Data Scientist - LeapSpace

About the teamElsevier’s mission is to help researchers, clinicians, and life sciences professionals advance discovery and improve health outcomes through trusted content, data, and analytics. This role sits within Elsevier’s Platform Data Science organization, a centralized AI and data science group responsible for advancing intelligent discovery, retrieval, and generative AI capabilities across Elsevier products and platforms. The organization develops foundational AI technologies that power experiences such as LeapSpace, Elsevier’s AI-powered research assistant, as well as Elsevier’s broader Search & AI Platform. The Platform Data Science organization works at the intersection of:Search and retrieval systemsGenerative AI and LLM applicationsAI evaluation and experimentationSemantic enrichment and knowledge systemsScalable AI platforms and intelligent workflows About the roleWe are looking for a Data Scientist III to help design, build, and evaluate advanced AI capabilities supporting LeapSpace and Elsevier’s Search & AI Platform initiatives. This role focuses on applied AI development, retrieval systems, and AI evaluation, helping bring cutting-edge AI technologies into production experiences used by researchers worldwide. You will work closely with senior data scientists, engineers, product managers, and domain experts across retrieval systems, generative AI, reasoning workflows, evaluation frameworks, and experimentation, contributing to the next generation of AI-powered scientific discovery tools. This role is ideal for someone with hands-on experience in applied AI, NLP, information retrieval, and LLM-based applications, who enjoys building innovative solutions and translating emerging AI techniques into impactful product capabilities. Key responsibilitiesApplied AI & Research Develop and improve LLM-powered research workflows, including:Scientific question answeringLiterature summarizationSemantic exploration and discoveryResearch insight generationCitation-aware retrieval and reasoning workflowsBuild and iterate on agentic and multi-step AI workflows using frameworks such as LangGraph and related orchestration tools.Apply modern techniques in:NLPGenerative AIEmbeddings and semantic representationsRetrieval-augmented generation (RAG)AI reasoning and workflow orchestrationEvaluate emerging AI models, tools, and frameworks and contribute recommendations for experimentation and adoption.Contribute to prompt engineering, grounding strategies, context management, and hallucination mitigation efforts.Support integration of scientific metadata, ontologies, and knowledge assets into AI-powered workflows. Search, Retrieval & RAG SystemsDesign, develop, and optimize search and retrieval pipelines, including lexical, vector, and hybrid retrieval approaches.Contribute to the development and enhancement of RAG systems that integrate LLMs with trusted scientific and biomedical content.Experiment with embeddings, re-ranking models, chunking strategies, and retrieval orchestration techniques to improve relevance and answer quality.Support development of semantic search, ranking, and knowledge discovery capabilities.Collaborate with engineering teams to deploy and scale AI-powered solutions. AI Evaluation & ExperimentationDevelop and apply evaluation frameworks for search and AI systems, including:IR metrics (e.g., NDCG, recall, precision)LLM and RAG evaluation metrics (e.g., grounding, faithfulness, hallucination detection)Build and maintain evaluation datasets, benchmark suites, and annotation workflows.Conduct offline experiments and contribute to online experimentation and A/B testing.Analyze experimental results and communicate findings to stakeholders.Contribute to responsible AI practices focused on quality, reliability, and trust. Cross-functional CollaborationPartner with product managers, engineers, UX researchers, and domain experts to deliver AI-powered capabilities.Communicate technical findings and recommendations clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.Contribute to knowledge sharing and adoption of best practices across the Platform Data Science organization.Support delivery of projects from research and experimentation through production deployment. Required qualificationsBatchelor’s, Master’s or PhD in Computer Science, Data Science, Machine Learning, NLP, Information Retrieval, or a related fieldExperience in data science, machine learning, applied NLP, information retrieval, generative AI, or a related fieldHands-on experience with:LLM-based applications and generative AI systemsRAG pipelines and retrieval systemsSearch and retrieval architectures (lexical, vector, hybrid)Evaluation methodologies for IR and generative AI systemsStrong programming skills in PythonExperience with modern AI/ML frameworks and tooling (e.g., PyTorch, Hugging Face, LangChain, LangGraph, Haystack)Experience working with Databricks or similar distributed data and machine learning platformsUnderstanding of experimentation methodologies, evaluation frameworks, and statistical analysisProficiency with data visualization and analytical tooling (e.g., Tableau, Power BI, matplotlib, seaborn)Demonstrated ability to independently execute technical projects and contribute to cross-functional initiatives

Preferred qualificationsExperience building AI assistants, agentic workflows, or conversational AI applicationsExperience working on search, ranking, recommendation, or retrieval systemsFamiliarity with scientific, biomedical, or scholarly datasetsExperience with knowledge graphs, ontologies, or semantic enrichment systemsExposure to production ML systems and MLOps practicesAcademic or industry research experience in NLP, information retrieval, search, or generative AIExperience working in content-rich, knowledge-intensive, or highly regulated domains

Working for youWe know that your well-being and happiness are key to a long and successful career. These are some of the benefits we are delighted to offer:Comprehensive Pension PlanHome, office, or commuting allowance.Generous vacation entitlement and option for sabbatical leaveMaternity, Paternity, Adoption and Family Care leaveFlexible working hoursPersonal Choice budgetInternal communities and networksVarious employee discountsRecruitment introduction rewardEmployee Assistance Program (global) About the businessAs a global leader in information and analytics, we help researchers and healthcare professionals advance science and improve health outcomes for the benefit of society. Building on our publishing heritage, we combine quality information and vast data sets with analytics to support visionary science and research, health education, and interactive learning, as well as exceptional healthcare and clinical practice. At Elsevier, your work contributes to the world’s grand challenges and a more sustainable future. We harness innovative technologies to support science and healthcare to partner for a better world.