Job Description
OVERVIEW:
NEXT is the newly launched innovation hub inside Fifty5Blue, the global leader in media measurement and analytics operating in more than 80 countries. NEXT is a new, ring-fenced innovation unit being built from the ground up, with a clear mandate to launch the next generation of AI-native audience-intelligence products — modernizing our cross-media engine, expanding our audience measurement solutions, and investing in AI capabilities.
Why join this incredible program? NEXT is being built from the ground up - you will shape both the product and the operating model. Flexible work model: London (one pod is being built in our London office) or fully remote with regular travel for in person collaboration. Hybrid by default; we trust our teams to find the right balance
THE ROLE
NEXT is seeking an experienced Data Scientist to lead applied research and methodology for our audience-measurement initiatives. The work spans cross-media calibration, behavioural-panel signal extraction, synthetic panellists, and AI-on-panel use cases. You'll be working with real panel data, real customer pilots, and real methodological standards — radical experimentation under measurement-science rigour.
KEY RESPONSIBILITIES
Applied research \& modelling
- Lead applied ML/statistics work for scoped proof of concepts across audience measurement
- Design and prototype new measurement methodologies; validate against panel and external benchmarks.
- Bring techniques from adjacent fields (synthetic data, agentic systems, foundation models) into measurement contexts
Productionisation \& validation
- Move prototypes from sandbox to closed-alpha to paid pilot, working with the NEXT engineers to ultimately deliver production ready solutions.
- Define and run accuracy validation against Fifty5Blue's panel and against customer benchmarks
- Document methodologies clearly for sign off and, where applicable, for clients and industry accreditation bodies (MRC, JICs, IAB) to review.
Cross-functional collaboration
- Work alongside product managers and software engineers in 6-week sprint cadence.
- Partner with Fifty5Blue's central data-science team where required to pass successful products back to core business for scaling
- Brief leadership and design partners on technical results in language they can act on.
CAPBILITIES AND EXPERIENCE
What You’ll Bring (Required)
- Extensive applied data science / statistics / ML experience, with significant time on measurement, panel, advertising, or media-related data.
- Strong methodological foundation: causal inference, calibration, weighting, panel statistics, model validation, marketing science techniques
- Comfort working with imperfect data and evolving requirements – balancing panel sparseness, consent constraints and first-party data access while rapidly exploring new ideas
Preferred Experience
- Direct experience with TV/cross-media measurement panels, big-data calibration, audience modelling, sales and conversion data.
- Recent experience applying modern AI techniques (e.g. foundation models, LLMs, embeddings or synthetic data) to real-world measurement or analytics problems
- Familiarity with the industry accreditation landscape (MRC, JIC, IAB) for measurement methodologies.
- Proven ability to work independently with limited oversight – you’ll be working closely with the rest of the cross-functional team, but will be one of two data science experts. You may report to someone without direct data science experience
How we work
Fifty5Blue’s core values are: Clarity, Independence, and Impatience. At NEXT, we live those values – moving at pace, with high degree of transparency and collaboration, and a commitment to testing and failing fast. We move in weeks not months, days not weeks; we make decisions quickly and in the open; we celebrate good kills as much as good launches.