Katie

Combining technical expertise with communication skills

Katie explains what it takes to work at Digital Science

How did you make the decision to come to Digital Science?

I’ve been working in this industry for several years. In that time, I often encountered people and products from Digital Science, and was impressed by how well the organisation leveraged data and technology to improve information flows in research. When I saw a job opportunity that was a good fit, I knew it would be the right move.

What project has your team worked on that you are most proud of and why?

It’s hard to choose just one! My favourite projects have been the ones where we’ve found creative solutions that have allowed us to answer difficult questions. Questions like, “Can I identify grants and publications in a specific topic area?” or “How interdisciplinary are the researchers I fund?” or “How well does my pool of reviewers match my applicants’ expertise?” In all these cases, we’ve been able to respond to a complex question with a set of clear visuals that tell a compelling story.

What are the most important skills for your job?

There are three skills that are important for this job. The first is technical expertise - I’m often knee-deep in data, and technical skills help to make sense of it all. The second is communication. presenting the information and contextualising the results is often just as important as a good analysis. The third, and often the most important, skill is being a good listener. When working with clients it’s important to get to a deep understanding of not only what they want to achieve, but also why, and how they plan to use the information that we’ll provide. By asking questions, listening closely, and reading between the lines when necessary, we can often add a lot of extra value.

What do you love about working at Digital Science?

I love working with a team of amazing people and having access to an incredible knowledge base. With our huge trove of data and our amazing portfolio of past work, we can often answer questions in minutes that would take weeks or months to gather the data for otherwise. My colleagues are brilliant and I am constantly learning from them.