Job Band

Job Reference 18222
Job Band D
Contract type: Permanent
Location: Flexible Glasgow, London or Newcastle 
Salary: Up to £80,000 depending on relevant skills, knowledge and experience. The expected salary range for this role reflects internal benchmarking and external market insights.

SDD24

We’re happy to discuss flexible working. Please indicate your choice under the flexible working question in the application. There is no obligation to raise this at the application stage but if you wish to do so, you are welcome to. Flexible working will be part of the discussion at offer stage.
 
Excellent career progression – the BBC offers great opportunities for employees to seek new challenges and work in different areas of the organisation.
Unrivalled training and development opportunities – our in-house Academy hosts a wide range of internal and external courses and certification.
Benefits - We offer a negotiable salary package, a flexible 35-hour working week for work-life balance and 25 days annual leave with the option to buy an extra 5 days, a defined pension scheme and discounted dental, health care and gym. You can find out more about working at the BBC by selecting this link to our candidate pack.  

If you need to discuss adjustments or access requirements for the interview process please contact the reasonable.adjustments@bbc.co.uk.  For any general queries, please contact: bbchr@bbc.co.uk.

Introduction

We are looking for a Principal Experimentation Specialist to join the BBC Experimentation CoE team.

As a Principal Experimentation Specialist you will drive a culture of data-informed decision-making within product teams by leading the design, execution, and analysis of high-impact experiments. This role will act as the key advisor on experimentation strategy, working closely with cross-functional teams to optimize product performance and customer experiences. The Principal Experimentation Specialist will not only focus on running A/B tests and other experimental designs but also shape best practices and build scalable frameworks that enable product teams to test hypotheses and learn rapidly.

Beyond running A/B tests and other experimental designs, this role will focus on shaping best practices and building scalable data frameworks that enable product teams to test hypotheses and learn efficiently. The ideal candidate will bring data expertise, including data modelling and statistical rigor, to elevate experimentation practices across the BBC.

Key Responsibilities

• Highly skilled in interpreting data and using insights to guide strategic decisions. They need to be able to assess experiment results objectively and drive the team to focus on evidence-based improvements.
• Develop an understanding of our product, operations, systems and processes by interacting with product managers, engineering and business teams.
• Advanced Data Interpretation & Modelling: Provide deep insights through data modelling and statistical analysis to guide strategic decisions. Apply causal inference techniques to ensure robust experiment interpretation, helping teams make evidence-based, high-impact improvements.
• Cross-Functional Experimentation Leadership: Collaborate with Product, Design, Engineering, and Data Science teams to improve processes for identifying, prioritising, designing, and managing a pipeline of experiments that aligns with business goals.
• Scalable Experimentation Standards: Establish experimentation standards that drive consistency and best practices across the BBC. Collaborate with the Data Platforms team to develop methods and tools that increase the rigor and scalability of the experimentation platform, leveraging causal inference methods and machine learning as needed.
• Data-Driven Hypothesis Design: Partner with Product and Design teams to identify core questions, frame hypotheses as testable assumptions, and structure experimentation strategies to provide actionable insights.
• - Data Platform Optimization: Work with the Data Platforms team to enhance tools and processes that support increased demand for high-quality experimentation. Identify opportunities to improve data infrastructure, streamline data ingestion, and automate workflows to enable more rapid, reliable experimentation.
• Experimentation Advocacy & Training: Serve as a coach and advocate for rigorous, consistent experimentation practices across data and business teams, helping data professionals adopt effective methodologies and tools.
• Experiment Lifecycle Management: Maintain a high-level view of experimentation across products, identifying key challenges and opportunities for deeper analysis, and facilitating an organized, hypothesis-driven approach to the product development lifecycle.
• Quality Assurance & Statistical Rigor: Ensure experiments are designed with statistical rigor and validity, overseeing experiment set-up, tracking, analysis, and interpretation to deliver reliable, unbiased insights to stakeholders.
• Advocate for experimentation depth, rigor, and consistency across the data and business teams, and coach data team members on the principles of effective experimentation and inference.

Are you the right candidate

• Data Science & Modelling Expertise: 5+ years experience in statistical analysis and data modelling using tools like SQL, R, Python, or other analytical languages. Experience with causal inference techniques, regression modelling, and machine learning is highly preferred.
• Experimental Design & Analysis: 3+ years of experience designing and analysing experiments, including A/B testing and randomized controlled trials. Strong understanding of experimental design principles and their application to digital products.
• Analytical Mindset: Ability to conceptualize and test hypotheses using statistical methods, as well as to leverage more advanced data modelling techniques to uncover deeper insights.
• Communication & Stakeholder Engagement: Excellent written and verbal communication skills, with a proven ability to distil complex analysis and findings into clear, actionable insights for diverse audiences, including senior leadership.
• Project Management & Strategic Alignment: Strong project management skills, with experience managing multiple experiments concurrently. Ability to align experimentation strategy with broader business objectives and maintain focus on high-value projects.
• Detail-Oriented & Accuracy-Focused: Meticulous attention to detail and commitment to accuracy in data analysis, data collection, and experiment design.

About the BBC

The BBC is committed to redeploying employees seeking suitable alternative employment within the BBC for different reasons and they will be given priority consideration ahead of other applicants. Priority consideration means for those employees seeking redeployment their application will be considered alongside anyone else at risk of redundancy, prior to any individuals being considered who are not at risk.

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Diversity matters at the BBC. We have a working environment where we value and respect every individual's unique contribution, enabling all of our employees to thrive and achieve their full potential.

We want to attract the broadest range of talented people to be part of the BBC – whether that’s to contribute to our programming or our wide range of non-production roles. The more diverse our workforce, the better able we are to respond to and reflect our audiences in all their diversity.

We are committed to equality of opportunity and welcome applications from individuals, regardless of age, gender, ethnicity, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, socio-economic background, religion and/or belief. We will consider flexible working requests for all roles, unless operational requirements prevent otherwise.

To find out more about Diversity and Inclusion at the BBC, please click here.