Lead Data Scientist

Join RSSB as Lead Data Scientist and drive innovation by introducing new tools and frameworks, inspiring a culture of continuous improvement and experimentation.

As Lead Data Scientist, you will oversee analytical and machine learning projects, making sure our digital products address real-world problems. You will maintain best practices throughout the development lifecycle while mentoring junior team members., * Lead the delivery of analytical and machine learning workstreams, ensuring models and outputs are robust, repeatable, and aligned with business needs.

• Collaborate with subject matter experts, architects, and product teams to ensure analytical outputs are technically sound and ready for operational use.
• Uphold best practices in coding, documentation, reproducibility, version control, and model assurance.
• Support the implementation of secure, compliant, and well-governed data science workflows.
• Provide technical guidance, code review, and coaching to junior data scientists, helping them build capability in modelling, testing, and delivery practices.
• Communicate analytical findings clearly and effectively, tailoring outputs to technical and non-technical audiences.
• Contribute to fostering a collaborative, curious, and inclusive team environment.

Do you have experience in Python?, * Experience delivering applied data science or ML projects end-to-end, including feature engineering, model selection, evaluation, and iteration.

• Demonstrable experience developing solutions in Python, with good practices around code structure, testing, and version control.
• Experience in translating business problems into analytical approaches, and designing modelling strategies.
• Experience collaborating with data engineers, architects, and product teams to develop or integrate models into pipelines, services, or cloud tools.
• Excellent communication skills, with the ability to explain complex ideas simply, using appropriate visualisation and storytelling techniques.
• Experience working in Agile delivery environments, contributing to sprint planning, backlog refinement, estimation, and iterative delivery.
• Ability to manage workloads across competing priorities, delivering high-quality work to agreed time, cost, and quality expectations.
• Commitment to good governance and security practices, ensuring data quality, reproducibility, and compliance with organisational standards.
• Curiosity and willingness to stay current with emerging analytics tools, frameworks, and modelling approaches.

Desirable:

• Experience deploying ML models or analytical services into cloud environments (Azure preferred).
• Experience with a range of ML and agentic frameworks, and cloud infrastructure.
• Familiarity with public sector and/or safety-critical environments.

We value our people and offer a competitive benefits package, including:

• 30 days annual leave (plus bank holidays)
• Private medical and dental cover
• Flexible and hybrid working options
• Season ticket loan and travel subsidy
• Cycle to work scheme
• Volunteer leave
• Performance-related bonus
• Pension scheme
• Learning and development opportunities