Principle Data Scientist (Ref: 19417)

Job summary

Job description

Principal Data Scientist

Location: National*

Closing Date: 31st July 2026

Interviews: Rolling – from 10th July to 14th August

Grade: Grade 7

(MoJ candidates who are on a specialist grade, will be able to retain this grade on lateral transfer)

Salary**:

National: £58,511 - £65,329 (which may include an allowance up to £16,014)
London: £63,343 - £70,725 (which may include an allowance up to £15,970)

Working pattern: Full-time, Part-time, Flexible working, Job Share

Contract Type: Permanent

Number of vacancies: 6

Vacancy number: 19417

*We offer a hybrid working model, allowing for a balance between remote work and time spent in your local office. Office locations can be found ON THIS MAP

Please note that unless you are an existing member of staff at Justice Digital, Data and Science, the only London location being recruited to is 10 South Colonnade, E14 4PU. We are no longer recruiting to 102 Petty France, SW1H 9AJ.

The Role

Please note this role requires you to pass Security Checkclearance. Please click on the link for details.

We’re recruiting for Principal Data Scientists here at Justice Digital, Data and Science to be part of our warm and collaborative Data Science & AI teams.

This role aligns against Principal Data Scientist from the Government Digital and Data Framework

These roles sit within Justice Data. We exist to ensure that high quality data, algorithms and tools, are available, trusted, and effectively used to improve decision making across the justice system. We play a critical enabling role in delivering the department’s strategic, operational, and transformation priorities by turning complex and fragmented data into meaningful insight and practical tools.

The Data Science community at MoJ has around 80 members of staff providing data science support across a diverse and exciting agenda. We create a culture in which people are empowered by data and information to make better decisions using cutting edge tools and put evidence at the heart of the justice system.

We have a track record of delivering services to front line staff using wide ranging data science techniques, including the award-winning safety diagnostic tool, which helps our staff tackle violence in prisons (including machine learning features), and the public-facingCriminal justice system (CJS) delivery data dashboard. We also created Splink, used across the public sector, private sector, and academia. We regularly deliver insights that directly influence corporate, operational and policy decisions. Our projects span the data science spectrum including generative AI, machine learning, natural language processing, semantic embedding models, traditional statistics, and operational research techniques.

You’ll receive a range of excellent benefits when you join our department, including:

• A generous employer pension contribution of 28.97% through the Civil Service Pension Scheme.
• 25 days of annual leave, (increasing to 30 days once you have reached 5 years of service),plus 8 bank holidays and a privilege day for the King’s birthday.
• Flexible working arrangements including hybrid working, working part time or compressed hours. Designed to support a positive work–life balance.
• Employees are allocated 10% of their working time for personal and professional development.
• A £1k per person learning budget is in place to support all our people, with access to best-in-class conferences and seminars, accreditation with professional bodies, fully funded vocational programmes and e-learning platforms.
• Compassionate maternity, adoption, and shared parental leave policies, with up to 26 weeks leave at full pay, 13 weeks with partial pay, and 13 weeks further leave. And maternity support/paternity leave at full pay for 2 weeks, too!

You can find more details of the Benefits we offer here. To help picture your life at MoJ Justice Digital, Data and Science please take a look at our blog.

Key Responsibilities:

• Lead a team of 1-3 data scientists to deliver data science & AI products and analysis
• Act as a technical specialist and coach, developing team capability, supervising other data scientists, setting coding standards for the team and championing the adoption of best practice in data science
• Understand a broad range of architectures and collaborate with data engineering to design and deliver organisational products effectively
• Effectively communicate with and influence senior stakeholders, working with them to remove blockers so that the team can deliver efficiently
• Play an active role in making the Data Science Hub an inclusive and vibrant place to work.

If this feels like an exciting challenge, something you are enthusiastic about, and want to join our team please read on and apply!

Examples of MoJ Data Science and AI Hub work and ways of working:

• https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/joined-up-data-in-government-the-future-of-data-linking-methods/splink-mojs-open-source-library-for-probabilistic-record-linkage-at-scale
• https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2058802X.2020.1726654
• https://criminal-justice-delivery-data-dashboards.justice.gov.uk/