National AI Awards 2025Discover AI's trailblazers! Join us to celebrate innovation and nominate industry leaders.

Nominate & Attend

Head of Data Science

Wagestream
London
3 days ago
Create job alert

Join to apply for theHead of Data Sciencerole atWagestream

Join to apply for theHead of Data Sciencerole atWagestream

Direct message the job poster from Wagestream

Wagestream is on a mission to bring better financial wellbeing to frontline workers.

We partner with some of the world’s most famous employers, like Bupa, Burger King, Greene King and the mighty NHS to give their teams access to fairer financial services - all built around flexible pay. Over three million people can now choose how often they’re paid, track their shifts and earnings, start saving, use budgeting tools, get free financial coaching, and access fairer financial products. All in one financial wellbeing super-app.

Wagestream is unique: VC-backed and growing at scale-up pace, but with a social conscience. Some of the world's leading financial charities and impact funds were our founding investors, and we operate on a social charter - which means every product we build has to improve financial health and reduce the $5.6bn ‘premium’ lower-income earners pay for financial services each year.

You’d be joining a team of over 200 passionate, ambitious people, across Europe and the USA, building a category-leading fintech product and all united by that same mission.

The Opportunity:

Wagestream is hiring a hands-on Head of Data Science to lead and grow our Data Science team and drive data-informed decision-making across the organisation. This is a critical leadership role responsible for setting the direction of Data Science at Wagestream, building a high-performing team, and ensuring the delivery of impactful data products.

We believe that Data Science consists of 4 key elements:

  • Data Analysis
  • Includes data cleansing, writing complex SQL queries and using commercial understanding to deliver actionable insights.
  • Includes creating dashboards and reports in various formats so as to make data more understandable to all stakeholders.
  • Includes writing Python, following SDLC best practices, using Git, and creating data products in dbt.
  • Includes experiment design and analysis, causal inference, hypothesis testing, feature engineering, and ML model development and deployment.

You don't have to be great at all of these areas for us to want to talk to you. We want to help you grow and develop your skills in areas you are less familiar with over time.

The Team:

You will lead and manage our team of embedded Data Scientists, and report directly to the CTO. You will collaborate closely with other department heads (e.g. Operations, Product, Engineering) to align data science initiatives with overall business objectives.

What will you be doing?

Leadership & Management

  • Build, mentor, and manage a team of Data Scientists, fostering a culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous learning.
  • Set clear goals and performance expectations for the team, providing regular feedback and coaching.
  • Identify, scope and prioritise high-impact data science projects that drive business value.
  • Champion the use of data and analytics throughout the organisation.
  • Stay abreast of industry trends and emerging technologies in data science, machine learning, and AI.

Technical Execution & Oversight

  • Implement a robust data governance framework, ensuring quality, cataloging, and discoverability.
  • Enforce data compliance standards, including PII masking, data obfuscation, and RBAC.
  • Oversee the design, development, deployment, and maintenance of data products, including dashboards, reports, dbt models, and machine learning models.
  • Ensure the quality, accuracy, and reliability of data analysis and modelling.
  • Collaborate with the Software Engineering team to build and maintain a robust data infrastructure.
  • Oversee the development of reports and dashboards that provide clear information about team progress on various KPIs.
  • Oversee the analysis of A/B tests and hypothesis testing to help us improve our product.
  • Provide strategic direction and oversight for the development of our bespoke LLM-based Customer Support agent.
  • Code: Python
  • Infra: AWS, GitHub

What experience might you have?

  • Strong mathematical skills, ideally grounded in a quantitative STEM degree such as Mathematics, Computer Science, Physics or Engineering.
  • Previous professional experience in a Data Science, Data Engineering, Analytics Engineering, Data Analysis or Software Engineering role.
  • Previous professional experience using OLTP and OLAP databases, and dbt.
  • Advanced SQL skills, covering window functions, CTEs, recursion and performance optimisation.
  • Advanced Python skills, covering functional programming and testing.
  • Good communication skills, enthusiasm, humility and a desire to learn.
  • A preference to work in a fast-paced and unstructured environment.

Nice to haves:

  • Advanced ML skills, covering techniques such as gradient boosting, random forests and neural networks.
  • Prior experience with Snowflake.
  • Prior experience deploying ML models.

Salary:Competitive & dependent on seniority, upward from £125,000 + equity

Working Policy:Hybrid, with three office days per week

Location:Central London

  • 25 Days Annual Leave in addition to public holidays (up to 5 day rollover), as well as flexible time off allowances for any ad-hoc childcare/family/caring needs
  • 10 days Annual Leave Buy-Back scheme
  • 24 weeks' paid Maternity Leave and 4 weeks paid Paternity Leave for employees with over 12 months service
  • Special Leave for In Vitro Fertilisation (IVF) and other fertility treatments
  • Sabbatical scheme
  • Paid leave to volunteer
  • Work from Abroad policy
  • Private Healthcare including comprehensive mental-, physical
  • Salary sacrifice to pension, as well as bonus exchange to Pension: reap even more rewards of any bonus by paying into your pension & save on Tax and NI + added compound growth
  • Season Ticket Loan
  • The best benefit of all, access to Wagestream!
  • Access to Salary Sacrifice Schemes via ThanksBen: THE Benefits marketplace. Choose the benefits you want, when you want. Pay less tax, receive more value

Additional:

  • Cycle to Work
  • Home and Tech Scheme

At Wagestream we celebrate and support our differences. We know employing a team rich in diverse thoughts, experiences, and opinions allows our employees, our product and our community to flourish. Wagestream is an equal opportunity workplace. We are dedicated to equal employment opportunities regardless of race, color, ancestry, religion, sex, national origin, sexual orientation, age, citizenship, marital status, disability, gender identity/expression, or veteran status.

