Associate AI Engineer / Data Scientist

Overview

Associate AI Engineer / Data Scientist role within the Financial Services Assurance Digital Innovation Garage at PwC. You will design, build, test and support data‑driven solutions, including machine learning and AI‑enabled automation, to address audit, assurance and internal innovation challenges within the financial services industry.

Responsibilities

• Translate business and audit challenges into data‑driven use cases.
• Prepare and analyse datasets, perform data extraction, cleansing, transformation, validation and exploratory analysis.
• Develop machine learning or AI‑assisted prototypes, including feature engineering, model evaluation, prompt engineering, retrieval‑augmented generation and responsible use of large language models.
• Collaborate with audit, risk, technology and innovation teams to clarify requirements and convert ideas into proof‑of‑concepts or production‑ready components.
• Document assumptions, data handling steps, testing results, limitations and user guidance in a clear and structured manner.
• Communicate progress, risks, blockers and outcomes to senior team members and stakeholders.
• Uphold the firm’s code of ethics, business conduct, data protection expectations and responsible AI principles.

Qualifications

• 1–3 years of relevant experience in data science, AI engineering, machine learning, analytics engineering, intelligent automation or technology‑enabled process improvement.
• Hands‑on experience with Python and common data science libraries (pandas, NumPy, scikit‑learn or similar). Familiarity with R is a plus.
• Working knowledge of SQL, data modelling, data cleansing, data validation, feature engineering and exploratory data analysis.
• Basic to moderate understanding of machine learning concepts: supervised and unsupervised learning, model evaluation, overfitting, regression, classification, clustering and predictive modelling.
• Exposure to generative AI, large language models, prompt engineering, embeddings, vector search, retrieval‑augmented generation or AI agent concepts.
• Experience with analytics, automation or visualisation platforms such as PowerBI, Tableau, Alteryx, PowerAutomate, UiPath, ABBYYOCR or similar tools.
• Ability to support solution design, requirements gathering, user acceptance testing, documentation and handover for data, AI and automation projects.
• Good understanding of data governance, data privacy, data quality, access controls and responsible use of AI in a professional services or regulated environment.
• Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science, Data Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Statistics, Mathematics, Engineering, Information Systems, Business Analytics, Quantitative Finance, Accounting Analytics or a related quantitative/technology discipline.
• Relevant postgraduate qualifications, professional certifications or strong project‑based experience in AI, machine learning, analytics, automation or software engineering will be considered an advantage.

Other Requirements

Government clearance required. Availability for work visa sponsorship is accepted.