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Agent guide: [/agents.md](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/agents.md). --- # Police AI - Head of Data Science and Evaluation - **Company:** College of Policing - **Location:** UK (Remote available) - **Experience:** Expert - **Salary:** £75,860.0 - £82,300.0 - **Contract:** Temporary contract - **Skills:** Artificial Intelligence, Data Governance, Open Source Technology, Verification and Validation (Software), Management of Software Versions, Generative AI, Data Strategy, Data Generation - **Published:** August 11, 2026 - **Apply:** https://uk.indeed.com/viewjob?jk=b1a971fbd0ffe3cc ## About the Role * Proven leadership of data science or AI teams, including hiring, line management, coaching and development, with experience of establishing, growing and scaling technical capability and leading teams through delivery in line with organisational goals, user needs, priorities and timescales. * Significant hands-on experience of developing and deploying production-grade AI/ML and generative AI solutions, with strong technical judgement, coding practice and proficiency in a range of data science domains. * Expertise in proportionate AI testing and evaluation, including validation and verification, robustness and adversarial testing, bias and fairness, interpretability, human factors and generative AI challenges such as hallucination, prompt sensitivity, guardrail testing and RAG evaluation. ## Description We are looking for people who are motivated by public service, interested in responsible innovation, and comfortable working collaboratively across organisational, operational and technical boundaries. Joining PoliceAI means contributing to a supportive, multidisciplinary team that is helping to shape the future of policing and ensure AI is used in ways that are effective, responsible, operationally useful and worthy of public trust. As Head of Data Science & Evaluation, you will balance immediate delivery with the long-term task of building a high-performing data science and evaluation function. Leading the development and rigorous assessment of AI-enabled products that improve public safety, productivity and decision-making, you will also shape the team, methods, standards and evidence base that allow Police AI to innovate at pace and earn trust over the years ahead. You will: * Build, lead and grow a high-performing multidisciplinary team of data scientists and testing and evaluation specialists. * Establish repeatable and auditable testing, evaluation, verification and validation (TEVV) frameworks, spanning dataset provenance and quality, robustness, bias, human–computer interaction, wider system effects and lifecycle monitoring. * Lead the internal development and assessment of AI solutions, translating operational policing problems into testable hypotheses, meaningful measures and practical products. * Define and implement the data foundations required for credible evaluation, including ground truth data requirements, labelling processes, provenance and versioning, synthetic data generation, test-set construction and data quality controls. We are looking for someone with a strong record of leading data science teams and delivering AI solutions, who is comfortable developing people whilst embedding the standards and practices needed to evaluate AI rigorously and scale its use responsibly. You will combine deep technical credibility with pragmatic leadership, working under ambiguity, navigating difficult methodological choices and a varied range of stakeholders to deliver material improvements across policing. You will work closely with engineering, delivery, data governance and Responsible AI colleagues, as well as operational users and partners, to turn complex needs into useful solutions and defensible evidence. You will be expected to take well-founded decisions on areas such as model and data strategy, evaluation design, centralised and distributed testing, open-source and commercial solutions, and continuous monitoring, as well as providing input into development priorities and direction. Communication of performance, limitations, trade-offs and risk must be clear to technical and non-technical audiences. For the right person, this role offers a compelling challenge: technically difficult and varied data science, ownership of a nationally influential evaluation function, direct public impact and the chance to raise the standard for how AI is developed, tested and adopted across policing. Person specification Some of your responsibilities will include: * Building and developing a high-performing data science and evaluation team; coaching Data Scientists and evaluation specialists, setting clear objectives, and embedding a culture of innovation, methodological rigour and technical excellence. * Leading technical delivery of AI-enabled solutions and their evaluation across the full lifecycle, from problem definition, model and data strategy and experimentation through to deployment, monitoring and continuous assessment. * Defining consistent, repeatable and auditable TEVV approaches, working with Engineering to build reusable testing pipelines and sound foundations for dataset provenance, versioning, sampling, labelling and data quality., We'll assess you against these behaviours during the selection process: * Managing a Quality Service * Making Effective Decisions * Delivering at Pace * Seeing the Big Picture, * colleagues employed directly by the College or the Civil Service. Please note you will be required to obtain the written support of your line manager prior to submitting your application. * serving police officers substantive in the rank of Superintendent, or those officers suitably qualified for temporary promotion in the rank of Chief Inspector. All applicants must have the support of their Chief Officer which must be of NPCC rank, i.e., CC, ACC or DCC and this must accompany an application. * serving police staff at the equivalent rank of Superintendent who have their chief officer's approval. Chief Officer’s approval must be of NPCC rank, i.e., CC, ACC or DCC. Approval for a secondment must accompany an application Central service conditions may apply. Please ensure you return the attached secondment approval form either as an attachment when submitting your application or via email to recruitment@college.police.uk., If you would like to discuss the role in more detail please contact Harry Schone Harry.Schone@college.police.uk, Deputy Director Police AI . We believe that a diverse workforce brings many benefits to the organisation including diversity of thought and improvements to the way we work internally and with partners and communities. We strive to be fully inclusive but we know there is more to do. We genuinely encourage people from all backgrounds and underrepresented groups to apply for this role. We want to continually improve our recruitment processes and to remove any barriers to equal opportunities that could disadvantage those from particular backgrounds. In order for us to have the information to do this, we ask you to please complete the diversity section of the online application process. We use a “blind” shortlisting process and we hope that by using this method we will be able to promote greater diversity in our workforce and remove any subconscious decisions based on biases. The College is committed to support the Greening Government Commitment and reducing our Environmental impact. We have a dynamic Environmental Management Plan in place which encompasses various objectives, including our pledge to reduce business travel. To support our green agenda we have, in phase one, installed Electric Vehicle Charging Points at our sites in Ryton (12 points) and Harperley Hall (4 points). We encourage employees to become an Environment Champion to help with promoting and delivering our Environmental Management Plan. Our One Step Greener approach encourages all College staff to make small changes to create a better future for everyone. Please note that in order to work for the College of Policing you must have the Right to Work in the UK with indefinite leave to remain. In addition, you will also be required to provide an address history in the UK for the preceding 5 years. Feedback will only be provided if you attend an interview or assessment., * UK nationals * nationals of the Republic of Ireland * nationals of Commonwealth countries who have the right to work in the UK * nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities with settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) * nationals of the EU, Switzerland, Norway, Iceland or Liechtenstein and family members of those nationalities who have made a valid application for settled or pre-settled status under the European Union Settlement Scheme (EUSS) * individuals with limited leave to remain or indefinite leave to remain who were eligible to apply for EUSS on or before 31 December 2020 * Turkish nationals, and certain family members of Turkish nationals, who have accrued the right to work in the Civil Service ## Related Videos - [Data Governance in the Era of AI](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1622-data-governance-in-the-era-of-ai) - [Your imaginations is (no longer) the limit: how Generative AI empowers people to be creative](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/741-your-imaginations-is-no-longer-the-limit-how-generative-ai-empowers-people-to-be-creative) - [Hacking Your Vacation: Using Data for Fun](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/585-hacking-your-vacation-using-data-for-fun) - [Introduction to Responsible AI: Balancing Value and Risk](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1972-introduction-to-responsible-ai-balancing-value-and-risk) - [AI beyond the code: Master your organisational AI implementation.](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1248-ai-beyond-the-code-master-your-organisational-ai-implementation) - [Big Business, Big Barriers? 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