Lead Data Scientist

Innovative Service Group
c£100,000 plus package & bonus

This is a rare and career-defining opportunity to join one of the nation’s most dynamic and high-growth business and consumer services groups in a newly established leadership role, spearheading an innovative, forward-thinking function.

Celebrating 20 years of remarkable success, the company continues to dominate its unique B2B/B2C marketplace, delivering invaluable services while fostering continuous improvement and innovation in partnership with its clients. 

Renowned for its independence and exceptional service delivery, the company provides tailored solutions through a highly skilled and dedicated team, ensuring rapid, impactful resolutions that maximise value for both clients and consumers. At the heart of this success is a deep commitment to excellence, driven by core values of humility, integrity, and a passion for delivering outstanding results.

Internally, the company mirrors this human-centric approach by cultivating a dynamic, collaborative, and fast-paced environment, creating significant opportunities for career progression. The organisation is dedicated to supporting the personal and professional growth of every employee, nurturing a culture that values innovation, inclusivity, and continuous development.

This vibrant, energizing culture is fuelled by every team member, propelling the company’s long-term growth and positioning it for sustained success. With a strong reputation in highly regulated industries, the company has earned widespread recognition, building trust through its unwavering objectivity, expertise, and commitment to excellence.

With two decades of industry leadership, award-winning achievements, and a consistent track record of innovation, the company has set itself apart from competitors. Demand for its services continues to grow, as does the sophistication of its products and solutions, ensuring they remain at the forefront of the industry and are poised for even greater success in the future.

Recent diversification initiatives have fuelled impressive growth, with a 45% increase in the last year alone.

A key driver of future success is the expansion of the Data Science function, where the Lead Data Scientist will play a pivotal role in shaping the business’s continued growth, evolution and impact.

This newly appointed position as Lead Data Scientist will be at the helm of this exciting business’s data science strategy, taking ownership of initiatives that directly influence how they not only work with our commercial stakeholders and resolve consumer cases but also scale the business into new markets, domains and revenue centres. 

Spearheading this new function, you will be at the forefront of building and implementing state-of-the-art data science solutions that will drive business transformations. Working directly with leadership and business stakeholders to identify critical opportunities, develop high-impact models, you will help create innovative, data-driven products and play a key role in establishing best practices, designing experiments, and developing algorithms that will drive this exciting high-growth business even further forward.

As AI’s influence continues to expand, this role will take a leading position in designing and driving transformative AI projects. With a focus on real-world applications, you will leverage advanced modelling, natural language processing, and strategic innovation to enhance efficiencies, refine existing approaches, and develop forward-looking strategies.

The appointee’s expertise in statistical modelling, machine learning, and large language models (LLMs) will empower them to transform how the Group leverages data, enabling faster resolutions, enhanced insights, and continually improved operational excellence.  You’ll be responsible for designing and implementing new models, analysing large datasets, and directly influencing the growth trajectory of this cutting-edge division.

This is a Leadership role where you will guide and mentor a small, talented team of data scientists while working closely with internal teams, regulatory bodies, and external stakeholders, including some of the UK’s leading businesses. You will play a critical role in defining and executing the AI-driven strategy and ensuring efforts align with the needs of the business.  

This is an outstanding opportunity to lead from the front, combining deep technical expertise with business acumen and developing leadership skills to deliver real-world value. 

Key Responsibilities:

Leadership & Strategy 

• Spearhead the design and execution of data science initiatives to enable faster, higher-quality resolution of consumer cases. 
• Collaborate with key stakeholders to define data-driven strategies that enhance operational efficiency and maximize the value of both internal and external data.  
• Inspire and mentor a team of data scientists, fostering technical excellence and a culture of innovation.  
• Design, develop, and deploy sophisticated machine learning models that deliver business value across a variety of areas, such as [target areas, e.g., demand forecasting, personalization, customer segmentation, optimization, fraud detection, etc.].
• Work with business leaders to define key metrics and success indicators, and ensure that data science projects are aligned with broader business goals.
• Partner with Data & IT leaders to deliver best-in-class outcomes, ensuring the seamless integration of data science solutions into business processes.  
• Contribute to company-wide ideation sessions, promoting bold thinking and driving innovation within the team.  

