Lead Data Scientist - Retail & Consumer

At Faculty, we transform organisational performance through safe, impactful and human-centric AI. With more than a decade of experience, we provide over 350 global customers with software, bespoke AI consultancy, and Fellows from our award winning Fellowship programme. Our expert team brings together leaders from across government, academia and global tech giants to solve the biggest challenges in applied AI. Should you join us, you’ll have the chance to work with, and learn from, some of the brilliant minds who are bringing Frontier AI to the frontlines of the world.

This is an exciting opportunity to join Faculty as the most senior data scientist in the Retail and Consumer business unit. Our Retail and Consumer experts are dedicated to helping clients in an industry which is being transformed by new technologies and evolving consumer expectations. Leveraging over a decade of experience in Applied AI, we combine exceptional technical and delivery expertise to empower businesses to adapt and thrive.

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  Project Leadership:

  
  
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  • Guide the technical delivery of custom data science solutions for clients, from initial discovery to deployment in production.
    
  • Own the end-to-end data science approach, designing and implementing the appropriate techniques - from classic to AI agents using LLMs - that are designed, optimised and applied at scale.
    
  • Design robust and scalable software architecture for the solutions you build, ensuring best practices in engineering and MLOps are followed.
    
  • Partner with our commercial team and clients to build strong relationships, acting as a trusted technical advisor.
    
  • Articulate intricate technical concepts and strategic decisions clearly and effectively to diverse audiences, from client-side engineers to C-suite executives.
    
  
  
  
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  Team Mentorship:

  
  
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  • Formally manage and mentor a number of data scientists, taking responsibility for their career progression and professional growth.
    
  • Provide targeted technical support and learning opportunities for data scientists on your project teams.
    
  • Contribute to sustaining our culture, creating an atmosphere of collaboration and setting a high standard for performance and technical excellence.
    
  
  
  
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  Technical Leadership

  
  
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  • Establish a distinct and differentiated data science vision for professional and financial services, and communicate that vision through external thought leadership and in potential client presentations.
    
  • Partner with our commercial team to ensure potential projects and programmes of work are appropriately resourced, balancing client delivery, colleague wellbeing, and commercial imperatives.
    
  • Keep abreast of the latest technical and technology advancements, share these with others in the organisation, and identify how they can help drive Faculty forward.
    
  
  
  

Who we’re looking for

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• You have deep technical expertise in machine learning and a command of diverse methodologies, with a solid grasp of data science and statistical techniques, for example: supervised/unsupervised machine learning, model cross-validation, Bayesian inference, and time-series analysis.
  
• An excellent proficiency of the basic libraries for data science (e.g. NumPy, Pandas, Scikit-Learn) and familiarity with a deep-learning framework (e.g. TensorFlow, PyTorch).
  
• Demonstrable experience enabling impactful change with AI within a financial services institution. Coupling that with prior experience in consulting would be a bonus.
  
• You possess proven experience leading data science projects and making key decisions on technical direction and architecture.
  
• You are an exceptional communicator, capable of building rapport with clients and translating complex ideas into clear, actionable insights.
  
• You have a strategic mindset, with a grasp on key financial services sector trends that informs a compelling technical vision.
  
• You are passionate about developing people and have experience mentoring or managing other technical professionals.
  
• You are motivated to contribute to the wider data science community. We will actively support you in building your professional profile by speaking at major conferences, delivering courses, or contributing to open-source projects.
  

Faculty is the professional challenge of a lifetime. You’ll be surrounded by an impressive group of brilliant minds working to achieve our collective goals. Our consultants, product developers, business development specialists, operations professionals and more all bring something unique to Faculty, and you’ll learn something new from everyone you meet.

Faculty is inclusive, collaborative and committed to creating an environment where people are respected, empowered and granted the freedom to innovate. If you are someone who loves solving complex problems, aims to contribute significantly to the growth of the organization, and wants to be part of a supportive, forward-thinking team, we would love to hear from you.