Research Engineer @ Arsenal
Arsenal are hiring a Research Engineer and this one is super interesting to me because although it arguably isn't really a data science role, so many elements of it are. I read it as a forward thinking way of solving problems in a modern way, which is exactly what you might expect from one of the more forward thinking data analytics teams.
To give the detail, it's described as an embedded role within the Men's First Team Analysis department, reporting to the Head of Software and Analytics, with the job being to plan, implement and deploy end to end internal products. So you'll be developing full stack applications, collaborating with coaches and analysts to design data driven tooling, streamlining analysis tasks using what's described as a combination of software engineering and applied ML, and acting as an applied AI specialist sitting directly with the practitioners.
There's a broad list of requirements. It doesn't explicitly mention LLMs but I'm assuming part of what applied ML means is using Claude or ChatGPT or similar to boost your software engineering skills, if you know what I mean. Like, they're not asking for someone especially brilliant at any one of the things they list out. They're more asking for someone who can work in what has suddenly become a very modern way.
This reminds me a lot of the Manchester United Forward Deployed Data Engineer role I reviewed recently. You're embedded with the team, you study the processes of the practitioners and deliver applied value, and the range of skills you need to be successful therefore becomes very broad. The difference is that the way this one is described feels a bit more coherent given how software engineering has developed. I'd previously have described this as a decision science role, helping people make better decisions. But those decision science roles are going to increasingly morph into building applications, maybe lightweight ones, embedded in the practical way people actually work.
That's what I like about how this is described. It says you'll be integral to "maximising the impact of their applied research" and "accounting for real world football analysis constraints". To me that's a way of saying you'll keep the research and data engineering teams honest, making sure the stuff they produce is usable and building things that actually make a difference.
As I said, I imagine we'll start to see a lot more of this kind of role, where there's a greater separation between data engineering and deep learning research producing analytics and intelligence, and then a person embedded directly with the practitioners to build stuff and make it useful. Given what I know about how Arsenal think about football and data, the fact that they are on trend is not that surprising.
As you might expect it's based full time at their training centre because these embedded roles 100% benefit from being on site. Closing date is the 6th of August.
