Be at the heart of actionFly remote-controlled drones into enemy territory to gather vital information.

Apply Now

Principal Data Scientist

Hiscox
City of London
3 days ago
Create job alert

Join to apply for the Principal Data Scientist role at Hiscox

Join to apply for the Principal Data Scientist role at Hiscox

Band: 3

As a Principal Data Scientist at Hiscox, you will play a pivotal role as a critical thinker for Hiscox, applying your deep expertise to address our most intricate business challenges and uncover significant opportunities within our data landscape. You will utilise your technical skills and innovative mindset to tackle complex business problems and identify opportunities for growth. Additionally, you will provide ad hoc analysis and develop predictive and prescriptive models to foster a data-driven culture within Hiscox.

Job Type

Permanent

Build a brilliant future with Hiscox

Position: Principal Data Scientist

Reporting to: Lead Data Scientist

Location: London / York

Type: Permanent

Band: 3

As a Principal Data Scientist at Hiscox, you will play a pivotal role as a critical thinker for Hiscox, applying your deep expertise to address our most intricate business challenges and uncover significant opportunities within our data landscape. You will utilise your technical skills and innovative mindset to tackle complex business problems and identify opportunities for growth. Additionally, you will provide ad hoc analysis and develop predictive and prescriptive models to foster a data-driven culture within Hiscox.

You will act as a technical mentor and guide to our team members, fostering best practices, elevating coding standards, and driving advanced analytical techniques across the team. Your ability to translate complex technical findings into clear, actionable insights for diverse stakeholders will be essential, ensuring alignment between our advanced solutions and specific business needs. Operating within a dynamic and evolving environment, you will play a key role in continuously advancing our technical capabilities and ensuring the effective application of data science across the insurance value chain.

The role

As a Principal Data Scientist, you will be an integral part of a dynamic technical team, strategically focused on leveraging data science across our diverse business functions. While your expertise will be pivotal in transforming our underwriting capabilities, your influence will extend across the entire insurance value chain, championing a multi-disciplinary approach to complex problem-solving.

You will lead the end-to-end delivery of our most significant and complex data science initiatives, driving technical strategy, architecture, and best practices.

You'll be a key driver in defining and upholding technical standards, ensuring the development of robust, scalable, and high-quality solutions that enable fast, impactful delivery to stakeholders. Beyond project leadership, you will act as a crucial mentor and coach, fostering technical growth and expertise among junior and mid-level colleagues, elevating the overall capability of the team. Crucially, you will collaborate extensively with other disciplines to ensure a holistic view is considered, facilitating smooth delivery and maximising business value.

Key Responsibilities

  • Utilise industry standards, emerging methodologies, and empirical research to develop critical business inputs and assist leaders in innovating their approaches.
  • Technically lead the end-to-end delivery of our most complex data science initiatives, encompassing:
  • Strong understanding of intricate business challenges and translation into technical problem statements.
  • Working with diverse datasets, both internal and external.
  • Expert application and development of advanced machine learning or statistical modelling techniques to generate actionable insights and deliver measurable impact.
  • Provide hands-on technical mentorship and guidance to junior and mid-level data scientists, fostering best practices, elevating technical standards, and cultivating advanced skill development within the team. As the team grows and matures, this role may also offer opportunities for informal or formal guidance of team members development, potentially leading to line management responsibilities down the line.
  • Engage closely with other members of the data and analytics community at Hiscox to deliver value through various analytics techniques, sharing advanced knowledge and driving the adoption of robust analytical capabilities.
  • Design, implement and maintain robust technical frameworks for monitoring, evaluating and quantifying the commercial impact and efficiency of data science solutions, ensuring continuous value demonstration.


Person Specification

To excel as a Principal Data Scientist, you will typically possess:

  • Bachelor's/Master's degree in a quantitative field (e.g., Computer Science, Statistics, Mathematics, Physics, Engineering) or equivalent.
  • Extensive professional experience in data science, with a proven track record of technically leading and successfully delivering complex, impactful, and production-grade data science solutions.
  • A background in data science within finance or insurance is advantageous but not required.
  • Demonstrated capacity for independent, high-quality research and exploratory data analysis, with the ability to develop and apply novel methodologies to solve ill-defined and challenging business problems.
  • Proven ability to design, implement, and maintain robust technical frameworks for evaluating commercial impact.
  • Proven ability to technically mentor data scientists, fostering best practices, elevating technical standards, and contributing to the overall technical growth of the team.
  • Strong understanding and practical experience with Agile development methodologies and software engineering best practices (e.g., version control, comprehensive testing, modular code) relevant to data science product delivery.
  • Ability to articulate complex technical findings and methodologies into clear, concise, and actionable insights for diverse audiences, effectively influencing technical and non-technical stakeholders to drive data-driven decision-making and solution adoption.
  • Demonstrable experience collaborating effectively with cross-functional teams (e.g., engineering, product, business stakeholders) to translate business challenges into robust technical requirements and ensure seamless delivery.


