Chief Data Scientist

About Smart Data Foundry

Smart Data Foundry has a purpose to unlock the power of financial data as a force to improve people’s lives.

What we do

We enable the research ecosystem to flourish through the provision of research-ready real financial data.

We create data-driven insights based on real financial data, that identify areas to inform policy change and enhance regulation.

Role Purpose

The Chief Data Scientist (CDS) is a pivotal leadership role at Smart Data Foundry (SDF), serving as a key external ambassador who builds trusted relationships with clients, data partners, policymakers, and industry leaders. They will drive responsible data sharing and data product development to unlock the full potential of financial data to create meaningful social impact. Internally, the CDS will lead SDF’s data science strategy, ensuring advanced analytics are seamlessly integrated into products and services, translating research into actionable, real-world insights. They will champion innovation, harness emerging technologies, and foster a collaborative, forward-thinking culture. As a hands-on leader, the CDS will mentor and develop a high-performing team, strengthening their technical, commercial, and communication skills while ensuring SDF remains at the forefront of using financial data to address societal challenges.

Key Responsibilities

Strategy

• Lead the development and execution of data science strategy at SDF, driving insights and research that promote financial well-being, economic resilience, and policy innovation, with a strong external focus on client value in a fast-paced start-up.

Stakeholder Engagement

• As a key member of the SDF strategic team, the CDS will develop trusted relationships with data partners and external stakeholders to drive responsible data sharing, unlock new sources, and maximise the impact of financial services data.
• Communicate complex data concepts to specialist and non-specialist audiences, including leadership, board members, researchers and other clients and external partners, ensuring data science informs key decisions.
• Represent SDF’s data capabilities with credibility, engaging financial institutions, regulators, public sector bodies, NGOs, and researchers to strengthen partnerships.
• Proactively identify opportunities to expand, integrate, and enhance SDF’s data assets to support strategic engagement.
• Lead knowledge-sharing initiatives (workshops, webinars, thought leadership) to showcase SDF’s impact and foster collaboration across data science, research, and policy communities.

Data Science & Analytics

• Oversee and participate in data curation, analysis, and visualisation, ensuring high-quality outputs that maximise the value of financial data
• Drive SDF’s vision for AI and machine learning by leading data science initiatives that develop ethical, transparent, and innovative AI/ML models.
• Leverage advanced analytics and predictive insights to enable ground-breaking academic research and inform public sector decision-making, delivering meaningful societal impact.

Product

• Collaborate with the CEO and Chief Strategy & Engagement Officer to shape the product roadmap, ensuring alignment with business goals, while adapting to shifting priorities.
• Work directly with clients and partners to understand the problems they need to solve and deliver data-driven solutions, whether through data provision, analytics, or application of third-party data (or combinations of all three). Proactively identify opportunities where SDF's financial data can address real-world problems, working to develop financial data-led solutions that benefit clients, policymakers, and researchers.
• Foster cross-functional collaboration to seamlessly integrate data science into products, dashboards, and insights, ensuring that data-driven solutions are effectively delivered and aligned with user needs.
• Oversee the delivery of data science projects, ensuring that all initiatives are executed on time, within budget, and in line with strategic objectives.

Service Delivery

• Partner with Data Operations/Engineering, Delivery and Platform teams to seamlessly integrate data science solutions into a secure, scalable, and efficient technical ecosystem.
• Work with Data Operations/Engineering to design robust, scalable data pipelines that enable smooth data flow and model deployment.
• Evolve existing service to incorporate best in class cloud, software development and data technologies in an enhanced service wrap.
• Collaborate with Delivery teams to optimise processes, enhance efficiency, and align data science integration with organisation priorities and user needs.
• Ensure a user-centric approach, delivering actionable, valuable, and accessible data science insights.

Leadership & Talent Development

• Lead a high-performing, multi-disciplinary data science team (circa 6 people), fostering collaboration, innovation, and cross-functional integration.
• Promote a growth mindset, encouraging continuous learning and professional development.
• Champion diversity and inclusion, ensuring a culture that values diverse perspectives and leverages a broad range of skills and experiences.

Innovation and Improvement

• Drive R&D initiatives to push the boundaries of data science, ensuring SDF’s capabilities evolve with emerging challenges and opportunities.
• Evaluate and adopt cutting-edge tools, technologies, and methodologies to keep SDF at the forefront of data science advancements.
• Enhance data collection, quality control, and analytics through innovative approaches that improve accuracy, speed, and efficiency.
• Stay on top of industry trends, academic research requirements, and technological shifts, ensuring SDF leverages best practices and anticipates future developments.
• Foster a culture of experimentation and creativity, encouraging the team to explore novel solutions while aligning with SDF’s strategic goals.
• Benchmark SDF’s data science capabilities against industry best practices, identifying areas for continuous improvement and scalability.

Governance & Compliance

• Collaborate with Information Governance to ensure ethical, legal, and secure use of data, strengthening compliance with regulatory requirements and industry best practices.
• Support, help develop and execute best practices for data governance, including data quality, data management, metadata management, and data accessibility.

Data Evangelism & Advocacy

• Represent SDF as a data expert in public forums, industry conferences, and media, advocating for the transformative power of financial data in driving societal and economic change.
• Champion innovation in data science, showcasing SDF’s impact and positioning the organisation as a leader in leveraging financial data for public good.
• Drive thought leadership by producing external documents, white papers, case studies, blogs, and presentations that highlight SDF’s expertise and influence in the field.

Essential skills

• Experienced Data Science leader with a demonstrable track record of operating at a leadership team level and influencing at board level having successfully managed and led diverse teams in complex operational and business environments
• Excellent communications skills, both verbal and written, with experience of liaising with and managing numerous internal and external stakeholders – ability to clearly articulate complex issues and solutions is a requirement
• Evidence of ability to quickly grasp and manage complex issues / risks and of managing and engaging a range of internal and external stakeholders
• Experience in a product or services focused organisation, Agile development and continuous and process improvement to achieve operational efficiencies
• Strong hands-on, demonstrable data science expertise.
• Development of prototype and scalable data product concepts to bring solutions to these issues to life.
• Good understanding of GDPR regulations and data sharing processes and legal requirements
• Ability to deal with ambiguity and react quickly in an evolving and fast paced environment.
• Experience of managing and leading high performing teams
• Proven ability of working under pressure and with conflicting and changing priorities
• Working in a continuous improvement environment