Alex CarterGet in touch

Birmingham, UK · Open to relocation · EU/UK dual citizen

Alex Carter

Looking for work in Data Science, Fraud & Risk

Production machine learning for fraud detection, built inside live compliance operations.

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Selected work

Problems where the data has something to hide.

Designed and implemented a machine learning pipeline that strengthened counter-fraud detection for international student sponsorship — reducing sponsored-visa rejections while staying inside new industry-wide regulatory guidelines.

End-to-end pipeline work: messy operational data, model design, evaluation, and a result the sponsorship function could actually use.

  • Python
  • Scikit-learn
  • PyTorch
  • Fraud detection

Built bespoke models to detect fraudulent applications, improving target detection, cutting unnecessary interviews, and keeping visa refusals low without slowing competitive admissions.

Translated investigative judgement into production ML, then set counter-fraud policy adopted across the wider compliance team. Recognised with a national Data Insights Innovator award.

  • Production ML
  • Policy
  • Risk analytics
  • Python

Investigated fraud and organised crime across a high-volume caseload, using enhanced verification to recover substantial sums — including individual repayments in excess of £60,000.

Paired casework with policy teams to shape national approaches to fraud prevention. The investigative instinct now sits behind the models.

  • Fraud investigation
  • Verification
  • Public sector

Experience

From investigation to production models.

  1. Aston University

    July 2023 — Present

    Visa Compliance Credibility Officer

    • Own credibility and compliance oversight for international student sponsorship across tens of thousands of sponsored visas.
    • Designed and shipped machine learning models for fraudulent applications, developed during the MSc and used in the live operation.
    • Set counter-fraud policy adopted by the wider team; advised senior executives on immigration-compliance decisions.

  2. Department for Work and Pensions

    July 2022 — July 2023

    Fraud Investigator

    • Investigated fraud and organised crime with enhanced verification techniques, recovering large repayments on complex claims.
    • Partnered with policy teams on new national approaches to fraud prevention.

  3. Department for Work and Pensions

    Feb 2022 — July 2022

    Work Coach Team Leader

    • Led a team of 10, with oversight of a wider office of 40+, holding performance targets across multiple teams.

  4. Aston University

    Sept 2024 — Sept 2025

    MSc Data Science — Distinction

    • Distinction while working full-time. Top of cohort (>90%) in Programming for Data Science, Network Science, and Statistical Machine Learning.

Skills

A toolkit built for messy, high-stakes data.

Languages & libraries

  • Python
  • Pandas
  • NumPy
  • PyTorch
  • Scikit-learn
  • SQL
  • R
  • Matplotlib
  • Seaborn

Machine learning

  • Supervised & unsupervised learning
  • Statistical ML
  • Probabilistic modelling
  • Network science
  • Evaluation & deployment

Data & tools

  • Cleaning & pipelines
  • Exploratory analysis
  • Visualisation
  • Git
  • Power BI

Domain

  • Fraud detection
  • Investigation
  • Risk analytics
  • Regulatory compliance
  • Immigration / visa policy

Contact

If you are hiring for data science, fraud, or risk — say hello.

Birmingham, UK. Open to relocation · EU/UK dual citizen.

Email me

[email protected]

© 2026 Alex Carter