Head of Data - Data Science & ML Engineering

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Location: Hybrid (London / Peterborough / Hybrid)
Function: Data & AI
Reports to: Director of Data & AI Solutions

Why this role matters
We're building the future of how people make financial decisions - and AI is at the core. Our purpose is to make great financial decision making a breeze for everyone, and that purpose drives us every day. It's why we're on a mission to create an automated quoting engine, with the simplest of experiences, wrapped in a brand everyone loves! We change lives by making it simple to switch and save money and that's why good things happen when you meerkat.

As Head of Data - Data Science & MLE, you'll lead our advanced analytics and machine learning teams, shaping strategy, driving delivery, and building the next generation of intelligent products. From dynamic pricing to agentic AI and LLMs, this is a pivotal role in bringing our AI strategy to life.
This is more than a technical leadership role. You'll bring academic depth, delivery discipline, and contagious energy to a team with high potential. You'll help build pace and structure into a high-trust culture - enabling smart people to do their best work with focus, clarity, and accountability.

What you'll be doing
• Lead and scale our Data Science and Machine Learning Engineering teams, setting a clear direction for AI and advanced analytics at Compare the Market.
• Oversee the development and deployment of classic machine learning solutions and modern AI applications, supporting a range of use cases across personalisation, optimisation, automation, and user experience.
• Drive sprint planning, delivery focus, and accountability across your teams, working closely with Product and Engineering counterparts.
• Instill a strong experimentation mindset, including uplift modelling, A/B testing, and causal inference.
• Ensure robust MLOps practices are in place for deployment, monitoring, and retraining.
• Champion collaboration with Analytics Engineering and Data Platform teams to build clean, reproducible, production-ready datasets.
• Embed responsible AI practices - promoting transparency, fairness, and model governance in everything we do.
• Foster a high-performance team culture - coaching, motivating, and setting a pace that helps brilliant individuals thrive.

What we're looking for
Must Have
• Strong academic background in a quantitative discipline (e.g. computer science, mathematics, physics, statistics, or related fields).
• Proven experience managing data teams with mixed skill sets, including data scientists, machine learning engineers, and analytics professionals.
• Leadership track record in fast-paced, delivery-driven environments, with clear planning, prioritisation, and execution skills.
• Deep technical understanding of statistical modelling, ML methods, and experimentation design.
• Experience deploying machine learning in production, ideally in a modern cloud environment with MLOps tools and frameworks.
• Skilled in balancing hands-on credibility with strategic oversight - able to bring both vision and structure.
• Charismatic, structured, and energising - able to bring clarity, urgency, and cohesion to a technically diverse team.
• Strong communication and stakeholder management - comfortable engaging across technical, commercial, and executive layers.
Nice to Have
• Experience in regulated industries such as insurance, banking, or financial services
• Familiarity with ML development platforms and tooling, including model registries, feature stores, and frameworks for generative AI (e.g. OpenAI, LangGraph, Vertex AI)
• Understanding of CI/CD pipelines for machine learning and infrastructure-as-code tools (e.g. Terraform, CloudFormation)
• Exposure to advanced techniques such as large language models (LLMs), retrieval-augmented generation (RAG), and prompt engineering
• Demonstrated commitment to responsible AI, including experience with model explainability, fairness, or governance frameworks

Why Join Us?
You'll lead talented teams working on meaningful AI problems, backed by strong foundations in data and infrastructure. We'll give you autonomy to shape how we deliver, space to coach others, and the opportunity to influence how AI scales at Compare the Market.

Everyone Is Welcome
We're committed to building a diverse and inclusive Data Science team where everyone feels they belong. If this role excites you but you don't meet every single requirement, we still encourage you to apply. We care about what you can do-not just where you've been.

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