University of Oxford

Flatiron School

University of Cambridge

Policy Adviser at HM Treasury

Leading data science and technical teams to build AI-powered products and solve customer problems across a variety of public and private sector organisations, including in finance, retail, insurance, legal tech, healthcare, government, defence and tech for social good. Technical specialty areas include NLP, LLMs, classic ML, responsible AI and AI safety. My work on LLMs has included building and implementing LLM-powered products for various clients, developing approaches for LLM evaluation, and generative AI strategy for organisational transformation.

Other responsibilities include:
- Mentoring and developing data scientists
- Working with prospective clients to scope work and turn customer problems into technical solutions
- Training and developing junior technical talent by helping create the Machine Learning Engineer and AI Product Manager Fellowship training courses, and improving the curriculum for the Data Science Fellowship
- Driving forward initiatives to improve the functioning of the wider team and help us consistently deliver successful projects
- Helping to make Faculty a great place for anyone to work by co-founding the Faculty Women's Network
- Contributing to the wider tech for good community as a technical reviewer for Google's AI for the Global Goals fund

Faculty

Senior Data Scientist

Data Scientist in Alexa Shopping focusing on Natural Language Understanding (NLU/NLP) for product-related question and answering. My main focus was on building and improving Transformer models to help improve the ability of Alexa to act as a product advisor, and working closely with engineering to get models into production.

Amazon

Data Scientist

Women@Amazon is the global affinity group for women, non-binary employees and allies. We are a community for both business and technical employees interested in increasing gender diversity at Amazon. The mission of Women@Amazon is to make Amazon the premier global destination for women across job functions.

The goal of the External Partnerships team is to identify, engage and build effective partnerships with external organisations to further the gender diversity agenda. As a volunteer within the External Partnerships team, I lead on identifying suitable external award bodies and coordinating nominations on behalf of Amazon UK and Amazonians. The aim is to recognise and celebrate Amazonians who champion women in the workplace and further the gender diversity agenda, as well as to support the wider goal of Women@ to make Amazon the most sought-after career destination for women.

Women at Amazon UK

Awards Lead, External Partnerships

Providing data science support to the Prime Video Europe, India and Japan Finance team, to provide actionable insights and help them make data-powered and evidence-based decisions. Projects focus around using machine learning to understand and forecast customer engagement with the Prime Video service, customer behaviour and key business metrics.

Cities are complicated. We're using the power of mobile and data to help humans survive and master them. We're building the best app, with the best routing, and the best data in the cities where we can make a difference.

As a data scientist in the Pass team, my achievements include:
•	Building machine learning models (in Python) to predict user actions, including user signup, spend and churn
•	Generating new data science-powered feature ideas, e.g. time series prediction for crowdedness at metro stations
•	Creating new approaches to modelling through research science, e.g. adapting the word2vec model for use with A-to-B journey data to power user segmentation modelling
•	Ad hoc modelling and analysis to support product decisions, e.g. predicting revenue impacts of different options
•	Deploying models using Airflow and through designing and building APIs
•	Engaging with data engineering, including using Airflow to create new Redshift tables and export data to S3 buckets
•	Communicating results and evangelising data science to senior management and the wider team

Key technologies include: Python, SQL, Redshift, PostgreSQL, AWS, Airflow

Citymapper

As a senior product manager and head of the Data Team, I was responsible for: 
•	Designing, managing and delivering our data products, including our proprietary Short-letting Valuation App which provides seasonally-adjusted short-letting price, occupancy and net earnings estimates for our vendor, landlord and agent customers
•	Sourcing and leveraging internal and external data to produce great products and support decision-making across the business
•	Producing research reports and impact analyses for large clients, including some of the UK's biggest estate agencies
•	Promoting best data practices, including database design, QA processes and accurate statistics
•	Overseeing our pricing function to ensure that we deliver expected earnings to customers
•	Designing and producing dashboards and automated reports for a variety of internal and external customers, to measure success and provide actionable insights

Lavanda

Senior Product Manager - Data

As head of the Analysis and Revenue Team, I was responsible for:
•	Achieving our revenue targets by optimising pricing and occupancy
•	Providing analytical resource to support decision-making across the business
•	Generating business analysis and reporting to measure success
•	Leading and managing our relationship with the UK Short Term Accommodation Association, our representative industry body

Head of Analysis and Revenue

Lavanda is a UK proptech startup shaping the future of residential lettings and property management by putting the sharing economy at its heart.  We combine luxury hospitality, technology and value-added services to optimise yield for London property owners.

As a pricing analyst in the Growth Team, my responsibilities included:
•	Constructing statistical models to predict occupancy, pricing and trends in the property market
•	Designing dynamic pricing tools for yield optimisation across a wide property portfolio and multiple booking platforms
•	Analysing proprietary and industry data for insights

Pricing Analyst

As the statistician and policy advisor responsible for venture capital, my achievements included:
•	Leading the development of government policy for venture capital and social investment tax relief products (EIS, SEIS, VCTs, SITR and CITR), which provide over £2.4bn of investment to startups and small businesses every year
•	Delivering and overseeing implementation of six UK Budget announcements and legislative changes to improve the running and effectiveness of the investment schemes
•	Engaging with a wide range of stakeholders including venture capital fund managers, heads of industry bodies, entrepreneurs and investors to understand user needs, balancing their demands with those of ministers, senior officials and the Exchequer
•	Organising a forum for 60+ heads of investment funds and industry bodies to gain user insights, receiving positive feedback on improved openness of communication
•	Representing the UK at the EU’s working group in Brussels on venture capital, utilising communication and diplomatic skills to foster good international working relationships
•	Pioneering the creative use of comparative analyses to evaluate the key performance indicators (outcomes, effectiveness and value for money) of the investment schemes 
•	Coordinating tax policy input into the government's Patient Capital Review, providing research, analysis and creative policy making to help businesses grow and scale up
•	Delegating work to other teams including HMRC technical specialists and analysts, managing progress and timelines to ensure work is delivered to deadlines

HM Treasury

Policy Advisor: Venture Capital (Fast Stream)

Seconded out to NHS England.

•	Conducted research and analysis to support the development of new NHS-wide pricing models for healthcare
•	Liaised with delivery partners across different parts of the NHS to ensure a diverse range of stakeholders were consulted, and that new models reflected front-line realities
•	Recruited through the competitive Fast Stream graduate programme: an accelerated development programme for future Civil Service leaders
•	Certified as a member of the Government Statistical Group

Department of Health and Social Care

Assistant Statistician (Fast Stream)

Designed and taught an eight-week series of undergraduate-level lectures and tutorials for the course 'The Archaeology of Human Evolution', including setting and marking fortnightly essays and conducting a practical session in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford.

Arcadia University

Lecturer

Telephoned alumni to raise money for Newnham College’s 'Changing Lives' fundraising campaign.

Telephone fundraiser

Reviewed articles for inclusion in a world history internet program run by an educational charity.

Golden Web Foundation

Reviewer

July – September 2012: Lakaton’i Anja, Madagascar (1st millennium AD)

July – August 2010: Willendorf, Austria (Gravettian)

July 2010: Atapuerca, Spain (Middle Pleistocene)

August – September 2009: Breitenbach, Germany (Aurignacian)

April-May 2009: Over, Cambridgeshire (Mesolithic to Bronze Age)

August 2008: Sima de las Palomas, Spain (Mousterian)

July 2008: Valcamonica, Italy (rock art from the Epipalaeolithic to the post-medieval period)

July-August 2006: Monte Polizzo, Sicily (9th-4th centuries BC)

Laura Lewis, PhD