Data Analysis & Modelling

• Design and implement advanced statistical models and machine learning algorithms to solve complex challenges in dispute resolution. 
• Lead the development of cutting-edge predictive and prescriptive models, using techniques such as deep learning, reinforcement learning, NLP, recommendation algorithms, and optimization.
• Take ownership of the model lifecycle—from ideation and experimentation to deployment and continuous monitoring—ensuring that models are scalable, reliable, and provide ongoing value.
• Build and deploy predictive models to improve operational performance, reduce delays, and enhance case resolution quality.  
• Identify high-impact opportunities to craft data solutions that expand our product offerings for energy and communications suppliers.  
• Develop machine learning models to extract actionable insights from structured and unstructured data, including text-based dispute cases.  

Collaboration & Communication

• Collaborate with cross-functional teams, including strategy, operations, and IT, to translate business goals into actionable data science opportunities.  
• Partner closely with data engineers to design and maintain high-quality data pipelines that ensure the availability, reliability, and scalability of data for model development.
• Develop and implement systems to monitor model performance in production, ensuring that models continue to deliver high-quality results and adapt as necessary to changing data patterns.
• Effectively communicate findings, insights, and recommendations to technical and non-technical stakeholders.  
• Partner with external collaborators, such as regulatory bodies and suppliers, to ensure alignment and maximize impact.  

Innovation & Advancement

• Stay on top of the latest trends and advancements in AI, machine learning, and data science, identifying opportunities for innovation and improvement.  
• Lead the adoption of cutting-edge technologies, including Large Language Models (LLMs) and AI tools, to solve critical business problems.  
• Champion ethical AI practices, ensuring fairness, transparency, and bias reduction in all data science initiatives.  

Mentorship & Team Development

• Provide guidance, support, and mentorship to junior data scientists, fostering their professional growth and development.  
• Provide technical leadership to the broader team, sharing your expertise in machine learning, data manipulation, and model deployment, and helping to shape the team’s technical standards and best practices.
• Help define the roadmap for building a high-performance data science team in this and future new functions.
• Oversee data science projects, ensuring timely delivery, technical quality, and alignment with business goals.  

Business Impact & Communication

• Translate complex data insights into clear, actionable recommendations for non-technical stakeholders, and present findings in a way that drives strategic decision-making.
• Work with product and business teams to integrate machine learning models into customer-facing products, ensuring the models have a measurable impact on the customer experience.
• Produce comprehensive reports, dashboards, and visualizations that communicate model results, business impact, and ongoing performance to leadership.

As with all leadership roles in this highly people-centric Group, cultural fit and alignment with the company’s values are paramount. In this fast-paced, innovative, and entrepreneurial environment, attitude is as important as experience.  

The successful candidate will shape the tone, energy, and culture of this new function, bringing a results-driven focus and the ability to inspire a shared sense of mission. They will anticipate and address challenges with a collaborative, solutions-oriented mindset, while navigating complexity and driving innovation. 

Qualifications & Knowledge  

• Master’s or Ph.D. in Data Science, Statistics, Computer Science, or a related field.  
• Deep knowledge of machine learning, AI, NLP, statistical modelling, and large language models.  

 Experience 

• 8+ years of experience in data science or a related field, with a proven track record of delivering impactful projects. 
• Experience in consumer-contact sectors, business services, customer service, or regulatory sectors is highly desirable.  

 Technical Skills  

• Proficiency in programming languages like Python, R, or Scala.  
• Expertise with machine learning frameworks (e.g., TensorFlow, PyTorch) and data science tools.  
• Strong knowledge of statistical analysis, predictive modelling, and AI techniques.  
• Familiarity with big data technologies (e.g., Hadoop, Spark) is a plus.  
• Familiarity with Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) and best practices for maintaining and updating models in production.

 Attributes 

• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills, with attention to detail.  
• Exceptional communication skills, with the ability to translate complex insights into actionable recommendations for diverse audiences.  
• A collaborative mindset, with the ability to work effectively across teams.  
• Resilient under pressure, capable of managing multiple priorities in a fast-paced environment.  

Leadership & Business Acumen

• Strong communication skills, with the ability to translate complex data insights into actionable business strategies for non-technical audiences.
• Ability to collaborate effectively across teams, and experience working with stakeholders from diverse business functions (product, engineering, operations, etc.).
• Experience mentoring junior data scientists and fostering a culture of learning and excellence within the team.
• Strong sense of ownership and accountability for projects, with a proven ability to prioritize and drive initiatives in a high-growth, fast-paced environment.
• A visionary mindset, with the courage to drive bold initiatives and inspire others.  

Desirable

• Experience in entrepreneurial, startup, or high-growth environment where data science is a critical enabler of business success.
• Experience of working with in regulated industries and/or familiarity with regulatory frameworks in consumer sectors.  
• Exposure to advanced topics such as deep reinforcement learning, computer vision, or generative models.

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