Key Technical Skills

  • Exceptional proficiency in Python (and R) for data science, coupled with SQL capabilities for data manipulation and extraction.
  • Demonstrable mastery in a wide range of machine learning and statistical modelling techniques, from classical linear models and tree-based methods to advanced deep learning architectures.
  • Practical experience with, or demonstrable capability for, applications of Generative AI, Large Language Models (LLMs), and related areas such as Natural Language Processing (NLP) or Computer Vision, relevant to business solutions.
  • Solid understanding of foundational statistics and experimental design.
  • Familiarity with or experience on cloud platforms


Impact And Achievements

As a Principal Data Scientist, your success will be measured by your ability to:

  • Pioneer the development and robust deployment of highly impactful machine learning and AI-driven solutions, directly contributing to significant commercial value, quantifiable business growth, or efficiency gains across the organization.
  • Translate complex data science insights into tangible, measurable improvements across critical business processes and key performance indicators, ensuring the real-world adoption and beneficial outcomes of our analytical work.
  • Actively elevate the technical maturity and capabilities of the data science team by shaping and implementing industry-leading AI, data, and analytics techniques, methodologies, and engineering best practices.


Work with amazing people and be part of a unique cultureSeniority level

  • Seniority levelMid-Senior level

Employment type

  • Employment typeFull-time

Job function

  • Job functionEngineering and Information Technology
  • IndustriesInsurance

Referrals increase your chances of interviewing at Hiscox by 2x

Sign in to set job alerts for “Data Scientist” roles.

London, England, United Kingdom 19 hours ago

London, England, United Kingdom 6 days ago

London, England, United Kingdom 1 week ago

London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

London, England, United Kingdom 2 days ago

London, England, United Kingdom 1 week ago

London, England, United Kingdom 3 weeks ago

London, England, United Kingdom 5 days ago

London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

London, England, United Kingdom 2 days ago

London, England, United Kingdom 2 days ago

London, England, United Kingdom 5 days ago

Data Scientist, Internship, United Kingdom - BCG X

London, England, United Kingdom 3 weeks ago

London, England, United Kingdom £60,000.00-£120,000.00 1 month ago

London, England, United Kingdom 1 week ago

London, England, United Kingdom 1 week ago

London, England, United Kingdom 1 month ago

London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

London, England, United Kingdom 1 week ago

Greater London, England, United Kingdom 3 weeks ago

London, England, United Kingdom 1 month ago

Data Scientist – Experimentation & Measurement

London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

London, England, United Kingdom 2 days ago

London, England, United Kingdom 2 weeks ago

London, England, United Kingdom 3 weeks 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

Principal Data Scientist

Principal Data Scientist

Principal Data Scientist

Principal Data Scientist

Principal Data Scientist

Principal Data Scientist

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.

Why Data Science Careers in the UK Are Becoming More Multidisciplinary

Data science once meant advanced statistics, machine learning models and coding in Python or R. In the UK today, it has become one of the most in-demand professions across sectors — from healthcare to finance, retail to government. But as the field matures, employers now expect more than technical modelling skills. Modern data science is multidisciplinary. It requires not just coding and algorithms, but also legal knowledge, ethical reasoning, psychological insight, linguistic clarity and human-centred design. Data scientists are expected to interpret, communicate and apply data responsibly, with awareness of law, human behaviour and accessibility. In this article, we’ll explore why data science careers in the UK are becoming more multidisciplinary, how these five disciplines intersect with data science, and what job-seekers & employers need to know to succeed in this transformed field.

Data Science Team Structures Explained: Who Does What in a Modern Data Science Department

Data science is one of the most in-demand, dynamic, and multidisciplinary areas in the UK tech and business landscape. Organisations from finance, retail, health, government, and beyond are using data to drive decisions, automate processes, personalise services, predict trends, detect fraud, and more. To do that well, companies don’t just need good data scientists; they need teams with clearly defined roles, responsibilities, workflows, collaboration, and governance. If you're aiming for a role in data science or recruiting for one, understanding the structure of a data science department—and who does what—can make all the difference. This article breaks down the key roles, how they interact across the lifecycle of a data science project, what skills and qualifications are typical in the UK, expected salary ranges, challenges, trends, and how to build or grow an effective team.

Why the UK Could Be the World’s Next Data Science Jobs Hub

Data science is arguably the most transformative technological field of the 21st century. From powering artificial intelligence algorithms to enabling complex business decisions, data science is essential across sectors. As organisations leverage data more rapidly—from retailers predicting customer behaviour to health providers diagnosing conditions—demand for proficiency in data science continues to surge. The United Kingdom is particularly well-positioned to become a global data science jobs hub. With world-class universities, a strong tech sector, growing AI infrastructure, and supportive policy environments, the UK is poised for growth. This article delves into why the UK could emerge as a leading destination for data science careers, explores the job market’s current state, outlines future opportunities, highlights challenges, and charts what must happen to realise this vision.