Associate Director of Data Science

Jagex: The RuneScape Company; Cambridge; Hybrid; GBP 120,000 - 180,000; Full time

Benefits offered by this job

Private Healthcare

Pension contributions

Employee assistance & counselling

Life Insurance

Discretionary annual performance bonus

Enhanced family leave

Flexible working hours

25 days annual leave

Job summary

Jagex: The RuneScape Company is hiring an Associate Director of Data Science to lead a team of data scientists and own the MLOps practice. You will guide model development, deployment, monitoring, and retraining while partnering with Game Teams and senior stakeholders to shape player experiences.

The role combines hands-on delivery with team leadership, driving analytics initiatives from ideation to production and ensuring reliable live models across the business.

Qualifications

• Significant experience applying data science to complex commercial or player-facing problems.
• Strong methods knowledge, predictive modeling, and ML evaluation.
• Hands-on MLOps in production, including deployment and monitoring.
• Experience leading or mentoring data scientists with workload management.
• Track record delivering analytics from exploration to live adoption.
• Strong stakeholder management with senior, non-technical audiences.

Responsibilities

• Lead a team of data scientists, setting direction and supporting growth.
• Build and own data science models that support multiple business teams.
• Explore new business areas and models to embed across the company.
• Own MLOps practice: deployment, monitoring, versioning, retraining pipelines.
• Drive end-to-end delivery of data science initiatives to production.
• Be main contact for Player Support, Marketing, Analytics, and Game Teams.
• Coach and mentor data scientists on delivery and stakeholder management.
• Stay current with data science and MLOps tooling and practices.

Skills

Data science leadership

MLOps

Stakeholder management

Model development

Team mentoring

Communication

Job description

Office location:

Cambridgeshire, UK – This position offers flexible working options, including predominantly remote work. However, applicants should be based (or be willing to relocate) within a comfortable commuting distance of our office to attend onsite as required.

Are you an experienced data scientist who loves building models that make a real impact, and is ready to lead and grow a talented team?

As Associate Director of Data Science at Jagex, you’ll lead a team of data scientists, setting their direction and supporting their development, while continuing to build and own models yourself. Working closely with senior stakeholders across Player Support, Marketing, Analytics, and our Game Teams, you’ll develop the algorithms and models that power our business and help shape the experience of millions of RuneScape players.

This is an exciting opportunity to combine hands‑on delivery with team leadership, owning our MLOps practice and making sure the models we build are deployed, monitored, and maintained reliably once they’re live.

What you’ll be doing:

• Lead a team of data scientists, setting direction, managing workload, and supporting their growth and development.
• Build and own data science models that support teams across the business.
• Lead the exploration of new business areas and data science models that can be embedded within the business, drawing on both industry developments and internal use cases.
• Own the team’s MLOps practice, including model deployment, monitoring, versioning, and retraining pipelines, working closely with Data Engineering.
• Lead the delivery of data science initiatives from ideation through to production.
• Act as the day‑to‑day point of contact for Player Support, Marketing, Analytics, and the Game Teams on all things data science.
• Coach and mentor data scientists on both technical delivery and stakeholder management.
• Stay current with the latest data science and MLOps tooling and practice, bringing that knowledge into the team.

What we’re looking for:

• Significant experience applying data science to complex commercial, product, or player‑facing problems.
• Strong practical knowledge of statistical methods, predictive modelling, and machine learning, including evaluating model performance.
• Hands‑on experience with MLOps in a production environment, including model deployment, monitoring, versioning, and retraining.
• Experience leading or mentoring data scientists, with evidence of coaching and workload management.
• A track record of taking analytical or modelling work from exploration through to live, adopted use.
• Strong stakeholder management skills, with experience working directly with senior, non‑technical stakeholders.
• Excellent written and verbal communication, with the ability to translate technical work into plain language for business audiences.

What we offer:

When you join Jagex you can look forward to a generous Perks & Benefits package including:

• Private Healthcare, including Dental Plan.
• Minimum 6% Pension contributions.
• Employee Assistance Programme & onsite Counselling.
• Life Insurance.
• Discretionary annual performance bonus.
• Enhanced family leave policies from day 1.
• Flexible working hours.
• 25 days annual leave + Bank holidays & the option to buy/sell holidays + so much more!

Inclusion & Accessibility Statement

We are committed to providing equal opportunities and creating an environment where everyone can thrive. We welcome applications from all backgrounds, and we recruit, develop, and promote based on merit and ability.

If you require any reasonable adjustments to support you during the recruitment process, please let us know when you’re invited to interview.

About Jagex:

We are Jagex: The RuneScape Company- home to one of gaming’s most enduring success stories. We create deep, community‑powered games with worlds that evolve, inspire, and endure. Our flagship MMORPG franchise, RuneScape has welcomed over 300 million player accounts, inspiring generations of players across PC and mobile for 25 years.

As we begin our 26th year, we are accelerating our strategy to expand RuneScape into a broader ecosystem of forever games and connected experiences, grounded in a renewed commitment to integrity and fair play. This includes the reduction of monetisation mechanics, as well as the launch of RuneScape: DragonWilds into Steam Early Access in 2025 representing a major step in building a multi‑genre future for the RuneScape universe. We remain focused on building enduring worlds, empowering player‑led innovation, and laying the foundations for the boldest era in RuneScape’s history. For more information, visit www.jagex.com.

Headquartered in Cambridge, United Kingdom, We are home to passionate creators, storytellers, engineers, and even a few dreamers, all united by a single mission- to shape the future of online worlds and empower players to make them their own. We’re looking for people to join us who share our ambitions & values - We foster an inclusive workplace built on trust, autonomy, and a shared passion for creating experiences which inspire our communities. Our values guide everything we do: We Embrace Fellowship by collaborating and sharing openly. We Hone our Craft by always learning and improving; We Honour our Vows by being honest and transparent; We are our Customers’ Heroes by striving to understand our team & player needs, and We Seize The Day by making the most of every opportunity.

Join us. The next era of RuneScape - and the next chapter of Jagex: The RuneScape Company - starts now.

We are committed to providing equal opportunities and creating an environment where everyone can thrive. We welcome applications from all backgrounds, and we recruit, develop, and promote based on merit and ability.

If you require any reasonable adjustments to support you during the recruitment process, please let us know when you’re invited to interview.