Join us / Data scientist

Ekho Collective is looking for a data scientist to join our multidisciplinary team to create an immersive art work for Oulu, the cultural capital of Europe 2026.

The piece will be an immersive, interactive installation of a large scale discussing the themes of peace, communication, language and artificial intelligence. Ekho collective is one of the main artistic partners of Oulu during the cultural capital year.

The role of data scientist

Our Data Scientist will develop creative data science and machine learning solutions that align with our artistic concepts. This role involves the innovative application of various machine learning models and techniques to achieve desired artistic outcomes. As part of our team, you’ll need to be self-sufficient, capable of setting up and deploying your solutions without the support of a dedicated MLOps or software development team.

What we are looking for

The following is not a list of must have requirements, but rather qualities and experiences that would benefit you as a data scientist in your work:

• Prototyping skills: Proficient in rapidly creating and testing prototypes to validate concepts and iterate on solutions

• Scraping: Ability to create scrapers to collect datasets to train models

• NLP experience: Experience in Natural Language Processing (NLP)

• Classification models: Experience in creating classification models

• Embedding models: Experience in applying different embedding models

• Generative AI: Interest and experience in Generative AI solutions

• Cloud infrastructure: Basic experience in setting up cloud infrastructure for machine learning

• Experimental experience: Have you developed a neuroevolution model for a game or something even more exotic? We’d love to hear about it!

  
  

What to expect:

The work will take place from August/September 2024 until the end of 2025 with some maintenance work during 2026. Our work is organized around workshops and shared intensive work periods. There will be approximately one to two months of full-time work each spring and autumn before the premiere.

You’ll be a part of a creative team that consists of professionals from different backgrounds. The data scientist and software developer will work in close collaboration with one another as well as with the designers in the team. You’ll be part of all stages of the process of ideating, designing and building a new immersive installation.

We work mainly in Helsinki. While some of the work and meetings are carried out online, ideally we are looking for team members to work live with in Helsinki. Part of the work in the autumn of 2025 will be done in Oulu (Ekho Collective pays for travel and accommodation expenses).

This is a paid position. The compensation is based on and the scope or work is planned according to the budget of the art work. It is possible to bill the collective as a salary or with an invoice.

Our working languages are Finnish and English. Fluency in one of these languages is required.

How we work

We create artistically and technically ambitious works of art in collaboration with various art and cultural institutions. Our goal is to be a pioneer of interactive digital art in Finland and contribute to the development of the art form globally.

We constantly develop and iterate on our practises for collective creative work, where the goal is to ensure everyone can share their ideas and skills, enjoy the creative process and that we can deliver experiences with high artistic quality as a result.

Our work relies on everyone’s personal area of expertise and for strong teamwork through prototypes. We emphasize the collective members’ ability to verbalize their own knowledge. Through the dialogue other members can contribute with their own expertise and the common work builds forward. We work a lot through the construction of prototypes, from which we get concrete information about the different stages of the current piece.

How to apply:

Please send your CV, any relevant work samples and a short cover letter or message describing why you would be interested in working with Ekho Collective by 15 August 2024 to team@ekho.fi with the topic “Application / data scientist”. You can write in English or in Finnish.

We will begin interviewing and make the recruitment decision as soon as a suitable candidate is found. Applicants that are invited to an interview will be contacted personally.

If you feel like you fall somewhere in between a data scientist and a developer, it’s enough to send just one application.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us at team@ekho.fi
The collective is largely on vacation in July and will be checking email sporadically during that time. We will get back to any questions in the beginning of August at the latest.