Seniority level

  • Seniority levelDirector

Employment type

  • Employment typeFull-time

Job function

  • Job functionAnalyst and Management

Referrals increase your chances of interviewing at Wagestream by 2x

Get notified about new Head of Data Science jobs inLondon Area, United Kingdom.

London, England, United Kingdom 4 days ago

RC317 - Head of Applied Data Science & Strategy

London, England, United Kingdom 1 month ago

London, England, United Kingdom 4 days ago

London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

London, England, United Kingdom 6 days ago

City Of London, England, United Kingdom £140,000.00-£160,000.00 4 weeks ago

London, England, United Kingdom 1 week ago

Head of Machine Learning and AI Engineering – Everyday Banking

London, England, United Kingdom 1 week ago

London Area, United Kingdom £120,000.00-£140,000.00 1 month ago

London, England, United Kingdom $130,000.00-$175,000.00 1 month ago

Greater London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

Surbiton, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

Greater London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

Western Europe Practice Head - Data Science (Machine Learning/Artificial Intelligence (ML/AI)

London, England, United Kingdom 5 days ago

London, England, United Kingdom 5 days ago

We’re unlocking community knowledge in a new way. Experts add insights directly into each article, started with the help of AI.


#J-18808-Ljbffr

Related Jobs

View all jobs

Head of Data Science

Head of Data Science (hands on) – FinTech

Head of Data Science and Engineering (Basé à London)

Head of Data Science and Engineering (Basé à London)

Head of Data Science (hands on) – FinTech (Basé à London)

Head of Data Science (Basé à London)

National AI Awards 2025

Subscribe to Future Tech Insights for the latest jobs & insights, direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of service.

Industry Insights

Discover insightful articles, industry insights, expert tips, and curated resources.

How to Present Data Science Solutions to Non-Technical Audiences: A Public Speaking Guide for Job Seekers

The ability to communicate clearly is now just as important as knowing how to build a predictive model or fine-tune a neural network. In fact, many UK data science job interviews are now designed to test your ability to explain your work to non-technical audiences—not just your technical competence. Whether you’re applying for your first data science role or moving into a lead or consultancy position, this guide will show you how to structure your presentation, simplify technical content, design effective visuals, and confidently answer stakeholder questions.

Data Science Jobs UK 2025: 50 Companies Hiring Now

Bookmark this guide—refreshed every quarter—so you always know who’s really expanding their data‑science teams. Budgets for predictive analytics, GenAI pilots & real‑time decision engines keep climbing in 2025. The UK’s National AI Strategy, tax relief for R&D & a sharp rise in cloud adoption mean employers need applied scientists, ML engineers, experiment designers, causal‑inference specialists & analytics leaders—right now. Below you’ll find 50 organisations that have advertised UK‑based data‑science vacancies or announced head‑count growth during the past eight weeks. They’re grouped into five quick‑scan categories so you can jump straight to the kind of employer—& culture—that suits you. For every company you’ll see: Main UK hub Example live or recent vacancy Why it’s worth a look (tech stack, mission, culture) Search any employer on DataScience‑Jobs.co.uk to view current ads, or set up a free alert so fresh openings land straight in your inbox.

Return-to-Work Pathways: Relaunch Your Data Science Career with Returnships, Flexible & Hybrid Roles

Returning to work after an extended break can feel like stepping into a whole new world—especially in a dynamic field like data science. Whether you paused your career for parenting, caring responsibilities or another life chapter, the UK’s data science sector now offers a variety of return-to-work pathways. From structured returnships to flexible and hybrid roles, these programmes recognise the transferable skills and resilience you’ve gained and provide mentorship, upskilling and supportive networks to ease your transition back. In this guide, you’ll discover how to: Understand the current demand for data science talent in the UK Leverage your organisational, communication and analytical skills in data science roles Overcome common re-entry challenges with practical solutions Refresh your technical knowledge through targeted learning Access returnship and re-entry programmes tailored to data science Find roles that fit around family commitments—whether flexible, hybrid or full-time Balance your career relaunch with caring responsibilities Master applications, interviews and networking specific to data science Learn from inspiring returner success stories Get answers to common questions in our FAQ section Whether you aim to return as a data analyst, machine learning engineer, data visualisation specialist or data science manager, this article will map out the steps and resources you need to reignite your data science career.