Market Oversight, Data & Intelligence
Salary: National (Edinburgh & Leeds) ranging from £60,700 to £78,000 and London ranging from £66,600 to £86,000 (salary offered will be based on skills and experience)
This role is graded as: Lead Associate – Regulatory
Your recruitment contact is Riley Fox at [email protected] - Applications must be submitted through our online portal. Applications sent via social media or email will not be accepted.
About the FCA and team
We regulate financial services firms in the UK, to keep financial markets fair, thriving and effective. By joining us, you’ll play a key part in protecting consumers, driving economic growth, and shaping the future of UK finance services.
The Market Oversight Directorate oversees conduct in UK primary and secondary markets through the listing, prospectus, and market abuse regimes, aiming to promote trusted, orderly, and efficient markets via its four departments: Listing, Primary Market Oversight, Secondary Market Oversight, and Market Oversight Data & Intelligence.
Sitting within the Market Oversight Directorate, the Market Oversight Data and Intelligence (MODI) Department, formed in 2024, drives data-led regulation by delivering specialist services, intelligence, and casework across UK markets, supporting innovation, insight, and effective oversight through advanced analytical and technical capabilities.
Role responsibilities
Leading the optimisation of high-performance pipelines of trading and position data, transforming millions of daily records into model‑ready datasets for risk and market analysis
Owning the design and insights from interactive dashboards and web apps, turning unique regulatory markets data into system-wide views across fixed income, commodities, FX and equities helping stakeholders build a detailed understanding firm and sector risks through flow and exposure data
Leading analysis on diverse and stimulating issues, empowering market abuse, policy and supervisory teams to make informed, timely decisions whilst gaining exposure to a broad range of markets and financial products
Supporting colleagues and growing your technical skills to impactful challenges and play a key role in shaping how data are harnessed to monitor and supervise firms and markets
Skills required
Minimum:
Demonstrable and advanced data science and engineering experience within a financial markets context, able to design efficient SQL (Redshift) and Python code for complex ETL pipelines and feature engineering
Substantial experience with joining, analysing, manipulating commercial and regulatory data for visualisation (Tableau) and apps
Demonstrable experience in utilising data analytics tools and libraries (Pandas, PySpark, etc)
Essential:
Understanding of financial markets
Experience in applying machine learning techniques to market data
Experienced in developing user-friendly analytical products, e.g self-service tools, or web applications
Ability to effectively engage with a range of stakeholders
Benefits
25 days annual leave plus bank holidays
Non-contributory pension (8–12% depending on age) and life assurance at eight times your salary
Private healthcare with Bupa, income protection, and 24/7 Employee Assistance
35 hours of paid volunteering annually
Hybrid model where employees work a minimum of 40% in the office each month (expectation of 50% for senior leaders). Changing from September to a minimum of 50% in the office each month (expectation of 60% for Directors and Executive Directors)
A flexible benefits scheme designed around your lifestyle
For a full list of our benefits, and our recruitment process as a whole visit our benefits page.
Our values and culture
Our colleagues are the key to our success as a regulator. We are committed to fostering a diverse and inclusive culture: one that’s free from discrimination and bias, celebrates difference, and supports colleagues to deliver at their best. We believe that our differences and similarities enable us to be a better organisation – one that makes better decisions, drives innovation, and delivers better regulation.
If you require any adjustments due to a disability or condition, your recruiter is here to help - reach out for tailored support.
We welcome diverse working styles and aim to find flexible solutions that suit both the role and individual needs, including options like part-time and job sharing where applicable.
Disability confident: our hiring approach
We’re proud to be a Disability Confident Employer, and therefore, people or individuals with disabilities and long-term conditions who best meet the minimum criteria for a role will go through to the next stage of the recruitment process. In cases of high application volumes, we may progress applicants whose experience most closely matches the role’s key requirements.
Useful information and timelines
Timeline:
Job advert closing: 21st June at 11:59pm
CV Review/Shortlist: 23rd June
First Interview: w/c 29th June (Please note these interviews will be in-person)
Second Interview: w/c 13th July
Your Recruiter will discuss the process in detail with you during screening for the role, therefore, please make them aware if you are going to be unavailable for any date during this time.
SC Clearance is required for this role (SC Guidance) - you will hold or will be required to obtain Security Check (SC) level vetting
The FCA regulates the conduct of 50,000 firms in the UK to ensure our financial markets are honest, fair and competitive. We do this to make sure markets work well for individuals, businesses, and the economy as a whole. For more information on what we do, our three-year strategy can be found here.
Working inclusively
We work best when we work together. We encourage our people to contribute fully and feel valued, to be innovative and creative by collaborating in an inclusive culture.
We're also committed to reflecting the diverse lived experiences of the communities we work in and the consumers we protect. We have a strategy to achieve a more diverse and inclusive workplace that is free from discrimination. This includes increasing the representation of women in our senior team to 50% and minority ethnic colleagues to 25% by 2025 – representative of the UK population.
We were recently voted 'Employer of the year' at the Women in Finance awards and our commitment to LGBT+ inclusion means we're recognised as a Stonewall Top 100 employer.
Flexible Working
We believe that giving our people greater flexibility fosters an inclusive culture and a healthy work-life balance.
We currently operate a hybrid working model, working up to 40% in the office each month (50% for senior leaders). This way of working applies in our Stratford, Leeds and Edinburgh offices.
We also offer career and family leave provisions, generous annual leave so you can take time off when you need or want to, and a range of other benefits.
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Programme for parents returning to work after Parental Leave? |
We don’t have a formal programme, but we have hired several Returners through the assisted hiring route (working with Women Returners)
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Leadership development programmes? |
Yes – we are launching a female progression programme |
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Mentoring programmess? |
Yes |
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Coaching programmes? |
No |
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Employee-led diversity networks? |
Yes |
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Internal women’s networking groups? |
No |
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Open to discussing flexible work arrangements at interview stage? |
Yes |
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No. of weeks paid maternity leave at full salary: |
52
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Minimum weeks tenure required to be eligible for paid maternity leave: |
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No. of weeks paid paternity leave at full salary: |
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Minimum tenure required to be eligible for paid paternity leave: |
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Gender pay gap reporting information (2024) |
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Average pay gap: |
12.2 % |
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Median pay gap: |
11.5 % |
| For more information visit - FCA pay gap data 2024 | FCA | |
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Signatory of the UK Women in Finance Charter? |
Yes |
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Targets to raise the number of women in leadership? |
Yes – 50% female target across all pipeline roles |
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Targets to raise the number of BAME individuals in leadership? |
Yes |
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Listed in the Bloomberg Diversity & Inclusion Index? |
No |