We are Nesta, the UK’s innovation agency for social good. We design, test and scale solutions to society’s biggest problems. Our three missions are to give every child a fair start, help people live healthy lives, and create a sustainable future where the economy works for both people and the planet.
For over 20 years, we have worked to support, encourage and inspire innovation. We work in three roles: as an innovation partner working with frontline organisations to design and test new solutions, as a venture builder supporting new and early stage businesses, and as a system shaper creating the conditions for innovation.
Harnessing the rigour of science and the creativity of design, we work relentlessly to change millions of lives for the better.
Whatever it takes
Everyone works at Nesta because we are driven by a deep commitment to our missions. A guiding principle of our culture is that we do whatever it takes to achieve them, bringing our best to all our work. You can read more about our culture on our website.
How will a Junior Data Engineer contribute to Nesta’s success?
We are looking for a Junior Python Data Engineer to join our Data Science Practice at Nesta. As part of a small team of data engineers, you will work closely with data scientists, analysts, and technologists to enhance Nesta’s data science research programme, delivering impactful data-driven products and insights to support our missions.
This is an exciting opportunity to develop your technical skills while contributing to meaningful, high-impact projects. You will gain hands-on experience with modern data engineering tools, cloud infrastructure, and collaborative data science workflows, all while working in a supportive and mission-driven environment.
The person
In this role, you will
- Develop and maintain Python data pipelines to collect, clean, and process data at scale, ensuring robustness, reliability, and efficiency.
- Work with data scientists to enable efficient model training and deployment.
- Collaborate across teams to help deliver outcome-focused, data-driven solutions and data products that impact our missions.
- Help to build applied research infrastructure and tooling that allows our teams to perform scalable and robust research activities.
- Steward our data governance processes, enabling our mission teams to make impactful use of our data assets.
Some examples of previous and current Nesta projects with a strong data engineering component include:
- The Open Jobs Observatory
- Installer Pal
- Automated Horizon Scanning
The person
We are looking for candidates who have
- Demonstrated practical application of Python in professional or academic settings - using the language consistently in data-centric projects.
- Knowledge of the Python Data Science stack (e.g., pandas/polars, scikit-learn).
- Ability to develop and maintain Python-based ETL/ELT data pipelines.
- Ability to develop LLM-based tools/products (e.g., RAG workflows).
- Familiarity with version control tools such as Git/GitHub.
In addition, we are particularly interested to hear from candidates who have
- Exposure to cloud platforms (e.g., AWS, GCP, or Azure).
- An understanding of DevOps concepts such as Infrastructure as Code, CI/CD, or MLOps.
- Knowledge of Python-based data pipeline frameworks (e.g. Airflow, Metaflow) and Python-based product development packages (e.g. FastAPI, Streamlit).
