Lead Data Scientist

Lead Data Scientist - Pricing & Personalisation (11-month FTC, Hybrid London)

Intro:

An established, consumer-facing brand is hiring a Lead Data Scientist for an 11-month maternity cover. This is a rare chance to shape the future of pricing, revenue optimisation and personalisation across a high-profile digital loyalty and rewards business.

The opportunity:

You'll lead a small, ambitious data science team, owning the design and delivery of machine learning and optimisation models that drive dynamic pricing, customer intelligence and personalised experiences. You will be the day-to-day technical authority, partnering closely with Product, Revenue Management, Pricing and Engineering to take models from idea to production and measure real-world impact.

What you'll do:

• Lead the design, development and deployment of ML and AI-powered data products for pricing and revenue.
• Act as technical lead across modelling work, championing rigour, robustness and reliability.
• Guide customer intelligence and personalisation models, including recommender systems.
• Work with Product, Delivery and ML Engineering to productionise models and monitor performance.
• Mentor and support data scientists, fostering curiosity, learning and technical excellence.
• Promote a data-driven culture through experimentation, storytelling and clear communication.

What you'll bring:

• Proven experience implementing or optimising revenue management systems and pricing strategies.
• Strong background in optimisation and machine learning (time-series forecasting, regression, mathematical optimisation).
• Experience leading or managing data scientists on impactful ML/optimisation projects.
• Excellent Python and SQL skills, with clean, maintainable code.
• Practical MLOps experience (deployment, monitoring, life cycle management) in a cloud environment (AWS or similar).
• Comfortable working with large, imperfect datasets and making sound, pragmatic decisions.
• Familiarity with recommender systems, personalisation or generative AI is a plus.

Contract & package:

• 11-month fixed-term contract (maternity cover).
• Hybrid working - typically 1 day per week in the London office.
• £95,000-£105,000 per annum, plus up to 20% completion bonus.
• Target start date: January 2026

*Rates depend on experience and client requirements