Data Science Graduate Intern

Join Skills Development Scotland on a Graduate Internship Programme

If you require this advert in another format, please contact recruitment@sds.co.uk or call 0300 013 5119.  

We are recruiting for a full time Data Science Graduate Intern on a 12-month Fixed Term contract.  If you are a motivated and enthusiastic graduate looking to kick-start your career in Data, we would love to hear from you.

About the Role

As a Data Science Graduate Intern, you will gain the opportunity to work on impactful projects that support the Scottish Government reform agenda that support data quality improvement activities and data governance, focusing on handling metadata operations.

Your main responsibility will be to create and maintain an SDS Data Catalogue, ensuring that all data is well-documented, easily understood, and quickly located by data owners, stewards, and other stakeholders. This role is crucial in increasing the transparency and usability of data across the organisation.

About You

You must be educated to degree level (SCQF level 9) in a relevant field such as data science, mathematics, statistics, or any other highly numerate degree. You will have experience with SQL and Python 10, and have an understanding of data structures, data quality principles, and methods to ensure data accuracy.

You will be solutions focused with excellent attention to detail and be capable of working effectively under your own initiative.

We’d love for you to join us and make an impact you can be proud of!

Eligibility:

To be eligible for this role, you must be aged 24 or younger on 06 October 2025, in line with the Scottish Government’s initiative on youth employment. However, SDS will be flexible on age criteria for applicants who identify as care experienced or disabled in which case candidates must be 29 or younger on 06 October 2025. 

About SDS

Skills Development Scotland is the national skills agency. Our ambition is to drive productivity and inclusive growth through investment in skills, enabling businesses and people to achieve their potential. Through the sharing of expertise, intelligence, and extensive partnership working, we enable the development and delivery of innovative solutions to Scotland’s skills and labour market challenges. This is even more important given the current economic climate and recessionary outlook. Find out more about SDS here

Values

Our organisational values are created by our colleagues and are the compass that guide our behaviours and actions with our customers and each other.  We need our future colleagues to share these values and help us to continue to deliver our bold ambitions for the future;

• We put the needs of our customers at the heart of all we do
• We make use of our combined strengths and expertise to deliver the best outcomes
• We demonstrate self-motivation, personal responsibility, and respect
• We continually improve to achieve excellence

Benefits  

SDS is an award-winning equal opportunities and fair work employer. Our values and culture are owned and driven by our colleagues and show our commitment to our customers - the people of Scotland. Our employees enjoy a wide variety of progressive benefits and working practices. We prioritise employee engagement, wellbeing, and development, making us a great place to work. 

Click here to see the full range of our Benefits 

Where you’d be based 

SDS embraces agile working, therefore, location is flexible. However, there will be a requirement for regular travel to Glasgow where the team is based for training, mentoring and team collaboration.

SDS as an Inclusive Workplace

At SDS we are committed to equality, diversity and inclusion.  If you've got the right skills for the job, we want to hear from you. We encourage applications from the right candidates regardless of age, disability, gender identity, sexual orientation, religion, belief or race.  To support our ambitions our application process is anonymised. Therefore, while we want to know about your relevant skills and experience, please avoid disclosing any identifying characteristics.

Our Application Process

The closing date to submit your application is Sunday 13 July.  

Interviews are expected to take place week commencing 21 and 28 July. 

We are piloting a new approach to recruitment for this role, if your application is successful and you are invited to interview, you will be issued with the interview questions in advance to help you prepare and do your best at interview. More information will be made available if you are invited to interview.

The anticipated start date for successful candidates is 22 September 2025.

To find out more about working at SDS and our application process please visit us at https://www.skillsdevelopmentscotland.co.uk/work-with-us/