Talent Scientist

The Talent Science team has a mission to ensure that we follow objective, scientifically rigorous and efficient processes to select the very best new colleagues regardless of location, culture or background. The role requires a background in psychology or industrial psychology, fluency in data science and statistical analysis of people-related data, leadership skill to help members of the business understand how we expect them to hire and the confidence to hold them accountable to that expectation, good judgement when assessing candidates for their motivation and work ethic, and a high level of personal organisation to work remotely and be effective.

As a pioneer remote-first tech company with a product that inspires people globally, we attract a huge number of applicants to every role we post. We are proud that our hiring process is totally unique. We train and empower Hiring Leads across the company who know the skill sets required and openings in their part of the business, and our team supports them in running the process for their roles. As a Talent Scientist, you will work closely with these Hiring Leads to drive initiatives, automation and best practice whilst offering an expert viewpoint on talent assessments. This is not a recruiter position - it's about the science of talent and performance, raising awareness and insights across the business so that we make, as a company, outstanding choices in the selection process.

As a profitable and growing business that aspires to hire hundreds of people in 2024 and beyond, we are expanding the Talent Scientist team in all time zones. To be successful in this role we are looking for:

• Advanced behavioural interviewing techniques (competency based and psychometric)
• A passion for interviewing candidates to assess drivers, motivators and exceptional success
• Exceptional analytical problem solving abilities
• Experience using complex statistical analysis to identify behavioural patterns
• Ability to influence behaviours and decision making in senior business counterparts

This is an ideal opportunity for someone with outstanding academic results and leadership qualities, who can apply meaningful analysis to select talent and enhance how we make talent decisions as a business. It is an opportunity to join a team that is changing the landscape on how the tech industry selects talent. To be successful in this role you will need to demonstrate an analytical mindset and fluency with data science and statistical analysis tools, together with an inquisitive mind to solve problems and present viable solutions across our business.

Location: We have openings in every time zone and will consider outstanding candidates from Europe, Middle East, Africa, the Americas and Asia-Pacific regions.

What your day will look like

As a Talent Scientist you will:

• Drive talent analytics to provide our business with real-time insight, partnering with the business to help them move through their hiring processes efficiently.
• Conduct in-depth behavioural talent interviews providing considerable insights into motivations and behaviours.
• Build key relationships with global stakeholders to ensure we deliver against our hiring agenda, closely monitoring hiring activities, driving results and ensuring that there is consistency in our operational processes
• Drive data driven insights, making sure our decision making process is robust and supportive to inform our decisions.
• Consider our employer brand and how our interactions with a candidate impacts their experience 
• Review and streamline hiring processes and tools to drive continuous improvement.
• Work with external third parties and platforms to ensure we maximise our return on investment.
• Bring a passion for diversity and inclusion, ensuring we remove unconscious bias from our hiring process and ensuring our sourcing strategy underpins this.

What we are looking for in you

• An exceptional viewpoint of talent, with a deep appreciation of how to predict and measure success of people
• Exceptional experience of conducting behavioural, competency based interviews with the ability to train stakeholders and advise on how to get the best out of an interview.
• Strong experience of using psychometric assessments, including interpretation, validity and reliability metrics
• Undergraduate degree in psychology or industrial psychology, or a compelling narrative about your alternative chosen path
• Deep analytical skills to run statistical analysis on hiring data (Python, SQL and/or R preferable) using metrics to fuel decision making and influence positive change.
• Be a thought leader in the talent space with the ability to influence best practice, demonstrating a track record of driving exceptional hiring processes in technology.
• Proven ability to build strong relationships with senior stakeholders, being seen as an expert as well as challenging the status quo.
• Successful track record of setting and managing projects through to completion.
• Excellent verbal and written English.
• Willingness to travel to company events twice a year, for up to two weeks.

Other skills you may bring

• Experience in statistical significance testing and experience in Bayesian inference and/or predictive analytics and ML highly desirable.
• Experience on building data dashboards desirable.

What we offer you

We consider geographical location, experience, and performance in shaping compensation worldwide. We revisit compensation annually (and more often for graduates and associates) to ensure we recognise outstanding performance. In addition to base pay, we offer a performance-driven annual bonus. We provide all team members with additional benefits, which reflect our values and ideals. We balance our programs to meet local needs and ensure fairness globally.

• Distributed work environment with twice-yearly team sprints in person
• Personal learning and development budget of USD 2,000 per year
• Annual compensation review
• Recognition rewards
• Annual holiday leave
• Maternity and paternity leave
• Employee Assistance Programme
• Opportunity to travel to new locations to meet colleagues
• Priority Pass, and travel upgrades for long haul company events

About Canonical

Canonical is a pioneering tech firm at the forefront of the global move to open source. As the company that publishes Ubuntu, one of the most important open source projects and the platform for AI, IoT and the cloud, we are changing the world on a daily basis. We recruit on a global basis and set a very high standard for people joining the company. We expect excellence - in order to succeed, we need to be the best at what we do. Canonical has been a remote-first company since its inception in 2004.​ Working here is a step into the future, and will challenge you to think differently, work smarter, learn new skills, and raise your game.

Canonical is an equal opportunity employer

We are proud to foster a workplace free from discrimination. Diversity of experience, perspectives, and background create a better work environment and better products. Whatever your identity, we will give your application fair consideration.

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