Head of Data Science

About The Role

Team –Data Science

Working Pattern -Hybrid – 2 days per week in the Vitality London Office. Full time, 37.5 hours per week.

We are happy to discuss flexible working!

Top 3 skills needed for this role:

1. Deep experience of developing and deploying impactful machine learning applications in a commercial environment.
2. Proven past experience of leading a high-performing data science team.
3. Experience developing and deploying models in a cloud-based environment.

What this role is all about:

The Head of Data Science at Vitality is a leadership role responsible for supporting the mission of helping Vitality members live happier, healthier lives. This position involves collaborating with Health and Life business stakeholders, from executive level down, to identify high value-add data science projects aligned with organisational priorities. The Head of Data Science also sells the vision of these projects to key decision makers to ensure they are prioritised by IT delivery teams.

Additionally, this role involves prioritising and directing the work of six data scientists, ranging in seniority from data scientist to lead data scientist, and enabling their work by ensuring they have access to the required technology and resolving issues during the deployment process. Furthermore, the Head of Data Science supports the rollout of a new Google Cloud-based machine learning platform, leading the team to full adoption of advanced ML Ops capabilities, and ensuring the platform is fully integrated into existing Vitality infrastructure.

Key Actions

1. Key contributor to data science roadmap, setting out project priorities into the medium-term.
2. Drives roadmap projects through to successful deployment and demonstrates the impact of live projects to the bottom line of the business.
3. Constantly works with business stakeholders to identify new project ideas, which are maintained as a backlog and fed into the delivery roadmap as part of a periodic prioritisation process.
4. Builds and manages relationships with a wide range of stakeholders across the Health and Life businesses as well as operational support functions and IT delivery teams.
5. Responsible for the monitoring and management of live models, taking initiative to refit and calibrate to latest experience.
6. Works closely with data warehousing and data engineering teams to ensure the team has access to the data it needs to deliver current and future projects.
7. Manages data science team members, ensuring alignment with departmental and business-wide vision and strategies.
8. Gains a deep understanding of Vitality’s data assets to inform project identification and selection.
9. Drafts and presents reports to senior management on project performance.
10. Develops and maintains a deep understanding of the business’s dynamics, supporting proactive project identification across the entire value chain.
11. Keeps up to date with the latest developments in the world of AI.
12. Responsible for driving education and evangelisation of data science throughout the business.

What do you need to thrive?

1. Experience solving a wide range of business problems using machine learning approaches.
2. Strong communication skills, able to communicate at all levels of the organisation, across technical and non-technical audiences.
3. Proven past experience of identifying high-impact projects, building a business case for those projects, and getting buy-in for their delivery.
4. Proven experience working in and/or leading cross-functional technical delivery teams.
5. Positive, can-do attitude. Likes to proactively take ownership for resolving the blockers inevitably arising during model deployment.
6. Stays up to date on latest developments in AI.
7. Flexible, outcomes-driven approach to problem solving.
8. Good appreciation of software engineering best practices.
9. Fluent in Python and SQL.
10. Educated to a degree level in a relevant STEM subject.

So, what’s in it for you?

1. Bonus Schemes – A bonus that regularly rewards you for your performance.
2. A pension of up to 12%– We will match your contributions up to 6% of your salary.
3. Our award-winning Vitality health insurance – With its own set of rewards and benefits.
4. Life Assurance – Four times annual salary.

These are just some of the many perks that we offer!

If you are successful in your application and join us at Vitality, this is our promise to you:

1. Help you to be the healthiest you’ve ever been.
2. Create an environment that embraces you as you are and enables you to be your best self.
3. Give you flexibility on how, where and when you work.
4. Help you advance your career by playing you to your strengths.
5. Give you a voice to help our business grow and make Vitality a great place to be.
6. Give you the space to try, fail and learn.
7. Provide a healthy balance of challenge and support.
8. Recognise and reward you with a competitive salary and amazing benefits.
9. Be there for you when you need us.
10. Provide opportunities for you to be a force for good in society.

Diversity & Inclusion

At Vitality, we’re committed to diversity and inclusion because it’s good for our employees, for our business, and for society. We welcome applications from individuals of all backgrounds, experiences, and perspectives.

Vitality’s approach to sustainability

Vitality is a business that drives positive change. We reward people for making and sustaining healthier choices. But healthy people also need a healthy environment. To learn more please visit our Careers page.

If we are fortunate in receiving a high volume of quality applications we may need to close this vacancy early.

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