Senior Data Scientist

£65,000 GBP

Onsite WORKING

Location: Central London, Greater London - United Kingdom Type: Permanent

An exciting opportunity has arisen for an experienced Senior Data Scientist to work at the forefront of artificial intelligence and machine learning, delivering high-impact digital solutions that contribute to the safety and security of the UK.

This role sits within a specialist AI and data science team supporting a range of government and national security clients. The team delivers work across defence, space and public sector organisations, spanning exploratory research, advanced analytics, bespoke AI solutions and large-scale data platforms operating on complex and sensitive datasets.

The Role

The Senior Data Scientist position offers significant variety and challenge. The successful candidate will work with both technical and non-technical stakeholders, applying advanced AI, machine learning and statistical techniques across diverse data types, including text, images, audio, video, graphs, time-series and geospatial data.

Responsibilities will include shaping future AI initiatives with customers, researching and evaluating emerging AI approaches, and delivering robust, production-ready solutions. The role combines hands-on technical delivery with customer engagement, thought leadership and mentoring.

Key Responsibilities

• Acting as a senior technical authority for AI and data science, contributing expertise across projects, bids and stakeholder discussions
• Leading and delivering complex machine learning and AI projects in collaboration with ML engineers, delivery teams and customers
• Engaging with users to define requirements, scope AI use cases and develop realistic delivery plans
• Supporting the design, development and deployment of models within AWS cloud environments
• Contributing to written proposals and bid responses, including research into relevant academic and industry literature
• Presenting technical findings and insights to internal teams and external stakeholders
• Mentoring junior data scientists and graduates, supporting capability growth
• Promoting AI knowledge across multidisciplinary teams and representing the organisation through blogs, events and conferences

About the Candidate

The ideal candidate will demonstrate strong depth and breadth across data science, AI and machine learning, alongside the ability to translate complex technical concepts into practical, business-focused outcomes.

Essential experience includes:

• Degree (BSc, MSc or PhD) in a quantitative or scientific discipline such as computer science, mathematics, physics or engineering
• Several years' experience working as a Data Scientist or in a closely related role
• Expert knowledge of machine learning, AI and statistical methods, applied across domains such as NLP, computer vision, audio, graphs, time-series or tabular data
• Strong Python skills and experience with common libraries (e.g. pandas, NumPy, scikit-learn, PyTorch, Transformers, statsmodels, PyMC)
• Understanding of software engineering and ML best practices, including version control, packaging and model deployment
• Experience training and deploying models using cloud platforms, particularly AWS
• Ability to communicate complex ideas clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences
• Commitment to high-quality, ethical and robust scientific work
• Awareness of ethical, privacy, security and policy considerations in applied AI

Desirable Experience

• Hands-on experience with AWS services such as Lambda, ECS, S3, SageMaker or Bedrock
• Knowledge of ML engineering and MLOps practices (e.g. Docker, MLflow)
• Experience working in government, defence or other highly regulated environments
• Proven application of large language models (LLMs) to real-world problems

Security Clearance

This role requires UK Security Clearance. Applicants must either already hold clearance or be eligible and willing to undergo the vetting process.