Head of Data Science

We are champions of rail, inspired to build a greener, more sustainable future of travel. Trainline enables millions of travellers to find and book the best value tickets across carriers, fares, and journey options through our highly rated mobile app, website, and B2B partner channels.

Now Europe’s number 1 downloaded rail app, with over 125 million monthly visits and £5.9 billion in annual ticket sales, we collaborate with 270+ rail and coach companies in over 40 countries. We want to create a world where travel is as simple, seamless, eco-friendly and affordable as it should be.

Today, we're a FTSE 250 company driven by our incredible team of over 1,000 Trainliners from 50+ nationalities, based across London, Paris, Barcelona, Milan, Edinburgh and Madrid. With our focus on growth in the UK and Europe, now is the perfect time to join us on this high-speed journey.

Data Science is central to how we build products, delight our customers and grow our business. Our Data Scientists are embedded in cross-functional teams across Product and Marketing, empowered with a high degree of autonomy to drive outcomes using all data and techniques at their disposal.

As the Head of Data Science, you will lead a team of high-performing Data Science Managers and play a pivotal role in shaping a large cross-functional organisation spanning Product, Engineering, Marketing and Data. You will be a key decision-maker, helping define and deliver a product experience that provides the right inventory, enables a seamless purchase journey, and drives forward our future ticketing opportunities.

Doing this well requires deeply understanding our users, identifying their Jobs-to-Be-Done, evaluating whether we are successfully meeting their needs, and accelerating the pace of product discovery and iteration. Your team will influence strategic product thinking, strengthen experimentation and measurement practices, and shape how AI and data power our product experience.

In this role, your leadership spans two complementary dimensions:

Functional leadership, setting the bar for excellence in Data Science & Analytics.

Strategic business partnership, working closely with Product, Engineering, Commercial and Marketing to define long-term direction and deliver impactful outcomes.

Lead & Develop a High-Performing Data Science Organisation

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• Lead an org of ~3 Data Science Managers and their respective teams.
  
• Build a culture focused on experimentation, learning, and measurable business impact.
  
• Ensure Data Science & Analytics talent is embedded effectively into cross-functional squads and operating at a high bar.
  

Shape Strategy Through Data

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• Act as a co-leader of a large cross functional strategic area of ~150 people, defining long-term vision and strategy.
  
• Provide data-driven frameworks to structure product thinking - user classifications, Jobs-to-Be-Done, north star metrics, success criteria, and evaluation methods.
  
• Influence prioritisation and roadmap decisions by grounding strategic choices in evidence and insight.
  

Advance Experimentation, Measurement & Goaling

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• Champion and mature experimentation practices across teams.
  
• Develop clear goaling methodologies enabling rapid iteration and learning.
  
• Ensure robust evaluation of product changes, including holdouts and causal inference methods.
  

Elevate Data, AI & Infrastructure Capabilities

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• Work with our ML Engineering counterparts to help shape our wider AI/ML strategy.
  
• Influence Data Engineering, BI and Platform priorities to improve data maturity, quality and tooling.
  
• Ensure foundational datasets and metrics are trusted, consistent and scalable.
  

Drive High-Impact Outcomes & Senior Communication

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• Hold the organisation to a high bar for analytical rigour and business impact.
  
• Communicate insights, strategy, and progress to senior leadership.
  
• Drive alignment and influence decision-making across the company.
  

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• Experience leading data-driven teams in the product space within tech organisations.
  
• Proven experience managing Data Science Managers or Data Scientists & Analysts.
  
• Demonstrated driving growth and influencing strategy in online products.
  
• Experience setting strategic direction, thinking big, and executing effectively.
  
• Ability to distil complex analysis into clear, actionable communication for all levels.
  
• Strong experience guiding experimentation and test-and-learn cultures.
  
• Ability to navigate ambiguous datasets and translate them into insights.
  
• Strong stakeholder management and cross-functional leadership experience.
  
• Strong data visualisation and communication skills.
  
• Knowledge of statistical and causal inference methods.
  
• Tech stack: SQL, Python, dbt, Tableau, Trino, AWS Athena + more.
  

Enjoy fantastic perks like private healthcare & dental insurance, a generous work from abroad policy, 2-for-1 share purchase plans, an EV Scheme to further reduce carbon emissions, extra festive time off, and excellent family-friendly benefits.

We prioritise career growth with clear career paths, transparent pay bands, personal learning budgets, and regular learning days. Jump on board and supercharge your career from day one!

We're operate a hybrid model to work and ask that Trainliners work from the office a minimum of 60% of their time over a 12-week period. We also have a 28-day Work from Abroad policy.

Our values represent the things that matter most to us and what we live and breathe everyday, in everything we do:

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• 💭 Think Big - We're building the future of rail
  
• ✔️ Own It - We focus on every customer, partner and journey
  
• 🤝 Travel Together - We're one team
  
• ♻️ Do Good - We make a positive impact
  

We know that having a diverse team makes us better and helps us succeed. And we mean all forms of diversity - gender, ethnicity, sexuality, disability, nationality and diversity of thought. That's why we're committed to creating inclusive places to work, where everyone belongs and differences are valued and celebrated.

Interested in finding out more about what it's like to work at Trainline? Why not check us out on LinkedIn, Instagram and Glassdoor!