Job Description

Lead Data Scientist

£75,000 per annum

Hybrid | Central London (2–3 days per week in-office)

Permanent | Full-Time

We’re working with a leading UK-based law firm that’s investing heavily in digital transformation, innovation, and AI. As part of this, we're recruiting a Lead Data Scientist to help shape and deliver scalable products that sit at the intersection of data science, software engineering, and DevOps.

If you’re a technically curious builder with a track record of delivering software into production - and you're ready to take the lead in a collaborative, fast-paced environment - this could be the ideal next step in your career.

Key Responsibilities

• Lead the development of innovative digital products from concept through to production
• Design and build scalable, containerised software solutions that incorporate data science components
• Make architectural decisions around tooling, frameworks, and development approaches
• Work with DevOps practices including Docker, Terraform, and cloud deployment (Azure)
• Collaborate closely with cross-functional teams including product managers, data scientists, and business stakeholders
• Mentor and support junior engineers, helping to grow technical capability within the team
• Stay up-to-date with developments in data science and AI (e.g., LLMs, agentic AI), and integrate this thinking into product delivery
• Communicate clearly and confidently to both technical and non-technical audiences

Ideal Candidate Profile

Technical Experience

• 5–7 years of professional experience across software engineering, DevOps, or applied data science
• Strong programming skills in Python and familiarity with JavaScript/TypeScript
• Working knowledge of React (not a frontend role, but an understanding of the stack is important)
• Hands-on experience with containerisation (Docker) and cloud deployment (Terraform, microservices, Azure)
• Exposure to Jupyter notebooks, and understanding of how machine learning models are developed and deployed
• Experience in fast-paced or start-up environments where you’ve contributed across the stack

Background & Education

• Degree in a quantitative or technical field (e.g., Computer Science, Mathematics, Physics, AI)
• Previous experience in data science or BI analytics is beneficial - particularly if you’ve moved into engineering
• Bonus: awareness of modern AI tooling (e.g., LLMs, Hugging Face) and an enthusiasm to apply this in real-world products

Leadership & Soft Skills

• Strong communication and collaboration skills
• Experience mentoring junior team members
• Willingness to step into a leadership role and grow into the function
• Pragmatic decision-maker who can weigh trade-offs and work well with product teams

If you're looking to join a business that's serious about building modern, intelligent software solutions - and want to help define how AI and data products are built in a complex, regulated industry - we’d love to hear from you.