Overview

Senior Data Science & Automation Manager

£63,000- £69,000 + benefits

Reports to: Head of Data Science & Performance

Grade: M2

Directorate: Marketing, Fundraising & Engagement

Contract: Permanent

Hours: Full time 35 hours per week

Location: Stratford, London. Office-based with high flexibility (1-2 days per week in the office)

Visa sponsorship: You must be eligible to work in the UK to apply for this vacancy. Cancer Research UK is not able to offer visa sponsorship.

Closing date: 17 September 2025, 23:55

This vacancy may close earlier if a high volume of applications is received or once a suitable candidate is found; apply early to avoid disappointment. If you require more time to apply as part of a reasonable adjustment, please contact recruitment@cancer.org.uk as soon as possible.

Recruitment process: Two competency-based interviews (potentially with an exercise)

Interview date: From the week commencing 22 September 2025

How to apply? We operate an anonymised shortlisting process in our commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion. CVs are required for all applications; however, we won’t be able to view them until we invite you for an interview. Please fully complete the work history section of the online application form for us to assess you quickly, fairly, and objectively.

At Cancer Research UK, we exist to beat cancer.

We are professionals with purpose, beating cancer every day. We are looking for someone talented who wants to develop their skills and join our mission.

Engage Strategy and a bold transformation programme aim to harness data and digital marketing to deliver relevant, trusted experiences for our audiences and drive growth.

As a Senior Data Science & Automation Manager, you will lead our newly created Data Science & Automation team, placing data and audiences at the core of decision-making. You will provide strategic leadership for data science and build Machine Learning and AI capabilities to enhance our supporter experience, champion statistical rigour, implement best practices, and lead modelling initiatives, MLOps, and tooling.

You will collaborate with stakeholders and senior leaders while line-managing a team of four Data Scientists and contributing to a strong data science culture across the Marketing, Fundraising & Events directorate and the wider organisation as part of a major transformation programme.

If you have designed and implemented robust Data Science and MLOps processes and led a data analysis and modelling function in a large B2C marketing-led organisation, we’d love to hear from you.

What will I be doing?

• Establishing and leading Cancer Research UK’s Data Science & Automation team within the Marketing, Fundraising & Engagement (MFE) directorate.
• Building Machine Learning and AI capabilities to enhance supporter experience through sophisticated personalisation and data-driven decision-making across the charity.
• Providing strategic leadership for data science and developing a long-term roadmap for AI and Machine Learning.
• Championing data science across the organisation with a science-led experimentation mindset to ensure trust is built on sound statistics and performance.
• Leading MLOps as a domain expert and coaching the team on best practices; providing expertise as a subject matter expert across the organisation.
• Collaborating with MFE stakeholders to identify opportunities for applying ML/AI across the supporter lifecycle and to enable innovation, improve performance, and unlock deeper insights.
• Providing senior technical guidance on data and modelling initiatives, aligned with internal compliance frameworks.
• Designing, developing, and implementing robust MLOps processes for end-to-end lifecycle including data ingestion, model development, deployment, monitoring, and optimisation (including predictive and propensity modelling).
• Creating and embedding an experimentation and measurement approach for all data science initiatives.
• Developing and implementing large language modelling (LLM) capabilities (e.g., summarisation tools and smart search).
• Line managing a team of four Data Scientists and coaching them to upskill in MLOps, Python via AWS, and SageMaker/Snowpark.
• Driving efficiencies and automation across the Data, Insight & Performance department.

What are you looking for?

• Experienced Data Science & Automation Manager who has led a data analysis and modelling function in a large, complex B2C marketing-led organisation with a digital-first approach.
• Backgrounds welcomed: data science, decision-science, decision-intelligence, advanced analytics, predictive analytics, data & AI, and robotic process automation (RPA).
• Expertise in technical coding languages and data visualisation tools (e.g., SQL, Python, Snowflake, PowerBI, Databricks, GA) with experience implementing best practices and standards.
• Strategic and audience-focused mindset with experience using statistical analysis to drive value from consumer behaviour, including setting up supervised and unsupervised learning models, data cleaning, feature creation, model selection, performance metrics, and visualisation.
• Proven track record of productionising and managing a suite of models with strong MLOps knowledge (e.g., Snowpark, MLFlow, GitHub).
• Solutions-driven with a continuous improvement mindset and experience enabling high-performing experimentation, test-and-learn approaches, multivariate testing, ML optimisation, and automation.
• Strong cross-functional stakeholder and senior leadership relationship-building, with excellent interpersonal, communication, influencing, and coaching skills.
• Significant experience in managing, leading, and developing high-performing teams of data scientists (approximately 4+ direct reports).

Values and Inclusion

Our organisation values are designed to guide all that we do: Bold, Credible, Human, Together. We welcome applicants from diverse backgrounds and cultures, including those from ethnic minority groups who are underrepresented.

What will I gain?

We offer a supportive working environment with a generous benefits package, opportunities for career and personal development, and tools to support wellbeing and work-life balance. See our careers page for details.

Additional information

For more information about working with us please visit our website or contact recruitment@cancer.org.uk. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, X, and YouTube for updates.

Our vision is to beat cancer. We encourage applications from all backgrounds and cultures. If you require adjustments during the process, please contact recruitment@cancer.org.uk or call 020 3469 8400.