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, lifecycle 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