Lead Data Scientist

Job title: Lead Data Scientist

Your new role

The Data team in Global is recruiting for a Lead Data Scientist with a strong foundation in MLOps to join an experienced team of data scientists, analysts and engineers. The role will be responsible for modelling, analysing and communicating to business stakeholders key metrics to drive commercial success as well as productionising new and existing products in a scalable, robust and efficient manner. The role will involve a large degree of collaborating and working cross-functionally with teams in our digital ad exchange platform (DAX), as well as exposure to our commercial ,outdoor and insights teams

We are looking for a person with a data science and engineering skillset, and an analytical mindset that takes keen interest in data, the insight they can provide and the opportunities they unlock. The role gives the opportunity to work in a well-established data team in a fun, informal environment, working together with talented, likeminded people that have “a thing” for data.

The role is based in central London (primarily in Holborn, with occasional travel to our site at Leicester Square)

Key Responsibilities

• Model Development & Analytics (50%)

• Research and implement supervised and unsupervised learning techniques to improve Global’s internal business processes and propose new products to market.

• Actively work on prototyping and evaluating new and current machine learning algorithms sitting behind the scenes with Global.

• Present insights and recommendations clearly to both technical and non-technical audiences.

• MLOps & Productionisation (50%)

• Build and maintain scalable pipelines for model training, validation, deployment and monitoring.

• Refactor and optimise legacy models and processes for production use (performance, reliability, cost-efficiency).

• Automate model lifecycle management (retraining, versioning, monitoring etc).

• Work closely with the data and analytics engineering teams to deploy models into production environments.

• Supporting others in the data science and wider data team on MLOps best practices, and ensuring consistency of deployment across projects

       General responsibilities

• Leading cross functional teams to deliver end to end data science projects

• Mentoring junior members of the data team, both technically and professionally

• Stakeholder management – understanding how the output from the team can be used and have a positive effect in downstream business processes.

• Explore and develop new data science products connected to our DAX platform to provide actionable insight and drive commercial value, touching on areas such as targeting, measurement, reach, and beyond

• A flexible attitude towards learning new skillsets to adapt and meet the Data teams and wider business needs, including learning about and deeply understanding the advertising problem space and data opportunities

• Contribution to the team spirit. We are a supportive and a high performing group and looking for someone who will bring curiosity and active involvement to the way that we work together with each other and the rest of the business.

What You’ll Love About This Role

Think Big: Innovate with ML and AI solutions that can transform our business and drive growth.

Own It: Lead products end-to-end – from idea to launch – and see the direct impact of what you build Keep it Simple: Turn complex data science concepts into simple, effective and automated tools and processes.

Better Together: Collaborate with diverse teams across Global, where every perspective is valued

What Success Looks Like

In your first few months, you’ll have:

• An understanding of our business operating model, especially in DAX but also across our other business streams (Audio and Outdoor) and knowledge of our datasets, applications and the data workflows that we work with.

• Exposure to our existing suite of data science products, solutions and tools across targeting, measurement and consumer analytics.

• Deployed at least one data science product within DAX (new or legacy) into a scalable production environment

What You’ll Need

• Demonstrable understanding and experience in predictive, prescriptive and generative ML/AI methodologies.

• A strong degree in a numerate subject (e.g. maths, data science, computer engineering)

• Expertise in Python and SQL - generally someone who gets excited by code.

• Experience with MLOps platforms (e.g., MLflow, Snowflake intelligence) and CI/CD pipelines.

• Extensive experience deploying, monitoring and maintaining ML and AI models in production.

• Strong understanding of model performance monitoring, logging, and alerting frameworks.

• Knowledge of software engineering best practices (version control, testing, code reviews).

• An exceptional eye for detail, ability to work under pressure and deliver time-sensitive work to a high standard.

• A professional manner with the ability to closely interact with senior management.

• The ability to lead and mentor others, in your immediate team and beyond

• The ability to explain analysis to non-numerate people and empathise with their perspective.

• The ability to build and maintain relationships with a diverse audience

• A can-do attitude, positivity around data challenges and generally a natural inclination for extrapolating business problems and providing solutions utilising data.